Hi R1D2,

I'm from the Philippines and located in a very remote province. Internet here are very slow and pricey but I got lucky to get the first fiber connection in my area, that same aread that I can't get any service even for broadband connection like 3G and 4G LTE. I'm trying to connect the local community to the internet and expanding slowly.

Its a booming industry here and there are lots of paid WIFI hotspots here because many people have smartphones but can't afford internet connection and very limited and pricey mobile internet, so WIFI hotspots are very much indemand. We have a booming market here for vendo machine for WIFI hotspot or captive portal. I been looking for captive portal and found out about the eap225-outdoor from a youtube video of creating your own WIFI hotspot just with PC and EAP225-outdoor. It was cheap compared to those WIFI vendo machines, and need only 1 eap. And it is more cheap than those high end brand and I think more reliable than those cheap China made AP products. I tried it with 1 EAP225-outdoor and then bought the OC200 and this month got another EAP225-outdoor and a more highend user friendly router to cater the smart queuing and finding more ways to use and setup the router side. 

I've been facinated with the facebook portal and most of my clients are facebook and youtube users so I would like to get the FB page to be known to the community by checking-in and for that giving them 30mins free access for that. As what the other user been saying, your product is very good but with the WIFI hotspots booming here, there are many functionality we can compare with other products, like the last thread i read about the stop time. Most of the WIFI vendo machine here offers that, use only the time you are connected to WIFI not the duration when you first login to the internet. I've research those and most of it uses Mikrotik routers which need to be setup and programming needed. And like me and many others who don't know how to program those routers, uses other means. External portal will add cost but if you can give free or low cost, I can think about it.

I need the printed voucher than the current digital or no paper WIFI vendo machine here and your product is very much reliable and tested. It also fits my needs and within my financial capabilities. Other offers more functionality but will cost twice or thrice more than your equivalent products.

Again as what the others been saying, the product is very good and reliable and I can compete with the same functionalities with other brands.

PS. I'm planning if its feasible to use eap + CPE to connect the other community which is around 2kms apart but a mountain and forests in between. And yes, if its possible or a dream of mine to be something like a small ISP by WIFI for 3 communities here maybe after 2 or 3 years, becuase WIFI connection is much cheaper and faster than mobiile connection in most parts of our country and fiber or wired connection is still very pricey and only few have PCs or laptops than cheap smartphones.

Regards,

I think I forgot your first question.

"Why not give away one voucher per user with a session limit for free and later sell remaining vouchers?"

To give the community some income and interaction. I'm not selling them directly to the customers but sell it to small stores that can be resellers or buy bulk volume of vouchers with discounted price from me to be sold to customers. I'm also creating some interaction to the FB page and at the same time making them comfortable with connecting and using the WIFI.

Sorry for the long reply.

JessieG wrote

Greetings!

 

I've been using the Voucher for almost six (6) months now. I tried using the facebook wifi  or the authentication using facebook. I always get the error: 

in "Facebook Checkin Location: Fetching failed!" but I just ignore it and it did connect thru facebook WIFI.

 

I want to limit the facebook portal for 30mins but found out that you can just checkin again and again to have free internet access. So I use the scheduler so that the SSID will be online only at a given time for about 1hr, so that they can just get a max of 1hr free internet access and have to buy vouchers to continue. 

 

The problem or bug I found is that when Voucher and Facebook wifi is both active, the SSID for the voucher can have access to Facebook site even without entering the voucher and just connected to the SSID and even if the facebook wifi SSID is offline thru scheduler.

 

Questions:

1. How can I fix the Fetching failed in Facebok portal?

2. Any tips in using facebook portal andn voucher at the same time. Like have free access for 1hr by checking in our fb but have to pay for additional hours?

3. Is it bug or I just did messed up with the settings that made facebook access free even in the voucher SSID?

 

Regards,

Hello @JessieG ,

1. How can I fix the Fetching failed in Facebok portal?

For the issue you met when you configured the Facebook portal, we have a FAQ about how to troubleshoot the issue, you can refer to the following website: 

https://www.tp-link.com/en/support/faq/2570/

2. Any tips in using facebook portal andn voucher at the same time. Like have free access for 1hr by checking in our fb but have to pay for additional hours?

You say you use the Facebook portal and Voucher at the same time, what do you mean about it? For one SSID, we can only set bind it to Facebook portal or Voucher portal, we cannot bind it to two portals at the same time. So please tell us more details about this issue. 

