The Hotspot Billing and Software is all the Rage these days.

Hotspot software was developed for the needs of hotels, training classrooms and internet cafes. Through this software, customers can use free wireless LAN services after entering a password which is given a controlled access like surfing the web through their own laptops. There are numerous benefits for hotspot software, for instance only one license fee will be charged per installation location, it doesn’t matter how many people use the hotspot at one time. Two network cards need to be fitted in the computer in order for the hotspot to run.

One of the network cards is used for regular internet access and the other for the connection of WiFi access point. Hotspot software is basically a centralized billing, prepaid, and subscription server that is able to manage multiple WiFi and WiMax hot-spots and hot-zones. Hotspot billing allows one to sign up subscribers to the Public Wireless LAN service, produce and use prepaid vouchers, change roaming partners, and to serve hotspot locations from a single server with centralized user management. Customers of hotspot software are airports, hotels and sometimes whole cities. Hotspot billing software enables control and charging for internet access while making use of the captive portal technology. For instances when a customer requires fast login to a system without any client software installation, hotspot billing proves its worth.

Once the connection to a network is established via wireless cards or a cable, customers are asked to type in their username and password n order to access the internet. This way, users are able to see their time and bandwidth usage hence their time can be refilled if needed. Wifi connection is easy to manage and connect. Laptop is first switched on then a search is conducted for any available and encrypted WiFi networks. Users can connect to this WiFi network and be able to open up their Web browser. Irrespective of the URL entered by a customer, they will always be redirected to a special page that shows a welcome note and asks to the user to fill in their access code. The operator is given the option of changing the layout of the welcome page.

Upon a successful login, the customers directed to their regular desktop. The credit balance of the user is displayed in an information window on the desktop. This also provides the user with an option of logging out whenever they want. In order to extend the range of a WiFi users are suggested to use WiFi repeaters or range extenders which are easily available in the market.

However, it is to be noted that single site hotspot deployments will take lesser time than multi location deployments. This is because in a multi-location hotspot deployment, the first locations to be deployed will crystallize the subscriber gateway requirements of deployment. However, at such a point, each additional subscriber gateway can be pre configured before it is to be sent in to the field. WiFi is gaining popularity by the second and Wifi equipment is standard now in a lot of mobile computing devices.