Social Network Captive Portal with 3rd Party Access Points

I have read through this within Tips and Tricks but just need comfirmation.

We have a Balance One Core (6.3.2s001 build 2428) running with 3rd Party APs and want to apply a Social Network Captive Portal through Incontrol.

The VLANs are active on the 3rd Party APs and switch network.
I apply a tag to my Balance One Core device within Incontrol
I create my Captive Portal within incontrol and add my social network details.
I create my VLAN on incontrol and apply it to my tagged device with my previously created Captive Portal.

Does anyone see any issue with this or offer any advice on this?

Thanks in advance.

Just to check you had tested the Captive Portal feature for you Balance One Core and you found issue on it ?

1 Like

Not yet, just checking functionality with the balance core one and social network login

Please test and report back if you have issue. I suggest upgrading the Balance One Core to the latest firmware version before test it.

Please contact local Peplink partner if you need further help to setup Social Captive Portal.

1 Like

Hello @HarleyBoy,
We have successfully used Peplink’s Captive Portal from both the Balance & MAX routers on other manufactures WAPs, our advice is to always use VLANs and to segregate the various network traffic.
With the Social Media logins, the best way we find is to set that up is through InControl2, this also gives you access to some fairly amazing analytics and additional abilities to engage with the users of the service.
Naturally where we can we will go with the PEPWAVE APs though sometimes this is not always an option especially when the customer has existing established infrastructure.
Happy to Help,
Marcus :slight_smile:

Excellent, thank you Marcus. This worked well for us in the end with our Blanace One.

One corporate wireless network using one VLAN and our guest wireless network on another VLAN, VLANs configured on incontrol with a social network captive portal added to the guest VLAN only. This was using the customers 3rd party access points.

Does this suggest that social network login works with the Balance 20 and 30 also? I thought I read somewhere that social network captive portal was only available with Balance ONE, MAX and Pepwave APs, was that the case previously? Has that changed now to include other balance products or was social network login always available with the Balance 20 and 30?.

Hello @HarleyBoy,
From our experince when using the latest firmware on the hardware and InControl2 the Captive Portal has been available for all of the Balance Models, let me know if you have any challenges and we can all look together to help you.
Happy to Help,
Marcus :slight_smile:

Just to confirm I do have social network captive portal working with a Balance One Core configured with 3rd party APs using VLANS configured through Incontrol.

However I knew I had seen some conflicting info somewhere. I think it used to be a note when selecting the social tab when setting up a captive portal also but the supported devices were listed here on page 168 of the Peplink Certified Engineer Training Program and it threw me originaly which is why I asked the question. Here is the text from the Power Point

"

  1. Make sure you are running Firmware 6.2.2 or AP Firmware 3.5.2. You can find your Firmware status and update your Firmware on System > Firmware.
  2. If you have disabled InControl 2 management, please re-enable it. For MAX devices, you can find the settings on System > InControl. For Pepwave APs, you can find the settings on System > Controller. Click the “Controller Management” checkbox to enable InControl management.
    Requirements:
    To set up a Social Wi-Fi Hotspot, you will need the following items:
    An InControl 2 account.
    A Facebook homepage.
    A supported device running Firmware 6.2.1 or above or AP Firmware 3.5.2.
    Supported devices:
    Peplink devices that have built-in Wi-Fi AP capability can deliver Social Wi-Fi, including:
    Balance: One
    MAX: 700, OTG, BR1*, BR2, HD2*, HD4
    MediaFast: HD2, HD4
    AP One: AP One, Mini, AC Mini, 300M, In-Wall, Flex 300M
    AP Pro: AP Pro, 300M, Duo
    *With the exception of the BR1 ENT, and the HD2 Mini

I think some clarification might help :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

@HarleyBoy, we have enhanced the Social Wi-Fi Hotspot. It is supported for all Balance models.

1 Like

Hi TK and team,

I’m looking at running a MAX HD4 LTE-A with MediaFast at events to provide Wi-Fi for guests. There will be 3rd party Ubiquity AP’s to broadcast (customer already has the hardware and won’t invest more on AP Flex’s - for now).

So the question… if running Social Wi-Fi Hotspot on the MAX HD4, will the analytics still pull through and report on InControl 2 for use by the company?

Thanking you in advance for the feedback.

The answer is Yes! :wink:

1 Like