Frequently asked questions
How to use it ? ADIPSYS indirectly sells its solutions (BtoBtoB). We actually sells our solutions to a network of integrators, operators and distributors. Then they will sell our solutions to end users which are for example hotel owners, city representative, CIO, school director, etc.
Starting from this premise, we understood that the questions asked by an operator are not the same as those asked by an integrator. We also realized that the needs of an integrator/operator are also different from the ones asked by a distributor. Thus we have developed this very detailed FAQ in which you will find :
- The specific answers to the questions of your expertise and industry.
- We have also developed a lexicon allowing you to understand our technical jargon.
- In addition, we have added questions about our solutions (functionality, compatibility, price, free trial, training, hosting, set up, support).
- Finally, in the context of the multiplication of laws concerning Hotspot Wi-Fi, we have also written a specific insert to answer your questions about the subject.
Operators
If you choose to host our solutions on your own server, high availability is possible provided you have 3 servers
We offer you the possibility to host our solutions on your own server. You must have a VMware infrastructure and you must have the internal skills and time to operate the infrastructure (installation, update, monitoring, security, etc.).
You sell Wi-Fi connections to your business clients. ADIPSYS allows you to add to the Wi-Fi a layer of managed services with added value. Increasingly aware of the security of personal data and the challenges of Big Data, your customers are looking for tools to enable them to be in legal compliance, while allowing them to collect the personal data of their clients/guests/users. The solutions developed by ADIPSYS meet these needs. So you can offer to your clients a package including a hardware Wi-Fi infrastructure and a software service platform. What’s more, ADIPSYS offers you an interesting and competitive pricing allowing you to win all your deals
Yes, many of our customers are operators. We first sell them our solutions. Then they sell them to their own own clients. Click on operators / integrators to see which operators trust us
Integrators
We know that, as integrators, you are deploying infrastructures at multiple clients and you need a software and online solution accessible from all browser. Thanks to this solution, you could remotely and centrally manage all the hotspots you have deployed. This solutions should be compatible with almost all builders of Wi-Fi terminals of the market in order to take into account all the different technologies. Moreover this solution should be 100% software without any hardware to install in the establishment of your clients. This will significantly reduce the risks or breakdown and will save you valuable time. Great new ! Our solution meet all your expectations !
Yes, we work with integrators who then resell our solutions to their clients. Their clients are hotel restaurant, shops, malls, hospitals, schools, cities, companies, etc. We invite you to click on operators / integrators, to see which integrators trust us
Site manager
Today more and more establishments offer free public Wi-Fi. Indeed, if your establishment is in a zone where the 4G is good, your users will prefer to use their 4G rather than paying to enjoy your charged Wi-Fi. On the other hand, you can choose to offer a charged Wi-Fi if your establishment is in a black spot, or an area where 3G and 4G are nearly non-existent. Your users will have no choice but to pay for Wi-Fi if they want to go on the internet. Finally, you can also choose to offer free access up to a certain limit. the user will then have to pay.
Traditionally, we do not go in for direct selling. In fact we work in BtoBtoC. We go through a network of integrators, operators and distributors to sell our solutions. We invite you to contact our sales team so that we can redirect you to the most appropriate integrators / operators given your project. You can, if you wish, directly contact one of our clients among operators / integrators / resellers, listed in the category “partner” in the main menu
Wi-Fi Hotspots and legislation
The anti-terrorist law, passed in January 2006, obliges site managers to keep certain traffic data, including logs. The Logview solution responds to this need and allows you to comply with this decree.
Our solutions help you to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We wrote a white paper explaining all the changes we made (https, CGI, etc.). You are invited to read it directly on your account. No account yet? Create in one!
When a web site address (URL) starts with https://, it means that the web site you are about to navigate on is 100% secure (no risk of hacking data, etc.). All the captive portals you will create thanks to our solutions, are https:// to ensure the maximum security of the personal data of your clients
By offering public Wi-Fi, you are responsible if a user illegally downloads content like a movie for example. You must secure your Wi-Fi by filtering illegal download sites. Our DNS Protect solution meet this need.
By providing a public Wi-Fi access to your clients/employees, you become a Wi-Fi operator and will have to respect a variety of rules. You must :
- Report to ARCEP (the French Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts) your establishment as a place where a public Wi-Fi connection is offered
- Be able to authenticate all connections to your Wi-Fi via a captive portal. Our solution Hotspot Manager meets this requirement.
- Keep some log data for one year. Our Logview solution meets this requirement.
- Be in compliance with the Hadopi law by filtering illegal websites. Our DNS Protect solution meets this requirement.
SSID means Service Set Identifier. It is the name of a Wi-Fi network. This name appears when you search for a Wi-Fi network on your devices. This name allows the Wi-Fi user to easily recognize the Wi-Fi network of your establishment, coffee shop, city, business office. We advise you to choose a sufficiently explicit SSID to be easily find.
