Frequently Asked Questions

 

Q: So what other than a router and the chillifire software do I need?
Q: Does it have to be a Linksys WRT54GL router?
Q: How will I get my share of the money earned on my hotspot?
Q: Which currencies can I use to charge my customers?
Q: How much are users charged per access? Do users have hourly, daily, weekly options?
Q: How can end-users make payments?
Q: Can I offer differing pricing options?
Q: Are users charged per bandwidth?
Q: Can users roam from chillifire hotspot to hotspot?
Q: How can I display my own logo and text on the chillifire screens?
Q: I run chillifire as Hotspot Business solution and want my own branding also to appear. Can that be done?
Q: I don’t like the chillifre brand. Can we run solution run under our own brand?
Q: Can I get users to land on my homepage or website first and then go to the chillifire login page?
Q: Can I get users free access to my own web page/site (aka. walled garden)?
Q: Can I redirect users to something else than the homepage?
Q: How far does the router cover my premises? Can I cover a whole apartment complex/hotel/condo?
Q: How do keywords for the browser work?
Q: What is the maximum number of concurrent a hotspot users?

 

Getting Started

Q: So what other than a router and the chillifire software do I need?

A: For the very simple /Managed Hotspots’ plan all you need (other than the router with our software) is a broadband internet connection through you favorite Internet Service Provider (ISP), cable company, telecommunications provider, or … Providing the broadband internet access is your responsibility as plans, prices, regulations and technical standards differ widely from country to country. Please make sure your provider allows the on-sale of your connection to third parties (as that is effectively what you are doing – most providers allow this, some don’t.
We recommend you enter a plan with unlimited data transfer amounts to avoid additional costs, in case you run over a data transfer limit. This way you mitigate a risk of eroding your profits through excessive data transfer.

Q: Does it have to be a Linksys WRT54GL router?

A: Yes, it has to be that router, or an old Linksys WRT54G version 1 through to 4 (they are no longer produced by Linksys). Any other router will most likely be destroyed. We are working on another version of chillifire, which will run on other models as well, but this is work in progress (and may be for a while).

Money transfers

Q: How will I get my share of the money earned on my hotspot?

A: Once you have opened an account you can access our management system on https://login01.chillifire.net/login and manage your account and your hotspots. In the account screen you can maintain the banking information you would like to receive your funds. We can do direct bank transfers in Australia and New Zealand, anywhere in the EU, and we use PayPal for the Americas (or whoever else prefers PayPal). In fact, you can freely choose which kind of account you receive the funds in.

In the billing section of the same system you can also see all the transaction that occurred on your hotspot(s), so you retain some control over what is going on.

Q: Which currencies can I use to charge my customers?

A: Any currency the PayPal payemnt gateway allows. At the time of writing these are:

New Zealand Dollar

Australian Dollar

British Pound

Canadian Dollar

Czech Koruna

Danish Krone

Euro

Hong Kong Dollar

Hungarian Forint

Japanese Yen

Norwegian Krone

Polish Zloty

Singapore Dollar

Swedish Krona

Swiss Franc

U.S. Dollar

If you are using your own PayPal account to run the Payment Gateway, you need to ensure that all currencies you wish to accept, have a been activated.

Q: How much are users charged per access? Do users have hourly, daily, weekly options?

A: The charges based on the standard plans depends on currency, as one US dollar is different in value to a Pound Sterling, which in turn is different to an Australian dollar. And yes, hourly, daily, weekly charges are offered. You can have a look at the USD charges at https://login01.chillifire.net/getonline. The actual currency charge to the customer can be set per hotspot account. The AUD, NZD, EUR and GBP charges are the equivalent to what you see with the USD charges.
But that is the standard charge plans only. Once you have opened an account you can create your own plans as you see fit.

Q: How can end-users make payments?

A: Payments are always made online. No messy tickets or coupon, which has to be sold by you or your staff (which is not the reason why you are in business, right?) Payment can be made either via credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Diner) or with your PayPal account. Other payment gateways will be considered for future releases, if strong customer request warrants the effort.

Pricing options

 

 

 

 

Q: Can I offer differing pricing options?

A: Chillifire comes with a set of pre-configured pricing options for a number of different currencies that we believe work well in their context. If you wish to offer different pricing options you can do so, no problem. You will need to enter them in the backend system and as soon as you have maintained at least one account specific price option, your pricing option will replace the standard ones.

