Dear All ;
I am so glad to write again here after long time .
need to know if it possible to set a MikroTik RB or x386 pc as hotspot client ?
one of the isp here using hotspot and need to setup the Mikrotik to be the hotspot for me .

will be waiting your update and comments .
yours sincerely ;
Ahmed

Hello Ahmed,

Here is a link to the Wiki article describing how to setup a hotspot in RouterOS:

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Hotspot_server_setup

Best of Luck!

So the ISP is running the Hotspot server, and you want a RouterOS device to be the client?

You can't do that directly, but as long as you use the RouterOS device as a layer3 hop with NAT any client behind it could sign into the ISP's Hotspot and then all clients behind it can pass traffic through your router simply because the ISP's Hotspot sees all client devices to be your router as it hides the clients behind it.

That is, unless the ISP doesn't allow that in its Terms of Service and possibly set up their Hotspot to prevent you from doing that. In which case you should adhere to the Terms of Service.

Dear fewi ;
Thanks for your update and reply
just wanted to know if it is possible to set up the MikroTik as hotspot client in the same way with pppoe client .
this will help , especially when the explorer ask you from time to time about the username and password .
so the MK will maintain the link to the ISP through this hotspot client method .
with all thanks for replying .
with best regards.
Ahmed

No, you cannot.

I think you need some kind of auto login & keep-alive daemon. I've seen two such programs, one is GNU Alive and it is for Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD. The other one is IC Login for the Windows operating systems. Both programs comes with full source code.

Many ISPs like Megabeam Networks (Swisscom), TeleDenmark (TDC), Telefornica, TeliaSonera, and Tiscali use the Orbyte Access Gateway (OAG) from the Swedish company Birdstep Technology AB.

RouterOS device as a layer3 hop with NAT

Any tutorials around how to do that? As im in the same need, run mikrotik as hotspot client. I have R52 in rb411

Or someone can explain a little?

Here is the short of it..

As the RouterOS box acts like a proxy (NAT) for all devices behind it... when ANY device behind it loggs into the hotspot on the WAN side of the RouterOS box, it appears to the hotspot that the RouterOS box has logged in...

Like wise any traffic crossing the RouterOS device looks like it is comming "FROM" the RouterOS box. (as seen by the hotspot)

So any keep alive type pakets from any device behind the RouterOS box will keep the RouterOS box's connection "open"..

I use this scheem often for trade shows when I get a single login for x$$ and it is good for 1MAC address..
I place the RouterOS box on line and use my management PC to open the conncetion, then log the rest of the users on to the hotspot I run on the LOCAL RouterOS device... can save $100s of for each event..

Usualy the venue does not care.. it is offered as a service.. but their billing system hands out 1 login per MAC and their accountants are greedy...

But you DO need to get this "use" cleared with the hotspot owner or you could find yourself in a "Hot Spot !!"

Here is the short of it..

As the RouterOS box acts like a proxy (NAT) for all devices behind it... when ANY device behind it loggs into the hotspot on the WAN side of the RouterOS box, it appears to the hotspot that the RouterOS box has logged in...

Like wise any traffic crossing the RouterOS device looks like it is comming "FROM" the RouterOS box. (as seen by the hotspot)

So any keep alive type pakets from any device behind the RouterOS box will keep the RouterOS box's connection "open"..

I use this scheem often for trade shows when I get a single login for x$$ and it is good for 1MAC address..
I place the RouterOS box on line and use my management PC to open the conncetion, then log the rest of the users on to the hotspot I run on the LOCAL RouterOS device... can save $100s of for each event..

Usualy the venue does not care.. it is offered as a service.. but their billing system hands out 1 login per MAC and their accountants are greedy...

But you DO need to get this "use" cleared with the hotspot owner or you could find yourself in a "Hot Spot !!"

Yes, this is very big problem,,, We planned to use MT for our clint devices but becaues of this "issue" we use mT only for our backbones and hotspots.

Here is the short of it..

As the RouterOS box acts like a proxy (NAT) for all devices behind it... when ANY device behind it loggs into the hotspot on the WAN side of the RouterOS box, it appears to the hotspot that the RouterOS box has logged in...

Like wise any traffic crossing the RouterOS device looks like it is comming "FROM" the RouterOS box. (as seen by the hotspot)

So any keep alive type pakets from any device behind the RouterOS box will keep the RouterOS box's connection "open"..

I use this scheem often for trade shows when I get a single login for x$$ and it is good for 1MAC address..
I place the RouterOS box on line and use my management PC to open the conncetion, then log the rest of the users on to the hotspot I run on the LOCAL RouterOS device... can save $100s of for each event..

Usualy the venue does not care.. it is offered as a service.. but their billing system hands out 1 login per MAC and their accountants are greedy...

But you DO need to get this "use" cleared with the hotspot owner or you could find yourself in a "Hot Spot !!"

can you explain with router setting example? because i don't get it how to make it works...

You cannot make it work on the routers. Routers can not log into a Hotspot by themselves. You need a PC behind the router to log in, and keep the connection active.

That has been said several times in this thread, and is also explicitly in his post:

I place the RouterOS box on line and use my management PC to open the conncetion