Objective

Captive Portal is a feature that allows an administrator to block clients connected to the Wireless Access Point (WAP) network. Clients see a special web page for authentication purposes before they are allowed to use the Internet normally. Captive Portal verification is for both guests and authenticated users of the network. This feature makes use of the web browser and turns it into an authentication device. Captive portals are specially used at many Wi-Fi hotspots to charge users to get access to the Internet.

Captive Portal configuration has these elements:

- Global Captive Portal Configuration — This page is used to control the administrative state of the Captive Portal feature and to configure global settings that will affect all captive portal instances configured on the WAP device. To know more about global configuration on the captive portal, click here.

- Instance Configuration — Captive portal instances are defined sets of configuration that are used to authenticate clients on the WAP network. A maximum of two different instances can be configured to respond differently to users as they attempt to access the associated virtual access point. To know more about instance configuration on captive portal, click here.

- Instance Association — Captive portal instances are defined sets of configuration that are used to authenticate clients on the WAP network. These instances must be associated with Virtual Access Points (VAP). A maximum of two different instances can be configured to respond differently to users as they attempt to access the associated virtual access point. VAPs are segmented wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) in multiple broadcast domains that are wireless equivalents of Ethernet Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs). This allows multiple access points to be simulated in one physical WAP device. To know more about instance association on captive portal, click here.

- Local Groups — In captive portal each local user is assigned to a user group and each group is assigned to a captive portal instance. The group helps to manage the assignment of users to captive portal instance. The default group is already present and cannot be deleted. Two additional user groups can be created.

- Local Users — The Local Users page is used to configure either guest users or authorized users. Apart from guest users, authorized users must provide a valid username and password to access the WAP network. To know more about local users configuration on captive portal, click here.

This article shows you how to configure the local groups in captive portal on the WAP321 Access Point.

Applicable Devices

- WAP321

Software Version

- 1.0.6.5

Configure Captive Portal Groups

Add Captive Portal Group

Note: The default user group in the Captive Portal Groups is Default and cannot be deleted.

Step 1. Log in to the access point web-based utility and choose Captive Portal > Local Groups.

Step 2. In the Local Groups area, choose Create from the Captive Portal Groups drop-down list to create a new local group.

Step 3. Under Captive Portal Group Parameters, enter a name for the local group in the Group Name field.

Note: In this example, FirstGroup is used as the local group name.

Step 4. Click Save.

The specified captive portal group has now been successfully added.

Note: A non-guest captive portal requires users to log in based on their username and password. The WAP creates a local group that contains a group of local users. The local group is then attached to an instance. Local users that are a member of the local group are able to gain access through the captive portal.

Delete Captive Portal Group

Step 1. To delete a group, choose the name of the group from the Captive Portal Groups drop-down list.

Note: In this example, SecondGroup is chosen.

Step 2. Check the Delete Group check box.

Step 3. Click Save.

The specified captive portal group has now been successfully deleted.

You should now have successfully configured the local groups in captive portal on the WAP321 Access Point.