A Wi-Fi terminal, also known as AP (Access Point) is used to relay Wi-Fi anywhere in your facility. You will have to install more or less Wi-Fi terminals depending on the size of your site and the number of connected people. Our pricing (license fee and variable costs) is based on the number of Wi-Fi terminals you have installed, whereas our competitors base their pricing on the connection’s number by AP.
The Wi-Fi controller and the Wi-Fi terminal are two different components with specific fonctions. The Wi-Fi controller is the source of the Wi-Fi stream in your establishment. In other words, without a Wi-Fi controller, no Wi-Fi connection would be possible. The Wi-Fi controller is however not sufficient. It is imperative to also install a Wi-Fi terminals or AP (Access Point). The number of Wi-Fi terminals to be installed will depend on the size of your establishment and the number of connected people (huge hotel with many rooms or small coffeeshop). These Wi-Fi terminals will relay the Wi-Fi stream and allow users to be connected to Wi-Fi everywhere.
You may only use a Wi-Fi controller. But, if you only use a Wi-Fi controller, your Wi-Fi will remain a cost for you. Moreover you will not be able to collect Wi-Fi user data or broadcast ultra-targeted advertising content. By adding our solutions, the cost turns into an investment: you digitize your spaces, you consolidate your image, you can identify and qualify your visitors, analyze their behavior and strengthen their loyalty. Finally, you multiply the opportunities of communication. Go to the solutions pages to find out more!
Access Controller Compatibility
We have written a specific configuration guide for each Wi-Fi controller compatible with our solutions. We invite you to consult the technical documentation available on your account. No account yet? Create in one!
No you do not need specific technical skills to use our solutions. In fact our products are very easy to use:
- Create captive portals and new Wi-Fi zones in minutes
- Visualize at a glance, the uses of your Wi-Fi and user data
- Create in a few clicks a targeted communication campaign thanks to the studio solution
Moreover in your Account, as client of ADIPSYS, we offer you an access to all technical documentations.
Still not reassured ? Do not be afraid! We train you and we will always be at your disposal to help you if you face difficulties.
What are the essentials and prerequisites to make our solutions work?
If you already have Wi-Fi with a Wi-Fi controller and Wi-Fi terminals, you do not need other hardware. You will simply need to configure your Wi-Fi controller. Once, you will be able to connect on our solutions thanks to a username and a password which we will give you.
On the other hand, if you do not have a Wi-Fi connection in your establishment, you will then have to call one of our operator or integrator partners who will deliver you a package including a Wi-Fi controller, Wi-Fi terminals and our solutions
We are compatible with the following Wi-Fi controllers: Aerohive AP, Aruba IPA, Aruba Mobility, Cambium, Cisco Meraki, Cisco WLC, Fortinet FortiGate, MSM HP, IgniteNet, Mikrotik, Nomadix, Ruckus SmartZone, RuckusZoneDirector, Teltonika, Xirrus and Zebra. We invite you to read our compatibility matrix available on your account in the main menu. In your Account, you will also find many guides to help you set up your access controllers with our solutions.
You can test the solution Hotspot Manager for free during 1 month. Click on free trial, fill out the form, we will get back to you within 24 hours. If you want to test the other solution, please contact us.
Functionalities
Yes, some solutions can be sold separately. Hotspot Manager and DNS protect can operate independently. This means that you can only subscribe to Hotspot Manager or DNS Protect, without the need for other options. Logview and Studio are currently Hotspot Manager’s options, which means that they require Hotspot Manager to work.
Yes, the user will be directly reconnected to the Wi-Fi without having to re-fill the fields on the captive portal. We provide users with an option to directly reconnect their device to the Wi-Fi network without having to re-fill the fields on the captive portal. This is very important especially in companies where employees have to connect with their personal mobile phone to the Wi-Fi professional network. Employees can then enjoy secure Wi-Fi day after day without having to waste time on the captive portal.
We offer you a very wide choice of authentication modes to put on the captive portal:
- free access without information request
- free access with information request
- authentication via social networks
- authentication via MAC address of the terminal
- account created by the user
- account created by the administrator
- coupon and sponsorship
Each of these authentication modes collects specific and different user data. Some authentication methods are better suited to certain industries (business, retail, etc.). We made a chart explaining what types of data could be collected via each of these authentication modes. We invite you to read these sheets from your account. No account yet? Registrate now!
Our solution can tolerate an unlimited number of sessions, provided that you have deployed a significant number of Wi-Fi terminals on your site.
This means that an unlimited number of users can potentialy be able to take advantage of your Wi-Fi connection.
For your information, it takes between 15 and 20 devices can be connected to a Wi-Fi terminal.
Then, for example, If your project is to offer public Wi-Fi to 10,000 people, our solutions are perfectly capable of doing it. You will have to deploy on your site at least 500 Wi-Fi terminals (10 000/20 = 500).
For your information, we will charge you the number of terminals that you have installed in your establishment. Some competitors charge the number of connections. Our model offers valuable flexibility, particularly appreciated during events where the precise number of Wi-Fi connections that will take place, remains unclear.
