Captive Portal

April 22, 2021
A captive portal is a stub site in an operator’s network. It allows subscribers to refill their accounts when the balance is 0 or negative. As a rule, a subscriber is granted access to payment systems and banks; sometimes to a provider’s official site as well, with operations limited by a list of protocols. Captive portal is also used for authorization in open Wi-Fi networks.

How it works

Subscriber’s HTTP/HTTPS session gets captured, and a subscriber is redirected to Captive portal. After an authorization condition is met (account refilled or identification passed), a subscriber is able to go online.

Captive Portal addressesк the RADIUS server, which is used for resources allocation: connection time limit (session timeout), speed, traffic volume, and accounting.

How it works in wireless networks

Today the legislation of almost all countries requires mandatory user identification in such networks. A tool for it can be a mobile phone (receiving an access code via text message or incoming call), login and password, or authorization in a certain service or social network.

In this scenario, the cookie session is logged to a user device and stays saved for 24 hours. This allows accessing a network with no repetitive identification, while a user gets redirected to an initially requested web resource.

Stingray SG allows the flexible setup of Captive portal look, where a client company corporate design, logo, and favicon can be used.