• A visitor to your wireless network turns on their notebook computer
• Your network name appears in the list of available wireless networks
• The visitor launches their browser
• The browser is redirected to your company's login page
• The visitor logs in and is granted specific access permissions

Visitor Access with Complete Peace of Mind 

People visiting your site can be granted temporary guest access to the Internet through the wireless network without compromising the integrity of the core Ethernet network. When a Connect EZ Solution Suite provides Guest Escort visitor supervision, a login screen is presented to the visitor. They are authenticated based on various standards-based methods. Guest Escort can be used to provide Internet and Email access for visitors, temporary general wireless network access for remote employees visiting a headquarters location, or for on-the-spot customer acquisition and accounting that can be tied into a billing system for Hot Spot implementation.

This feature is of great practical benefit in providing a wireless Internet connection to temporary visitors not authorized to access corporate files or resources. Such visitors might include customers, sales representatives, OEM partners and suppliers, job candidates in for interviews, new hires attending training activities on your site, employees visiting from other locations in your firm, and so forth. To use the public port, visitors must provide a username and password. Once they log on, public port users get Internet access for a limited duration that is configurable. This means you have selective control over who will be able to use the public port, and for how long. The public port feature identifies all visiting users, assigns dynamic IP addresses from its internal DHCP server, grants them Internet access through an isolated uplink port, and sends all their traffic through that port using a reserved SSID/VLAN pair.

EZ Guest Escort in the Connect EZ Solution Suite Packages

EZ Guest Escort with Connect EZ Solution Suites can divide users into two (or more) categories, for example: trusted and guest. Guests are allowed to access the Internet (to browse, check email, and transfer files) while trusted users are additionally allowed to access file servers, printers, and other resources on the wired, local Ethernet network.

How Does It Work?

When a user has wireless networking active in their computer the Windows operating system presents an icon on the desktop taskbar representing the user's wireless network interface card. In addition, the Properties for the My Network Places icon presents a list of available network connections. Using these standard Window's features, the user is presented with a list of available wireless networks. With EZ Guest Escort services there will be two different wireless networks available. One of these will be the in-house network intended for trusted users only. At Connect802 this network is called, "CONNECT802". Accessing this network will, typically, require that the user obtain, and enter, an encryption key (provided by the local network manager). Users who select the trusted network will be authenticated and their conversations will be encrypted, private, and secure.

Guests will select the network name intended for visitor access. At Connect802 this network is called, "C802 VISITORS". There is no encryption for the visitor's conversations and, consequently, they don't have to make any configuration changes to their machines. They are assigned a temporary IP network address at the time they connect and they can now access the Internet. Optionally, the user's connection can be intercepted by the EZ Guest Escort gateway and the user can be presented with a login screen (as shown above). The Username could be something as simple as, "guest" (with a password of "guest") to simply keep the neighbors from accessing the Internet connection. Usernames could be unique to each user, or user group, as well. When a Username and Password are used the user will be required to open their web browser, at which time the login screen will be automatically presented.