I 've been thinking of putting together a WiFi presence for a booth or kiosk at a flea market, t...

[G+_Michael Maxfield]

I've been thinking of putting together a WiFi presence for a booth or kiosk at a flea market, trade show or other booth populated event. It would be a standalone intranet without any internet access at all, with one or many web pages for the booth or booths or other "advertisers" taking part in the WiFi presentation.

 

It might be run on an IIS server on a barebone PC, or on a Pi running ArkOS. I'm planning to utilize mine via a DDWRT (wrt54) router and perhaps use the main and additional three SSID's as attention grabbing beacons. (I may add a password but list it in the beacon so as to allow encrypted WiFi yet allow anyone to connect, although I don't envision needing to have the network secure)

 

The part I haven't planned out yet, is the DNS system.  I would like to have some sort of FQDN addressing so that someone might bookmark on their smartphone and then when on a true internet connection later be able to access the real site for the sponsor from that bookmark. 

 

I'm not sure if ArkOS will already do this (I have to yet order a Pi to play with) and while I believe I can do this on a PC by playing with the hosts file, something a little cleaner might be preferred.  . Also, I'm not sure the host's file will be able to intercept every not-available URL call with a 404 page serving up a menu of available URLs.  

 

I'm counting on many visitors having their smartphones set to notify them when there are available WiFi networks.

 

A year ago I thought about having a set-up like this with a BBS/message forum for use at my wife's family reunion to keep everyone updated on events and whatever, over an entire campground using at two or three DDWRT routers as wireless bridges. (I love those things.  Even if I don't need one, if I see a wrt54 for under $15 at a garage sale, it's mine.)

[G+_Michael Maxfield]

Are you referring to episode 75?  I'm not sure that episode dealt with DNS other than setting the routers to the DNS gateway.  Did I miss it?  I'm looking at creating a network independent of the Internet servers but would like to provide DNS like services. I guess what I'm asking is if there is a turnkey cookie cutter (freeware is good) program for servicing the unconnected intranet with DNS, preferably on the same machine running IIS (under Win7).  Is Mesh still my answer?  I thought that had to do with connecting WiFi nodes, not a single computer and router (or several meshed/bridged routers) providing a small scale web service appearing to be several different domain sites.

 

ie: booth1@tradeshow.net localbase.net>

  sponsor.com  localbase.net>

google.com  <404 page showing clickable menu of available sides, hosted on localbase.net>

product.info localbase.net>

 

Visitor bookmarks sponsor.com while on localbase.net and when out on the real Internet in the future, that bookmark wiil be going to the real "sponsor.com" website, as will "product.info", etc.  While on localbase.net however, that sponsor or product local page will be served up.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this beyond a mesh network?

[G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ]

I think what you want is a captive hotspot... Let me see if I can do a KH on building on on DD-WRT or a RasPi. From there, it should be a trivial matter of giving people a bookmark option so they can connect in the "real world".

 

Peace,

Padre

[G+_Michael Maxfield]

Thank you so much.  I guess it's all in the name of what it's called as well.  I was playing with all sorts of words like standalone intranet and such but nothing came close. I see that ddwrt has a wiki page on captive portal and it appears to be headed in the right direction. I'm looking forward to the possible podcast.