Setting up a Mikrotik Hotspot with UserManager (Step-By-Step)

Mikrotik RouterOS provides a very powerful Hotspot Feature. This can be used with the Mikrotik built in Radius server (Userman) or with a remote Radius/Freeradius Server.

You will need:

Mikrotik RouterBOARD:

• Level 4 or better licence (Lower licences will allow only a single Hotspot client)
• RouterOS 6.x (5.x will also work, but this tutorial is based on v6.7)

The network will be configured as below. You may need to adjust the IP Addresses to suit your needs

Notes:
The RouterBOARD CPU and RAM will directly affect the performance of your Hotspot, so consider beforehand how many clients you wish to connect.
A RouterBOARD 750 can comfortably run about 25-50 users.
In my example I will use a RouterBOARD 532 with one 2.4ghz WLAN card

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Middle Earth in Minecraft

If you have been living in hole in the ground, you might have missed the cultural and online phenomenon that is Minecraft. If not you will know that it is one of the most innovative and interesting games to be created since the birth of computer gaming.

Now if you combine Minecraft with the world of JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you will find yourself in the magical world of Middle Earth. Follow in the footsteps of the fellowship, and help to bring the world to life by participating in projects.

Visit http://www.mcmiddleearth.com/ to join in.

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Headless Ubuntu 12.04 Server

I deploy headless Ubuntu 12.04 server configurations on a regular basis. One of the things that I often forget to do is modifying Grub to try to boot every time regardless of whether or not previous boots were successful.
If you forget to do this, the server might get stuck at the Grub boot screen, forcing you to connect a keyboard and screen to get it going again.

Thankfully Grub 2 has made this a bit easier:

Log in to your server as root or use sudo,

$vim /etc/default/grub

Add the line:

GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=10

Update the grub configuration:

$update-grub2

The timeout value is in seconds, I use 10 seconds since that gives me ample time to enter recovery mode should it be necessary.

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Raspberry PI based FreeRadius Server with GUI

I run a small wireless network for a non-profit organization in my home town, it consists of a single high site with internet connectivity, with nine client sites connecting via wireless. The network is built with Ubiquiti hardware, with a Mikrotik 750 handling the routing. I also use this network for experimentation and learning. One of the things that I have been keen on doing is managing it as though it is a commercial network in terms of the network architecture. To this end I have decided to deploy a Raspberrry Pi based Radius server for PPPoE Authentication. The Mikrotik will serve as the PPPoE server, and the Raspberry Pi Radius server will be managed with DaloRADIUS. The instructions below should be easy to use on any Debian based distro.

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