Captive Portal - Software Captive Portals

Software Captive Portals

• Air Marshal, software based for Linux platform (commercial)
• Amazingports, Linux based software with integrated billing and payment implementing service-oriented provisioning, free and commercial
• ChilliSpot, open source Linux daemon
• CoovaChilli, open source Linux daemon based on ChilliSpot
• CuteHotspot, windows based (commercial)
• Antamedia, windows based HotSpot Billing Software, which helps you control and bill your customers for the Internet usage (commercial)
• DNS Redirector, windows based (commercial)
• FirstSpot, windows based (commercial)
• Microsolut, windows based professional hotspot software. Include billing and payment gateways. (Free / commercial)
• LogiSense, Billing & OSS / Network Access Control (commercial)
• m0n0wall, FreeBSD based firewall distribution
• PacketFence, Linux based Network Access Control software featuring a captive portal (open source)
• pfSense, FreeBSD based firewall software derived from m0n0wall
• Recaptive, Linux based (commercial, cloud based, Free version available)
• Untangle Captive Portal, Firewall featuring Captive Portal (Linux-based, free basic functionality, commercial directory integration)
• WiFiDog Captive Portal Suite, small C based kernel solution (embeddable)
• Wilmagate, C++ based and is executable both in Linux and Windows/Cygwin environments
• Zentyal, Linux based firewall distribution
• Zeroshell, Linux based network services distribution

Captive portals are gaining increasing use on free open wireless networks where instead of authenticating users, they often display a message from the provider along with the terms of use. Although the legal standing is still unclear (especially in the USA) common thinking is that by forcing users to click through a page that displays terms of use and explicitly releases the provider from any liability, any potential problems are mitigated. They also allow enforcement of payment structures.