1. How can I fix the Fetching failed in Facebok portal?

For the issue you met when you configured the Facebook portal, we have a FAQ about how to troubleshoot the issue, you can refer to the following website: 

https://www.tp-link.com/en/support/faq/2570/

Still can't get it working, but I think its on my part. The location map don't show our street in fb location but I can find our street in google map. But will still try.

2. Any tips in using facebook portal andn voucher at the same time. Like have free access for 1hr by checking in our fb but have to pay for additional hours?

You say you use the Facebook portal and Voucher at the same time, what do you mean about it? For one SSID, we can only set bind it to Facebook portal or Voucher portal, we cannot bind it to two portals at the same time. So please tell us more details about this issue.  

I got one WLAN group with several SSIDs. Two would be broadcasting 

     1. SSID#1 is for the voucher login - paid

     2. SSID#2 is for the Facebook login - checkin get 30mins free

Problem #1

- After you used the 30mins duration, you can just checkin and get another 30mins (tried only twice)

My Solution #1

- I tried using scheduler and let SSID#2 to be radio on at a certain time  for a duration of 45mins so that clients can only get max of 45mins of free internet (hopefully)

Bug #1

- You can connect to SSID#2 and not checkin and can still surf facebook.

Realization #1 

-  Maybe because of the fetching failed and Facebook connection is not blocked because it is still waiting for the user to login and checkin.

Bug #2

- SSID#1 even if you don't have any voucher or did not authenticate and just click stay connected, you can browse facebook and watch fb videos, etc but can't surf the net.

- Even if SSID#2 is radio off SSID#1 can still connect to facebook without any authentication.

Troubleshooting#1

- Created another WLAN group, WLAN#2 and moved the SSID#2 there (removed the SSID#2 from WLAN#1)

- Still facebook can be freely access in SSID#1 in different WLAN group.

Regards,

JessieG

JessieG wrote

Even if I delete the SSID#2, SSID#1 can still surf facebook for free. When I delete the Facebook portal item in the portal page. It makes SSID#1 unable to access facebook anymore and work normally.

Hello @JessieG ,

Thank you for your feedback.

Please send us the screenshots of your Facebook portal and Voucher portal. We want to check it and if possible, we will have a test in our lab. 

Hi Forest,

I did delete the FB portal so I recreate it again just to give you some screenshot on my setup.

Here is my current topology less the fb portal and I'm open for suggestions and a better one.

1. I was creating a network that have the same SSIDs but the 2nd EAP225 No.2 (172.168.10.202) have an extra SSID which have facebook portal to introduce the FB page and let that area be a gathering spot (it is like a small park) rather than the the EAP225 No.1 (172.168.10.201).

Here is a screen shot of my setup.

I still can't fix the fetching failed but it still working.

Here is a screenshot of basic wireless setting.

Portal section

I just recreate the old portal but I do need to delete it immediatedly because there are many users connected to the voucher SSID and when I activate the FB portal their FB will be connected.

Additional problems encountered:

1. Different Wlan group with same SSID will not accept the authentication in another EAP with different Wlan group.

- Sample: The 2nd EAP225-door (172.168.10.202) is located near a park like location and I want most of the users go there but when they roam the park or connected to the main EAP225-door (172.168.10.201) and same SSID, their authentication is rejected and they need to enter another voucher to authenticate even if their vouche is not yet expired or consumed.

- Testing No.1: So I used the same Wlan group but added a WPA-PSK and broadcast the password but in the Main EAP I override the SSID with another name and different password. So that they will be force to connect to the 2nd EAP near the park.

I've already stated the other problems I encountered in my previous post.

Thats the solution I come up with but the main problem is that whenever the facebook portal is present the users can access FB even without authentication to voucher portal.

Can you implement something like after a certain time users who didn't authenticate will be disconnected automatically. I know the default wifi setting of devices have auto connect to WIFI, if its just possible.

Regards,

JessieG

Hi Guys,

Any update to the Facebook portal bug?

I have successfully linked the facebook portal page.

The problem is that when there is a Facebook login portal. The voucher or anyone connected to the EAP (waiting to login thru portal/voucher/username/etc) will have access to facebook and messenger.

I thought it was because I can't link or have errors on the the facebook checkin location only.

I want to use it to redirect to my FB page and checkin in return the clients can browse the internet for free then if they want to continue browsing they can avail the vouchers.

Regards,

JessieG