We’ve written about the dilemma of offering free public wi-fi before, which really amounts to the simple the fact that there’s always a couple of customers who chew up the quota downloading German latex fetish movies or the entire back catalogue of The Fall… and blow it for everyone for the entire month!
The result of this has been an altogether patchy, on-again-off-again wi-fi service within the store. And while we haven’t worked out how to keep the latex fetishists or Mark E. Smith enthusiasts at bay just yet, we have created a dedicated free Wi-Fi zone on The Third Floor in our Elizabeth Street store in Melbourne.
We’ve blocked the necessary ports (so video downloaders won’t chew up all the bandwith) and put in some chairs, so you’ll now be able to Internet to your heart’s content… hallelujah!
You need a WiFi router that will throttle on a per-client basis.
There are quite a few potential solutions to this problem, including:
1. Externalise the management to someone like Internode: https://hotspot.internode.on.net/pdf/get-internode-wireless-hotspot.pdf
They’ll do it for free if you qualify (I’m pretty sure you would)
N.B. There are plenty of companies that will install in your space if you want to charge customers and take a cut – I’m ignoring those from these suggestions
2. Get a WiFi router that supports per-connection throttling. The trouble with this approach is you limit the maximum speed as well. Even a permanent 256k connection could still cause the quota issues you’re talking about whilst also providing a crap enough service that users would notice.
3. Run your system through a server that supports per-connection bandwidth throttling. (Basically, it forces all traffic through a proxy server and you set the limits on that – I’m used to DIY linux+squid, but I’m pretty sure something like: http://www.chillispot.info/ would get you what you need
4. Use enterprise class stuff – e.g. http://meraki.com/ — a good option if you want features, wireless N (increased range and throughput), multiple access points & minimal management.
I’d be looking at option 1 first, then if that fails or you want more coverage look at 3 or 4.
Hope that helps,
David Kellam