Queue System
In order for some of the options configured in Zone Control to be updated on the zoneCD they must be downloaded from the control server and services must be restarted on the zoneCD. In order to make this as easy as possible, a system has been developed that will add updates to a queue in Zone Control while you are configuring your zone. Any updates that are made in Zone Control that require a configuration change on the zoneCD will cause a message to be displayed informing you of pending updates with a description of the action that will be performed. Once you have completed your changes, you can make the queue "active". This will allow the zoneCD to retrieve the instructions from the control server and make the required changes "live".

If the changes required will disrupt your users in any way, a message will be sent to users one minute before the update will be made. This message is sent using Samba client on the zoneCD. The message will inform the user of the pending update and appear personalized with your network name. This popup message will more than likely only be displayed on Widows XP and Windows 2000 clients. It's possible to be displayed on others, but the winpop client is running by default on XP and 2000.

The zoneCD has two very important services running that enable the system to operate as a self-contained wifi gateway. WiFiDog, and Dansguardian.

WiFiDog Captive Portal
For Public IP's premium subscribers, the central feature of the zoneCD is WiFiDog. WiFiDog is an open source captive portal that captures and redirects outbound 'web' traffic to a login page. WiFiDog has been extremely customized to work with the Public IP servers to enable remote configuration, accounting, and usage limits. You can configure the zoneCD to run WiFiDog in many different configurations depending on how much or little control you want of your users.

Aside from security, the most important function of a hotspot system is handling user registration. I have spent a good amount of time creating a system that allows many options for registering new users. User registration can be configured in the following ways:

1. Username/Password
2. Email/Password
3. Validated Email/Password
4. No Public Registration (message displayed with access instructions)
5. Ticket System
6. Shared Usernames
7. Anonymous access with registration
8. Anonymous access without registration
9. Unauthenticated access

No matter what configuration you choose, you will always have access to register users (or generate tickets) from within Zone Control.

WifiDog is configured from Zone Control and the configuration is encrypted and downloaded to the zoneCD during boot or a queue process.

 DansGuardian Content Filtering
DansGuardian is an award winning web content filter for Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Mac OS X, HP-UX, and Solaris that uses Squid to do all the fetching. It filters using multiple methods. These methods include URL and domain filtering, content phrase filtering, PICS filtering, MIME filtering, and file extension filtering.

The zoneCD can be configured to use content filtering in the Protected and/or Liberated User Classes. It can also be completely turned off. The content phrase filtering will check for pages that contain profanities and phrases often associated with pornography and other undesirable content. Content filtering can be turned off for individual users by identifying the user as Liberated, or Trusted in your Zone User administrative page located in Zone Control.

The zoneCD filters :

• Text and HTML pages for obscene (sexual, racial, violent, etc) content.
• Sites using the PICS labeling system.
• According to MIME type and file extension (.exe, .mp3, etc)
• According to Regular Expression URLs.

The filtering basically serves two purposes: 1) It prevents end-users from viewing inappropriate content that could possibly offend your other customers or visitors. 2) It prevents end-users from using all of your bandwidth for downloading music, movies, and programs files by blocking mime types.