Sputnik Credit Cards/PayPal Module End-User Demo

Step 1: Multiple authentication methods

Here is how an end-user obtains wireless Internet access using a pre-paid card, or by paying with their PayPal Account or credit card.

The first thing to notice is that you can have multiple authentication methods assigned to a captive portal.

Warp 9 Wi-Fi, the example service provider, provides fee-based Wi-Fi service. They want end-users to have the flexibility of paying with credit cards or their PayPal Accounts. In addition, Warp 9 gives out pre-paid cards as promotional items.

Therefore, Warp 9 uses two authentication policies, shown here: “PrePaid Card” and “Credit Card or PayPal”. Warp 9 either would have added the Sputnik Module for Pre-Paid Cards and the Sputnik Module for Credit Cards/PayPal to their Sputnik Control Center server, or they would simply subscribe to SputnikNet.

Additionally, Warp 9 gives out pre-paid cards as a promotional item. If the customer has a Warp 9 pre-paid card, they can enter the appropriate username and password, as shown here, and start browsing.

Step 2: Signing on with a paid account

If the customer already has an account that they paid for, they click on “Credit Card or PayPal”, enter their username and password, and login.

All of the text and copy on the captive portal pages, such as this one, can be customized.

Step 3: Signing up a new paid account

If the customer doesn’t have an account, they choose their preferred login ID and password, and click “Proceed to Purchase”.

Step 4: Automatic login

If the end user wants to skip future logins, they can click on “Automatically recognize my computer or wireless card”. Once they have paid for their account, they system will recognize the MAC address of their wireless card and enable them to login automatically.

Step 5: Choosing a billing plan

The customer can now choose among the various billing options set up by Warp 9. The service provider has complete control over the duration and price of all of the offerings.

Tip: looking for recurring billing, e.g. monthly? Check out the Sputnik Module for Aria Billing.

Step 6: Payment options

The customer can now choose whether they want to pay by credit card or via PayPal. They do not need a PayPal account, nor do they need to provide an email address, to pay.

Note: PayPal uses a browser cookie to display a different page depending upon whether the customer previously made a PayPal payment. If they have not previously made a PayPal payment using their browser, or if they have cleared their browser cookies since then, they’ll see the following:

If they have used PayPal to make payments with their browser, they’ll see the following instead. It defaults to the last PayPal Account used, but still presents a credit card payment option (highlighted with a red arrow):

If they click on the “Click Here” button, indicating that they don’t have a PayPal Account, they’ll see the following page. They can then pay with their credit card without signing up for a PayPal Account:

Step 7: Paying with a credit card

If the customer wants to pay by credit card, they enter standard credit card and billing address information here.

Step 8: Paying with PayPal

Or, the customer can use their PayPal account (or sign up for a new one) to pay.

Step 9: Payment confirmation

Once the credit card or PayPal payment is approved, the customer sees a confirmation screen. PayPal merchants can use PayPal merchant tools to establish branding on PayPal screens (not shown, here).

Step 10: Login confirmation

The customer is automatically routed to a screen confirming that their account has been created, they’ve successfully logged in, and that they’re ready to access the Internet.

Step 11: Monitoring access

The customer sees a pop-up Window that shows how much time they’ve used and how much bandwidth they’ve consumed. The customer can logout of their session at any time.

Note: if the customer has pop-up blocking on, they will not see this window unless they click on the “Monitor Session” button on the previous screen. If the Session Monitor window is not available, the system will log them out automatically after an admin configurable idle time.