i need some advice, my girlfriend is starting her own business and would like to offer her customers free wifi access, now i have been reading horror stories about copyright infringement from customers downloading copyrighted material etc.

 

does anybody know how i can set up a wifi access point which i can have a code that expires after a set period and also how to stop these people downloading stuff they shouldnt so we do not get find for there downloads?

Have you looked into using a log in system with limited access to certain types of media / websites? this would stop them logging on to download torrents / porn and such, i know McDonald's do this. im sure there will be software available for this need.

 

something like this

http://www.hotspotsystem.com/

Depending on usage, it may be a bit excessive to manage access to the degree you are talking about - if you set it to set access times (business hours), set up the router really strictly and have a landing page set up, where they have to accept your terms wouldn't that suffice?

 

I've used open DNS in the past... you can also ban certain keywords (can be annoying though!).

 

If you google 'captive portal' you could set up an access/ login page - but this could just be to enter the code you give them, much like smaller hotels that offer free wi-fi do?

There is software already out there to do this and it wouldn't cost much to hire someone to write a piece of software specifically for you either, but one idea is to have a code printed off on the receipt of each customer, when the customer connects to the wifi, they attempt to visit a web page and hit your "holding page" if they haven't got the code on their computer, they enter the code into the "holding page" and their ip is authenticated and allowed access to the wider web etc.

 

You can block known torrent ports on the router and there is proxy software to prevent accessing porn sites etc. from the free wifi, it's not difficult to do if you know what you're doing, if you don't know what you're doing, there are companies you can pay to set it up for you.