Controllerless Networks

Hi Everyone,

My organization currently uses Aruba IAPs (335s and 535s) with each site having it's own VC. Up until now, I have configured our Guest networks to use the Captive Portal that is hosted on the VC itself (Internal - Acknowledged), but my director has a request where the CP needs to look cleaner (like Starbucks) and have the legal/acceptable terms of use hosted on a separate webpage.

I tried to work this through by cleaning up the CP to make it look cleaner, and I used HTML to add a hyperlink to a webpage that one of my organization's developer created for me to host the Acceptable Terms of User. However, when I click on the link on the portal, I kept getting redirected Aruba login page. The webpage is hosted on our site that is external, and I can't create a webpage in our internal network because I  am using ACLs on the VCs to block access to all RFC 1918 subnets. I just want Guests to access the internet only. Furthermore, to prevent internal name lookups, I configured DHCP for the Guest network to use Google DNS.

So, the conundrum that I am at is that the Acceptable Terms of Use cannot be accessed, and having the redirection to that page after the CP acceptance is not desired, since guests will want to read it before accepting.

This is where I started to look into External Captive Portals, but my management wants to host it ourselves, and not pay to have someone else host it. I was wondering if anybody would have any ideas or guidance on what I can use for deploying a Captive Portal server? I'm thinking going Linus/apache but I don't have a clue about spinning up a Captive Portal server.

I have read this document about integrating External CP on Instant. I would appreciate any insight or advice.

Regards,

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Gurinder Purewal
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A long time ago i did some test with a simple script to built my own captive-portal.
I post my scripts attached. Not perfect but hope it give you some idea.

Aruba ClearPass is the best choice and can do a lot more, for example with a self-onboarding portal. And you can also use it to make your corperate network wifi and wired access more secure with certificate based authentication (what should be the standard for any enterprise company's. But it's not for free ;)


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Marcel Koedijk | MVP Guru 2021 | ACEP | ACMP | ACCP | ACDP | Ekahau ECSE | Not an HPE Employee | Opionions are my own
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Original Message:
Sent: Dec 11, 2021 12:43 AM
From: Gurinder Purewal
Subject: Ideas for hosted

Hi Everyone,

My organization currently uses Aruba IAPs (335s and 535s) with each site having it's own VC. Up until now, I have configured our Guest networks to use the Captive Portal that is hosted on the VC itself (Internal - Acknowledged), but my director has a request where the CP needs to look cleaner (like Starbucks) and have the legal/acceptable terms of use hosted on a separate webpage.

I tried to work this through by cleaning up the CP to make it look cleaner, and I used HTML to add a hyperlink to a webpage that one of my organization's developer created for me to host the Acceptable Terms of User. However, when I click on the link on the portal, I kept getting redirected Aruba login page. The webpage is hosted on our site that is external, and I can't create a webpage in our internal network because I  am using ACLs on the VCs to block access to all RFC 1918 subnets. I just want Guests to access the internet only. Furthermore, to prevent internal name lookups, I configured DHCP for the Guest network to use Google DNS.

So, the conundrum that I am at is that the Acceptable Terms of Use cannot be accessed, and having the redirection to that page after the CP acceptance is not desired, since guests will want to read it before accepting.

This is where I started to look into External Captive Portals, but my management wants to host it ourselves, and not pay to have someone else host it. I was wondering if anybody would have any ideas or guidance on what I can use for deploying a Captive Portal server? I'm thinking going Linus/apache but I don't have a clue about spinning up a Captive Portal server.

I have read this document about integrating External CP on Instant. I would appreciate any insight or advice.

Regards,

------------------------------
Gurinder Purewal
------------------------------