Cusomer Accounts and Billing/Payment Solution

solderman · Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:46 pm

I've read through all the posts to date regarding Mikrotik and Billing/Payment systems.

I know the MT has a User Manager in development, but as yet no intention of integrating Billing/Payment systems into it...

I have also seen people's wish lists (which seem to mirror ours exactly) and I've taken a look at the various free and purchaseable solutions flagged up in reply posts.

I'm looking for a system which will automate our multiple hotspot and point to multipoint users, so that they can sign up on-line for various time/volume products, have their account set up, or simply re-charged (if already existing).

A system which monitors, manages and controls their useage in line with product definitions and sends them an e-mail or on-screen notification when they get low on credit (or their monthly payment has not arrived) etc.

With so many MT users out there and so many Hotspots etc running I'm sure that lots of you have efficient and reliable systems working 24 hours a day - I'd be really grateful for your recommendations here.

BulleriNET · Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:51 pm

YOu may give Eje at Wisprouter.com a ring he set ours up very stable radius and full payment system!!

satellite_dave · Sat Sep 30, 2006 9:59 pm

the guys at http://www.wirelessorbit.com make a billing plaform that can be intergrated to mt routers,,, going through it with them now, seems ok, any others out there ?

fredhamilton · Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:49 am

I have one, does all my hotspot billing, and signup, pay online (PayPal or C/C)
sends out invoices 5 days ahead for my dialup and wireless clients, they can pay online also.

Tells me who's online and how long/much. gives out free 'trial' accounts, 1 time !

Failed logins
Didn't pay
Paid for a week
Paid for a month
Piad for a year

Still need to get it linked to Quick Books, but then -))

cabana · Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:05 pm

Please do tell what it is.

fredhamilton · Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:23 am

Fedora based

Written in house

Would you like screen shots ?

cabana · Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:27 am

sure would...sounds very much what a friend of mine needs.

fredhamilton · Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:15 pm

Give me a little time.

Just 'dressing' it up a little.

Have put in info. for 'failed login' and what site they are having a problem on, as well as info. about the if they are on a hotspot, my radius(in house dialup), or one of my 'outsourced' lines.

Will get back.

cabana · Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:17 pm

Am looking forward to it, cheers

Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:27 pm

I've read through all the posts to date regarding Mikrotik and Billing/Payment systems.

I know the MT has a User Manager in development, but as yet no intention of integrating Billing/Payment systems into it...

paypal integration will soon follow

roboboer · Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:31 pm

A lot of options is available.
Use as gateway
1) Ipcop - You can use TAR (Traffic control) It sends out email daily of usage and amount availble/ spend
2) Pfsense -

Free Billing solutions with Radius
1) LMS
1st one is from Alec: http://lms.alec.pl/
2nd is from Chilek http://www.chilan.com/
Their were quistions ask if it can be integrated into MT and Pfsense
2) Free Radius Dailup http://www.freeradius.org/dialupadmin.html

Solutions
Radius Manager
http://www.dmasoftlab.com/

fredhamilton · Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:10 pm

Screen shots of the system I am VERY happy with.

http://rikerconsulting.com/showNtell/

This does my 'hotspot', 'dialup' and 'wireless' billing and control.

An easy to use system for anyone in my office.

WITH:

Next pay
Past due
Cost per month
Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly
Failed login report
Time online, data transfer
Edit user
Add user
Linked to a PayPal/Credit Card account for 'Pay Online' and makes
the changes to the interface.

miahac · Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:59 pm

I have been using cwispy http://www.cwispy.com/cwISPy/ for about 6 months.

have modified it for use with my authorize.net account for cc and check drafts, one time and recurring, I added extra fields to keep track of customer settings and modified the trouble ticket system to allow me to print trouble tickets with contact information for the field tech.

I have also added tons user interface enhancements. I do not use the customer login section only admin.

solderman · Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:59 pm

Wanted to take a look but your url doesn't seem to be live.

Screen shots of the system I am VERY happy with.

http://rikerconsulting.com/showNtell/

This does my 'hotspot', 'dialup' and 'wireless' billing and control.

An easy to use system for anyone in my office.

WITH:

Next pay
Past due
Cost per month
Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly
Failed login report
Time online, data transfer
Edit user
Add user
Linked to a PayPal/Credit Card account for 'Pay Online' and makes
the changes to the interface.

Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:16 am

Wanted to take a look but your url doesn't seem to be live.

works for me

solderman · Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:21 pm

mmm ... OK working now - must have been at our end!

Wanted to take a look but your url doesn't seem to be live.
works for me

solderman · Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:35 pm

Hi,

Very nice.

