ControlAP Online Help

Online Help

Additional Configuration and Troubleshooting:

Error Messages when running ControlAP:

"No valid network address - Please check Settings" - A failure to detect a suitable network adapter and/or a failure to obtain a valid IP address occurred. Check network adapters are enabled and that you have an internet connection. Also check cables and connections.
"unable to use port 67: is there another dhcp server running? unable to use port 80, make sure no web server runs on port 80 unable to use udp port 53, make sure no dns server is running on this machine (turn off other internet connection sharing programs on this machine)" - An attempt to run ControlAP's servers failed due to another server running (e.g. if running Microsoft's ICS, simply disable it). Check your process list to help determine if another process is running on the same ports.

Note: Also check to see is a connector disconnected or if the adapter settings have been changed (both may be pointing to the same adapter).

Note: If another DHCP is required for a local LAN (e.g. you are creating a wireless sub network). Simply configure a firewall to block DHCP messages after your server's IP address is set. Use infinite leases otherwise set a static IP address within the range of the DHCP IP range.

Adding basic authentication:

Adding username / password access - Add a comma delimted username password pair in a text file named access.txt. You also provide a site wide site name and password from the Settings configuration window or web admin. Note: only one username/password pair is allowed in the trial edition.

Customizing the Captive Portal Welcome Page:

welcome.html - This is the welcome html page that provides a welcome message and an acceptible usage policy (if you desire to have one). The only required code is a form to post whether to continue to the destination (e.g. accept the terms of the usage policy). A sample welcome.html page:

.<html><head><title>Welcome to My Internet Cafe</title></head><body>
<h2>Welcome to My Internet Cafe</h2>
<br/> <img src="cafe.jpg">
<br/>To continue to your destination please accept the following terms:.......<br/>
<form name="access" action="/" method="Post">
<input type="submit" border="0" name="accept" value="I ACCEPT">
</form>
</body></html>
index.html - this is the default home page displayed if a user enters the AP name as the URL. This may look identical to the welcome page except that it doesn't need an "accept" button.
timeout.html - this is the timeout page displayed if a user's session times out (if in single session mode).
warning.html - this is the warning page displayed if a user's session is about to time out.
Note: To continue using the Settings Dialog Window to edit the welcome page (and the web admin), you can specify the following tags in your custom html code: <name/> <header/> <message/> <logo/> for the timeout page: <timeoutmessage/> and for the warning page: <warningmessage/>

Filtering MAC addresses:

Filtering addresses can be enabled by manually creating either a deny.txt file containing the MAC addresses you wish to deny access to or an allow.txt file containing a list of the only MAC addresses allowed to enter. The allow.txt takes precedence over deny.txt should both lists exist. Each MAC address listed should not contain spaces or dashes and must be in hexadecimal format (case doesn't matter). You can use anything to delimit each entry (commas, spaces, newlines) so long as you do delimit each entry. As an alternative you may want to use the MAC address filtering capability of your access point hardware.

Command Line Parameters and Running as a Service:

Note: For most Windows users (if you chose to run at startup during installation) a shortcut will have been placed in your Startup Group.

-console : Runs ControlAP in console mode.

Notes:

If there is no Windowing System this is automatically done and no command line parameter is required.

In Windows this command line has no effect unless you start Windows in console mode in which case it is not necessary.

-stop : Stops an already executing instance of ControlAP which useful to create stop commands / shortcuts or for setting up services / daemons when creating startup scripts.

Running as a native service in WinNT/XP/2K/2003 is available with ControlAP Standard Edition.
To run as a service in Linux see the script file (also used to run from command line). The start and stop commands are available for daemon operation.

Using External Authentication Server:
To interface with an external web server, the external web server should handle http POSTs that include the following parameters: mac (for the mac address as a hex string) and redirect (the destination URL). The clent's IP address is accessible thru the standard http header: Host. To actually enable/disable access for a user the external web server must then respond by using the following http header: Login with a value of either true or false. For additional assistance please contact support.

Supporting NAT:

NAT (Network Address Translation) is used to translate and route internet address and port destinations. It may be required for certain applications, e.g. VPN (Virtual Private Networks).

ControlAP works without NAT by automatically proxying ports such as web, email, ssh (secure shell) with the option to add additional ports. Thus you can secure ports and control bandwidth using ControlAP without using NAT. NAT support is turned off by default for ControlAP.

ControlAP however will support NAT using the underlying OS's support for NAT. The following section describes how to enable NAT for your OS. After enabling NAT support for the OS, enable it for ControlAP under ControlAP's Advanced Settings.

Enabling NAT for Linux:
1. Simply enable NAT under ControlAP's Advanced Settings.
Enabling NAT for Windows 2000, XP, 2003:
1. Make sure the Routing and Remote Access Service is started and set the startup type to automatic (Services is found under Administrative Tools).
Enabling NAT for Windows 95,98,Me:
1. Run the disable DHCP and disable DNS scripts (found on windows installation disk)
2. Turn on ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) using the Internet adapter as the one to share.
Enabling NAT for MacOSX and Zaurus (and other Unix platforms):
1. Install and run iptables support.
NAT is currently not available for the Pocket PC.

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Additional Configuration and Troubleshooting:

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