Any free software for creating paid WIFI hotspot? [closed]

Anyone know free software (or very cheap) for creating paid access to WIFI - with tokens mechanism?

Can be on Linux, or Windows...

I have a small Hostel and I want to create paid access to wifi (like 1$ for hour).

Solution 1:

The most popular replacement firmware for relatively common routers, OpenWrt and dd-wrt, do provide support for establishing hotspots. There is quite a lot of documentation on this to be found on their respective Wikis:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Chillispot

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Captive_Portal#Provider

A lot of what was once quite hard to do, has been packaged up by EasyHotspot into an all in one hotspot management system.

Solution 2:

Not exactly what you asked for, as it's not based on tokens, but: you could join FON, and open up your (cheap^†) Fonera router for paid access (not limited to you own guests, if the Wifi range is good).

A software solution I never tried, and which seems a bit hard to set up for a regular user, is CoovaChilli. It needs a WPA Enterprise router, and then offers authentication services to selectively --through a so-called captive portal-- share your access point.

^†Old Fonera routers are just €30, the newest €79 / $99.

Solution 3:

HotSpotPA is a hosted solution that costs under $99 per router. It is software that runs on both Linksys and Ubiquiti router hardware. Because it is hosted it doesn't require any Windows or Linux software, all the behind-the-scenes authentication and payment processing is done by the HotSpotPA company through an encrypted VPN that is built into the router. No tokens though, it requires the customer to use credit cards or PayPal.