Does this system create and maintain user accounts directly on the Mikrotik Hotspot?

Thanks,

Wanted to take a look but your url doesn't seem to be live.

Screen shots of the system I am VERY happy with.

http://rikerconsulting.com/showNtell/

This does my 'hotspot', 'dialup' and 'wireless' billing and control.

An easy to use system for anyone in my office.

WITH:

Next pay
Past due
Cost per month
Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly
Failed login report
Time online, data transfer
Edit user
Add user
Linked to a PayPal/Credit Card account for 'Pay Online' and makes
the changes to the interface.

fredhamilton · Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:52 pm

NO, This is a radius based system so I have 1 database for everything I need

firebat · Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:00 am

That's a pretty nice config. Have you offered it for sale to anyone?

Bomber67 · Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:11 am

I've read through all the posts to date regarding Mikrotik and Billing/Payment systems.

I know the MT has a User Manager in development, but as yet no intention of integrating Billing/Payment systems into it...
paypal integration will soon follow

..meaning how soon?

bjohns · Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:02 am

It's not too difficult to write your own interface. Like I wouldn't call myself a programmer but I managed to get most if not all the features I want out of a hotspot 'self manage' interface.

I wrote mine using Perl.

I will eventually bundle it up for release. However I don't think I can make it open for a while. I plan to get it bundled up into a dedicated appliance first.

Screenies:
http://naturalnetworks.blogspot.com/200 ... -user.html

Update
Lots of revisions etc:
http://naturalnetworks.blogspot.com/200 ... rface.html

cabana · Sun Jan 14, 2007 7:20 pm

Reefbum · Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:09 am

The MT usermanager is good for small to medium hotspots but I needed something that I could have payments and could not wait for the MT release. I will look at the MT version again when they add the payment option.

I use some software I wrote that has PayPal API for user self sign up. It runs on a server with freeradius.

It is not to hard to do something if you know a little php

http://ns1.oifnet.us

ADMIN side Login
admin / admin

USER side Login
user / user

tgrand · Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:06 pm

ReefBum,

Very Nice!!
Are you up to sharing the source?

Reefbum · Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:25 pm

I am working on a new version that is ajax based which should be completed in a week or so. Once this is done i may consider releasing if there are enough interest for it.

matthias · Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:18 pm

very nice!
would be very happy about a release...

cabana · Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:23 pm

ditto

mneumark · Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:43 pm

I would be interested in the release too..

jo2jo · Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:51 am

anyone use http://www.wirelessorbit.com with success? they claim to only charge a flat fee and you get all of the revenues...i was thinking of trying them out but they want $ 150 up front...and i dont have a good Hotspot point..

its atop a 12 story office building on a lake...shooting across the lake 180 degrees...hoping to get some boats i guess..im setting it up later next week..anyone have any experience with getting customers from lakes/boats?

tks

bjohns · Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:00 am

Yeah, just a little bit of experience :P

I get best results using horizontal, most of my installations have either a PacWireless 4 (10dBi) or 12slot (15dBi) waveguide. Some omni-directional (double sided) for repeaters.

They seem to perform a lot better than verticals over water. Plus they have a bit more horizontal coverage which is useful for places with a large tide difference (not that you'll have this issue on a lake).

Many people suggest diversity when running links over water - I agree if you're running greater distances. Otherwise no need if users are just using standard client adapters within 500m or so.

On another note I've further developed my little hotspot user interface. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ben.johns ... evelopment . Some day I'll make a public test available - currently the test server runs transactions against the actual bank and influences other external entities.

I'm thinking about integrating PayPal - is their premium 'gateway' product worth the money? It's a fair whack more than what I'm paying a local bank for the CC only stuff. Really I just want access to Direct Debit/BPay/PayPal credit facilities - don't need CC since I'm already paying <2% per transaction.

jo2jo · Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:53 am

bjohns, are you recommending them or are they bad? (http://www.wirelessorbit.com)

thanks

bjohns · Sat Feb 17, 2007 2:20 pm

I wasn't referring to Wireless Orbit, just the operating over water part.

bjohns · Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:41 am

Sorry to bump and old thread for self gratification - but given the hits on my blog originating from this thread I think there must be some interest in what I'm doing.

http://naturalnetworks.blogspot.com/200 ... rface.html

Nearly finished the remote hotspot interface. Now have PayPal and Subscriber support (and Vouchers too with the addition of a generation script).

