How To: Using m0n0wall to create a Wireless Captive Portal

| Wireless Driver & Software

Step 2: Configure DHCP

The next step is to configure DHCP on the PORTAL interface to allow Captive Portal users to automatically pick up their IP configuration when they connect. Here you need to allocate a range of IP addresses which will be leased. Figure 3 shows that I allocated 192.168.11.101 to 192.168.11.150, effectively restricting the captive portal to 50 concurrent users. You also need to enable the DHCP server on the PORTAL interface using the ‘check-box’ at the top of the screen.

Figure 3: Portal Interface DHCP configuration
(click on the image for a larger view)

As I am not expecting lots of users, I have left the DHCP lease times at their default settings. On a busy Captive Portal with many users you may want to set the lease time similar to the hard timeout.