[OPLINTECH] Counting Wireless Patrons

[Ron Woods]

If your using Pfsense or something similar to control your wireless network counting then patrons is very simple.

 

You can install Squid as a Transparent Proxy Server, and then install Lightsquid reporting system. It will compile all the data from your squid logs. Squid counts each user even in transparent mode. It will then present them in a very nice report mode that is all web based.

 

I have attached a picture as an example.

 

This will make counting your wireless patrons a breeze, and best of all it’s FREE and I like Free J

 

As always, shoot me an message if you have any questions.

 

Sincerely

Ron

 

 

Ron Woods

Computer Services Manager

St. Clairsville Public Library

(740)-695-2062

http://www.stclibrary.org

 

 

From: oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org [mailto:oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org] On Behalf Of Ken Butler
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 10:38 AM
To: Jordan Cooper
Cc: OPLINTECH
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Counting Wireless Patrons

 

Check out https://www.sputnik.com/. The subscription to Sputniknet costs about $200 per year per location. They just got set up to start doing E-Rate, so the next E-Rate funding cycle would be a good time to switch to them, although that is close to a year away. What they offer:

 

*	Cloud managed routers. You can reboot them, check them for connectivity, look at the number of active sessions, or look up detailed reports on usage. 
*	Stats: total bandwidth up and down, # of unique users, total # of uses, total sessions, total duration of all sessions, average session length, etc. All sorted by day, week, or months. By default it keeps data for up to 6 months.
*	Captive portal - force anyone connecting to your wifi to agree to your terms and conditions. Able to add your own branding.
*	Lots of settings and policies.

I believe they have a firmware version that you can install for free onto most standard wifi routers, although it does not have the cloud management aspects and I'm not sure what the reporting level is.

 

There are other services that do the same thing, but cost a lot more. I suppose better reliability and additional features are present in the more expensive packages, but for our basic needs, this seems to work just fine. Meraki comes to mind, but from talking to them it really seemed like they are more for big business, very large hotels etc. They didn't seem very interested in selling just one or two APs. 

 

I've also heard of other people using Aruba, MegaPath and Ruckus. Just glancing over the prices on Ruckus though, I see that the cheapest wireless controllers that they offer are $400, and that does not include the subscription to their cloud management services. 

 

 

On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 7:53 AM, Jordan Cooper <jcooper at myacpl.org> wrote:

Hi, guys.  I was wondering what methodology you use at your libraries to count the number of patrons that connect to your wireless networks for the state audit.  

 

At present, the only idea I have is to count DHCP leases, but I feel like there has to be a more elegant (though hopefully still affordable) method out there.  




Thanks,

 

Jordan Cooper
Technology Associate
Athens County Public Libraries
jcooper at myacpl.org

(740) 590-1643 <tel:%28740%29%20590-1643> 

 


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-- 

Ken Butler
hcotech at holmeslib.org
Head of Information Technology

Holmes County District Public Library
3102 Glen Drive
Millersburg, OH 44654
PH: 330-674-5972 ext 224

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