Need some network help!

blissetw

I am setting up a network for a business. They are going to offer free high speed internet access to anyone inside their building, but the catch is they want everyone who connects to the internet via their network to have their browser to open up to this business's start page, not the homepage set on their individual PC.

How would I go about this? It seems like it would be easy enough, but I've never done it. So I figured I would defer to all the experts... You guys.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

lazyart

Hmmm... Just guessing at this one since I've never done it and I'm sure there are many approaches.

What if the only page you could access without credentials was a log-in page? Submit your name, and an account is created on the server and you have access for XX minutes. Obviously anything you wanted could be on that page as well....

Are the users bringing their own PCs?

blissetw

Yes people would be bringing their own PCs in. A few onsite computers will be there and those will be easy to configure but it's all the others I'm worried about.

It will be unlimited access to those that are there, but I just want them routed to my webpage first intead of yahoo, msn, etc.

garv221

Look up information on a proxy server, IE Wingate, there are many out there. Something that redirects traffic to the page by default when a new client enters the network. The gateway should be pushed out in DHCP so the client can hit you given homepage just by loggin on to the network, there are many ways about doing this. I've seen them where you push out hidden clients from the server & they do all the work.. The last option is change everyone’s home page statically

blissetw

I don't think a a proxy server will work since they don't have a server in house. They are providing high speed internet but not through a server. It's just through a DSL that the ISP has provided and a router.

RussS

I would think that if they had a server it would be easy - just have a logon script run
However in the situation you described the only wqay possible to do this would be to visit each machine manually and reconfigure the start page

blissetw

I found the type of product I was looking for. It was the IP3 NetAccess. It is actually a pretty cool product - It lets you control bandwidth, slice and dice network hotspots to allow certain access in certain areas. It also allows you to make everyone that uses your network to access it through a certain portal or webpage.

Thanks everyone for your help.