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Teddy Boom
k kudos Received
Premium Member
join:2007-01-29
Toronto, ON

Teddy Boom

Premium Member

Re: More router questions: Rooming house with 15 tenants

So... I'm not sure where to begin I wasn't when I originally typed the question, which has caused us to go off in several directions, some not relevant at all to this conversation (ToS should be left for the lawyers and is between the customer and their ISP, this is a technical question).

Of course I've thought about many ways to improve his network. It is frustrating, because I can't really give him hours of free help, but similarly I don't feel good charging him for my learning process.

McDonalds and Tim Hortons come up because he asked me what they use and if it would be better and/or affordable at all. I don't have a good answer for that. My instincts (biases, if you like ) tell me the equipment is more expensive but doesn't perform any differently. It is, however, actively supported by technicians, and the support mechanisms (aka remote administration) are probably more effective than on consumer equipment. I'd like to be able to answer him about what they use, even if that is the end of that branch of the conversation.

TwiztedZero
Nine Zero Burp Nine Six
Premium Member
join:2011-03-31
Toronto, ON

TwiztedZero

Premium Member

said by Teddy Boom:

McDonalds and Tim Hortons come up because he asked me what they use and if it would be better and/or affordable at all. I don't have a good answer for that. My instincts (biases, if you like ) tell me the equipment is more expensive but doesn't perform any differently. It is, however, actively supported by technicians, and the support mechanisms (aka remote administration) are probably more effective than on consumer equipment. I'd like to be able to answer him about what they use, even if that is the end of that branch of the conversation.

Most of those types of operations are contracted out to a 3rd party that sometimes provides their own custom flashed routers paired with a Captive Portal setup along with a billing system in some cases. WiFiGator, which deals with hotspot managagement software for the routers/servers. Usually using a modified DD-WRT Chilli setup anda radius authentication server either at a remote location or locally; its a bit much really for a rooming house, probably better suited to motels, hotels, restaurant chains, and the like. Though these sorts of operaions can be either for profit or nonprofit, and generally use business lines.