Do you work with or are in an organization that provides public wireless for free to patrons? If so, do you find people that normally don't use your business, do in fact have access to your wireless internet? Are you noticing that in the beginning your wireless was faster, but now that so many people use it, that it is slowing down the rest of your network? Are you seeing patrons going to sites that are possibly not a part of your policy standards? If you have said yes to any of these questions, let me tell you about a product that can help.
This is an actual hardware product, normally named an “appliance” that you can quickly install within your network. And right out of the box no configuration is needed once installed into your network. Now you can tweak it more, but out of the box it is secure for the organization and for patrons who use it. The name of the product is called Guestgate, which is made by Intellinet network solutions.
Some examples of what Guestgate can do for your wireless are as follows:
It can make your public wireless experience more secure by segmenting all users away from other users giving them different IP address subnets. This also protects the host network from guests.
Manage the amount of bandwidth also known as “throttling” that users can have. This feature is valuable because it can help reduce the slowing down of your wireless network. Also filtering and/or block sites, certain key words, ports, and more is available.
Some other features that are nice is having a password option for Internet access. This feature, if used, could keep unwanted patrons from gaining access.
Also a really neat feature offered is a splash welcome page that can be customized. You can change the text and your organizational logo.
This is a great place to put your wireless usage policy as well as advertise your business at the beginning of their wireless session.
The device itself is very small, contains 5 ports, and can ONLY be managed from within your networks LAN and firewall. This means, it is impossible for any “clever” wireless users to hack into the device.
The price of this valuable appliance is approximately $200 and is touted as coming with a lifetime warranty.
I happen to work with a number of libraries who deal with these problems quite often. And I highly recommend this product to any library or PAC organizations who provide wireless to the persons they service.
