Sputnik control center and Sputnik AP 160: Wi-Fi management for the masses.

A strange thing happened when I evaluated the Sputnik Control Center (SCC) and the Sputnik AP 160 access point (AP). I couldn't let go. Literally.

This may be the first product evaluation I've ever written where I couldn't bear to return the product to a vendor, and actually purchased one for my own use. Sputnik has hit a home run with its Wi-Fi management solution. If you're looking for a simple and inexpensive hotspot management system, Sputnik is truly in an orbit of its own. If you've ever considered launching a hotspot or offering public-access Wi-Fi, you should keep reading.

Sputnik lives in a unique product category somewhere between a Cisco solution costing many thousands of dollars and a do-it-yourself solution that requires extensive Linux and wireless experience. With Sputnik, you get the best of both worlds: an inexpensive product with impressive features.

The target market for this product is an organization that doesn't have the money to spend on a more expensive commercial solution, but also doesn't have the technical experience to build its own solution using open-source tools.

Getting more--for less

Let's say you want to provide wireless access in your neighborhood, coffee shop, company, or any public space. Would you like to have a captive portal? In other words, when users associate with your network, do you want to display your logo and information about your organization, regardless of what URL they initially request? Do you want users to have to click through a Terms of Service (ToS) agreement so you're protected from legal liability when nefarious users attempt to launch attacks from your network? How about managing dozens (or hundreds) of access points--wouldn't it be nice to see a list of all of your APs and who is connected to them? Would you find it useful to have reports that show you which APs or users consume the most bandwidth and at what times traffic is heaviest?

If it sounds like I've just described a $20,000 Wi-Fi management platform, you're right! But with Sputnik, you can do all this and more for a fraction of the price. This is one of those Holy Grail products that harnesses the power of Linux to create a product that brings powerful and compelling features into the hands of the masses. Figure 1 shows how it works.

The Sputnik lineup

In addition to Control Center, Sputnik offers three Sputnik-powered access points:

AP 120--An entry-level 802.11b indoor access point

AP 160--An enhanced 802.11g indoor AP that includes a four-port router/gateway, DHCP, NAT, port forwarding, WDS, and a detachable antenna

AP 200--An 802.11b outdoor device that includes a high-power 200mW radio, with Power-over-Ethernet, WDS, and detachable antenna port, all in a rugged, NEMA outdoor enclosure

A "Sputnik-powered" device is an AP that has been re flashed with the Sputnik Agent firmware. Sputnik has aggressive plans to port this agent to other access points. (Note: As of press time, the AP 200 doesn't have a complete Sputnik Agent port; it works in conjunction with an AP 160 either via a Cat5 cable or WDS.) Although a Sputnik-powered AP can operate as a standalone device, you must use it in conjunction with SCC to achieve all the product functionality (such as captive portal, user registration, etc).

Captive portal and (optional) user registration

Among the most impressive features of the Sputnik system is the captive portal and optional user registration feature. This feature lets you create a simple splash page users see when they first associate with your Sputnik AP and launch a Web browser. In Sputnik Control Center, you can define captive portal templates by uploading a logo (any .JPG or .GIF graphic image) and entering a "message of the day," which appears under your logo. You might use this message to greet your guests or promote products and specials.

After users log in, you can redirect them to the URL of your choice, or simply forward them to the original URL they requested. If you have multiple APs, you can apply a different template to each AP (or the same template to every AP). This kind of flexibility lets you present a customized portal to customers at Hotspot A, and a different portal for customers at Hotspot B, if you so choose.

Managing the templates is a piece of cake, thanks to the intuitive look and feel of the Sputnik Control Center browser interface.

Eliminating Wi-Fi "Squatters"

The Sputnik Plug-In for Pre-Paid Cards lets you enforce time-based access controls in your hotspot environment. Perhaps you're afraid that offering unlimited Wi-Fi will result in customers "camping out" in your establishment. Or, maybe you're just looking for a way to sell a metered service. Either way, the Plug-In for Pre-Paid Cards is your solution.

Just upload a .csv file with your chosen one-time use codes and the time limits. Each code can have its own time limits. You can configure the time limits to expire after a predetermined number of minutes from the login (e.g., 30 minutes after the first login, even if the customer only stayed online for two minutes), or to carry over into multiple sessions so your customers can "spend" their minutes over a period of time (e.g. 10 minutes today, 5 minutes tommorrow, and 15 minutes next week).

Next, you can take your list of codes and print up business cards, make up fancy coupons, or do whatever you please! It's up to you if you'd like to sell the cards or give them away for free (perhaps as a purchase incentive). At coffee shops and other eating establishments, a popular scenario is to offer free Wi-Fi access with the purchase of a beverage.

UpShot

Sputnik provides a complete wireless ecosystem to give you convenient, organized, and feature-rich hotspot management at a price thousands of dollars below the competition. Sputnik AP 120, AP 160, and AP 200 provide multiple deployment options so you can tailor your device choices to each particular implementation. Setting up the devices is a snap, and you'll be up and running within minutes.

It's a small point, but something to consider: Non-Linux shops have something to think about before choosing the Sputnik solution. Running your own Linux server is not a trivial task if you don't already have the skills in-house to do so. You'll also have to buy PC hardware.

Whether you're deploying a small, single-location hotspot, or a large distributed wireless ISP (WISP), Sputnik gives you the ability to quickly provision, monitor, and manage a diverse range of deployment scenarios. The captive portal feature is superb, and the built-in registration option streamlines the user management process.

Finally, the reporting feature lets you track usage by user, AP, or both. Because the entire platform is built on open and published LDAP/SQL interfaces, you can extend Sputnik functionality and integrate it into your own systems.

All things considered, Sputnik is out of this world!

ADVISORY[R] EVAL[TM]

BUSINESS BENEFITS

This "hotspot-in-a-box" solution gives you all the tools you need to get up and running--at an extremely reasonable price.

(+) Easy to deploy and use

(+) Inexpensive compared to other commercial solutions

(+) Open Schema LDAP and SQL interfaces

(+) Excellent captive portal, user registration, and reporting features

(-) Requires operation and maintenance of a back-end Linux server

Sputnik, Inc.

http://www/sputnik.com

Sputnik Control Center and Sputnik AP 160

$150 for Sputnik Control Center and Plug Ins (one AP License)

$295 for the Sputnik Plug-In for Pre-Paid Cards.

$165 for Sputnik AP 120

$185 for Sputnik AP 160

$220 for Sputnik AP 200

Alternatively, you can purchase kits that include 2, 3, 5, 10, or 20 access points (including the Sputnik Control Center license) at a significant discount.

REPORTS: Real-time and historical AP bandwidth usage in hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly durations

SECURITY: WEP, WPA, and VPN pass-through

OPERATING SYSTEM: Requires Red Hat 9.0 or higher