I've yet to do the code audit and doco. I'll make the payment stuff more modular to make it easier to talk to different gateway types - maybe I'll even write 'plugins' to suit different ones?

curacao · Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:34 pm

Hi,

Has anyone evaluated or tested the Wireless Orbit Hotspot managment software (http://www.wirelesorbit.com) for Mikrotik yet?

jo2jo · Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:39 pm

ME! i gave up on the MT thing as infact it does not work right now...(users have to activate a email to their account to activate sign up..defeats purpose of restricting internet for pay).

not to knock mt, as Hotspot pay software is not their focus, hard core routing and wireless is, and we all know they rock at that.

anyway, i went to wireless orbit, yes it does work, some web interface bugs that im told are going to be worked out next week exist...but nothing major... tell him i sent u and he may let you try it out for free for a week or so.

Mactrekr · Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:16 pm

Ok, I just now got my MT HotSpot working with Wirelessorbit it is really cool. Still a little rough, but they are adding features with every revision, the best part is that it doesn't require you have another computer set up. I tried antamedia (CRAP), and PatronSoft's firstspot (also crap) both were very difficult to figure out and the customer support was TERRIBLE. WirelessOrbit offers a free service with no tech support, an email based tech support package for $39.95 a month and a fully managed techsupport option for $99 a month, (Don't quote me on the numbers, I'm doing it from memory). It works natively with MT.

Mac

bjohns · Sun Apr 01, 2007 6:49 am

What's the experience been like with Wireless Orbit to date? I'm wondering what the radius reply times are like - ie if they're fairly average in the US then use from Europe/Australia and other parts might be limited due to timeouts.

It's a good concept and I would like to have them as an option for sites that I don't want to manage and need that little bit more than MT's user manager.

wirelessorbit · Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:46 am

We were exchanging emails with a new MT user and he pointed us to your question. I will let others reply as to how they feel about the solution, but wanted to answer your question on latency.

The platform is being used by users from various countries and so far we haven't received any notes about response latency. So we do not think that would be an issue. But then it also depends on the connectivity available at the location..So if there are issues like say, the ISP isn't that reliable etc...then there could be an issue in terms of the packets getting to us and back from us.

If you need an account to check it out we would be happy to set it up for you.

Mactrekr · Fri Apr 20, 2007 2:59 pm

So far, I've got 2 hotspots up and running with wireless orbit and after the first day or two, they've been trouble free. Authentication speed is very quick and my customers are happy.

Mac

satellite_dave · Sat Jun 09, 2007 4:49 am

Hi All,

I started this issue some time ago and i now have 3 hotspots up and running with wirlessorbit..

I like many of you gave up with the mikrotik solution..It is a bit complicated .....

Wirlessorbit seem to have re defined the wheel so to speak.
Extremly happy with them , one or 2 bugs, but ongoing development is ironing out those.

On a support side they are good, the forum is good allso.

best of luck

Satellite dave

8wireless · Sat Jun 09, 2007 2:13 pm

Hi,

I’m keen on using PPPoE and MT's user manager, I don't need automated signup, but I do need accounting. Particularly the ability to limit the amount of traffic a customer downloads / uploads, e.g. limit a customer to 1GB transfer per month, and stop them after they go over 1GB, will the user manager allow me to do this or do I need a radius server? Any suggestions?

Liam.

rwf · Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:57 pm

We are using them on several locations and they work great.
My advise is to not use MT V3 for this though.

Currently it is broken with MT Rls 3, but so is everything else involving Paypal with Rls 3.

When the heck is MT going to fix this walled garden issue?

But as far as Wireless Orbit is concerned, I am very satisfied. Can't wait to test the new version of it.
It has Paypal built in, I hear.

I will know more after next week.

Mactrekr · Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:14 am

Ok, been using Wireless Orbit for a year now, and it rocks. I've got many MT RB133's with Ubiquity WiFi cards attached as hotspots and all are working flawlessly. If anyone needs advice on Wireless Orbit, and MT combos, let me know.

Mac

rwf · Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:53 am

Well- if you have it working with Version 3, please tell!

Thanks

Mactrekr · Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:54 am

Well- if you have it working with Version 3, please tell!

Thanks

Nope, sorry, only v2.9. I may install 3.0 just to try it out on my next install.

Mac

rwf · Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:38 pm

That's where the rub is.
They fixed some of the issues with the latest R3 release, however it still doesn't work.
I'm working on getting our own authorize.net account set up so we don't have to deal with Paypal and the walled garden at all, but until then I am stuck on 2.9.
Whole reason to go to 3.x was to use embedded Dude server and also that the RB333 supports only Rls 3.

Please let me know if you try it on R3

Thanks

Ralph

Mactrekr · Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:15 pm

good to know, I'll definately keep you posted, but it sounds like you're far ahead of me.

sdischer · Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:05 am

If you want a full service solution including end use tech support for hotspots try http://www.nnu.com. They support MT.