I want to offer free wifi at my apartment, but I want to lock the users to one website, can I do that and how?

Question

Also, is there a big risk of someone hacking into my desktop if I allow people to use my router.

Ok, Maybe not limit them to one page, but maybe I could have a start page/homepage that loads everytime when someone connects to the internet. For example, when you go to the airport or barns and noble and connect to their wifi network, it always loads their home page first.

Answer 1

This is done all of the time in hotels that offer WiFi to their customers. Anywhere you attempt to go when you start browsing the Internet brings them to a hotel page/advertisement where they are required to log on to the system prior to using it. Below is an example service that does this. Obviously, you don't want to pay someone else to do it, but I show it only to represent the example network you are trying to setup.

If you want free/open source, you'll want to check out the second link and below. There are also commercial packages available. Do a google search for "Captive Portal" to see more. If you want to limit where they go after they log on, you can setup a squid server or use the Captive Portals to limit those places, depending on the capabilities of the portals.

WG

Answer 2

Haven't done a setup like that before but couldn't you have a configuration where the devices are setup as:


ISP <- Cable Modem <- PC (dual network cards) <- Wireless Router

Your PC would act as the gateway/proxy. I'd put a cheap system in there and lock it down to protect it from hacking.

Answer 3

I don't think anyone would use it with it restricted to one website.