Q: Are users charged per bandwidth?

A: No, users are charged by time. To prevent opportunist claiming inordinate amounts of bandwidth, we have limited up and download bandwidth for the two cheapest options, as well as the overall data transfer amount. In our experience this kind of predatory behavior is not observed in customers purchasing longer access packages (4 hours or longer). The chosen limits for the smaller packages will still give your clients a primo email-check or general-browsing experience.

Q: Can users roam from chillifire hotspot to hotspot?

A: Yes, they can – a huge selling argument for larger time packages.

Branding

 

 

 

 

Q: How can I display my own logo and text on the chillifire screens?

A: Once you have created an account, you can link your own logo and your own business slogan (up to 256 characters) to your account. These will be displayed during the entire purchasing and access process the user goes through. They will certainly know who they buy the access time from.
In addition you may wish to consider to direct potential users not directly to the login page but to your own web page with a link to the chillifire hotspot login page (see first question under ‘Technical options’)

Q: I run chillifire as Hotspot Business solution and want my own branding also to appear. Can that be done?

A: Yes, if you link your own logo and slogan to your affiliate account, these will be displayed in the chillifire screens as well.

Q: I don’t like the chillifre brand. Can we run solution run under our own brand?

A: Yes you can. You need to run chillifire as a Corporate Hotspot Solution. This will give you additional advantages such as your own servers, you own database and you own ‘skin’. The skin is the appearance of your hotspot login and access time sales web pages - with your own logo and your own color scheme.

Technical questions

 

 

 

 

Q: Can I get users to land on my homepage or website first and then go to the chillifire login page?

A: Normally unauthenticated users are forwarded to the chillifire login screen. If you wish to redirect to another web page (i.e. your own website) you can maintain this as UAM homepage in the configuration section of your router (see configuration guide for details).
This web page you first display could show information about the hotspot, advertising or tourist information and must include a link to: http://192.168.182.1:3990/prelogin in order to allow the users to log in to chillifire.

Q: Can I get users free access to my own web page/site (aka. walled garden)?

A: Yes, this can be done. Free access to your own website can be combined with the previous option which enables the user to browse to a number of predefined web sites without first authenticating and thus without having to pay. Like the previous option you can configure this yourself as UAMallowed on your router. (see configuration guide for details).

Q: Can I redirect users to something else than the homepage?

As standard Chillifire redirects users to their configured homepage once they have been successfully authenticated. To force redirect to a different web page requires some set up on our authentication servers and your own account. In essence, it can be done, so please contact us, if this is a requirement, once you have installed the relevant router.

Q: How far does the router cover my premises? Can I cover a whole apartment complex/hotel/condo?

A: Coverage depends very much on circumstances and essentially the building or the topology of the terrain in which you wish to provide internet access. Go to wireless router manufacturer’s websites and you will find either none or heavily disclaimed information only. I think this is understandable though, as they try to avoid setting false expectations. In practice 10-15 meters indoors coverage should be realistic. Imagine a huge 10-15 meter radius doughnut around your wireless router and you have an idea about coverage of one router. NB: With distance of you router signal strength does decrease and consequently data transmission speed.

So yes, larger building such as hotels/condos/offices etc. can be covered, but more than one router may be required. In such cases each router needs its own ESSID (= Extended Service Set ID. The ESSID is the identifying name of a wireless network - strictly it is the identifying name of a wireless access point. It allows one wireless network to be clearly distinguishable from another). This can be either be set up by yourself, if you wish. We can do this for you on your request, once the routers are connected to the internet and the chillifire software is installed. Alternatively you can purchase a set of routers from us, each preconfigured with their own ESSIDs as you need them for your specific locality. Just email us with your request; we can also give you advice on how much routers you will need, if you send us a floor plan of your premises.

Q: How do keywords for the browser work?

A: If the pop-up has been lost the user can return to the logout/login page by typing either "logout" or “exit” in the browser’s URL address field. If the user is logged out but want to login again, she needs to type http://192.168.182.1:3990/prelogin into the address field of the browser (and press return).

Q: What is the maximum number of concurrent a hotspot users?

A: It is 265 users per hotspot. Contact us, if you require more – it can be increased to 4093 per hotspot quite easily. .