A lot of social connectors can be integrated in the captive portal. We offer authentication via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The data collected will be different depending on the authentication mode chosen. For more information, we invite you to consult the documentation in your account. No account yet? Create one to access the documentation!
Yes. If you decide to charge your Wi-Fi, your users can pay by using their credit card or pay via Paypal.
Depending on the subscribed offer, you could put your logo on our solutions. It is the case for the WISP offer.
The captive portal is available in as many languages as you wish. However, translations are not done automatically. Thus, you can have a captive portal in the language of your choice provided you translate your content yourself.
Yes. You can manually export the data in CSV or PDF file. You can also set up an automated export.
It is not possible to send emailings and newsletters directly with Hotspot Manager. But Hotspot Manager is actually connected with Mailchimp/Mailjet. Then you can directly export in Mailchimp/Mailjet, the contacts of the users of your Wi-Fi, in order to send them newsletters or emailings.
Depending on the subscribed offer (WISP), you could manage an unlimited number of clients on your platform.
Because we based our pricing on the number of Wi-Fi terminals, if your Wi-Fi terminals’ number increase a lot, we may have changed of bracket. We will not ask you to pay another licence. You will only have to pay the price difference between the old license and the new one corresponding to the new number of Wi-Fi terminals. In addition, we will pay back you the prorated maintenance fees you already paid for the old license.
We offer licenses of 3 months, 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, 48 months and 60 months.
Training
Yes. Depending on the chosen offer, we train you in the various features of the platform. In constant innovation process, we inform our partners of the updates and new features of our solutions.
Log in to your account if you already have a login and password. If you are new, create an account. A sales will come back to you within 24 hours to give you access to technical documentations
Hosting and Set up
Our solutions are 100% cloud, we deliver no hardware (no CDRom or box). What we deliver depends on the offer you choose:
- If we host solutions for you, we will only deliver you a login and password to log in to the Hotspot Manager administration interface.
- If you host our solutions on your own server, we deliver you the images of the VMs that you will deploy to your ESXi and documentations that allows you to manage with the basic configuration of the VM. In order to finalize the installation, you will have to give us remote access to the VMs.
Hosting plays a leading role in the choice of the offer you will subscribe. Our solutions are 100% software that must be hosted somewhere (in ADIPSYS’ server or in your own server) in order to be usable.
There are different hosting options:
- You can host our solutions in your own server if you have the time and ability to take care of it.
- If you do not have a server and / or you have neither the skills nor the time to take care of hosting, ADIPSYS can host solutions for you. We will ensure the set up, updates and take care of all aspects of security.
Yes, our platforms are multi-client. You centralize the management of all the hotspots of your clients.
Lexicon
A log is a file containing a history of the connection data of the users of your Wi-Fi network. In this file, we find:
- The IP address of the user
- the connection time
- the contents of the request ( link, image, video, etc.)
- the browser used
- the operating system used, etc.
Anyone providing public Wi-Fi access must keep this log file during one year. The police can ask for this file if they are inquiring into someone who badly used your Wi-Fi connection. Failure to comply with this obligation results in 1 year imprisonment and 75,000 euros fine for natural persons and 375,000 euros fine for legal persons. Our Logview solution was made to meet this need.
Wi-Fi Monetization means transforming the Wi-Fi from a cost to a profit. There are different ways to monetize your Wi-Fi:
- Ask the users to pay to use the Wi-Fi connection. If your establishment is in a black spot, users may prefer paying in order to use your Wi-Fi connection rather than be without internet connection
- Broadcast a third-party’s advertising before and / or after the captive portal. This third party pays you for this service. Our Studio solution can do that.
Traffic data is mainly:
- Information to identify the user of your Wi-Fi network: IP address, phone number, email address, etc.
- Information about the devices that users use to be connected to the Wi-Fi: MAC address, etc.
- Login logs: date, time and duration of each connection
These data must be kept for 12 months. If one of your Wi-Fi users commits an offense on it, the judicial authorities will require that you provide them with this data.
If you already have a Wi-Fi connection with a Wi-Fi controller and a Wi-Fi terminal, you should know that our solution does not require any additional hardware. All login data collected by Hotspot Manager will be stored in the cloud, not in the hardware. It is in this sense that we are 100% cloud.
Bandwidth is the internet speed that flows between a Wi-Fi terminal and a device (mobile phone, computer, etc.). With Hotspot Manager, you can restrain bandwidth for all users, so they all have the same internet speed. If you do not make this setting and if one of your users downloads a large file, it can monopolize 75% of the bandwidth, while the other users will have to share the remaining 25% of the bandwith.
The landing page is the Hotspot Manager page corresponding to the user’s client area (or with free access information). It is on this landing page that we find a welcome URL that can be modified by the hotspot manager. The landing page is not required, the welcome URL is.
The captive portal is the page where the user can connect to Wi-Fi. This page is usually in the colors of your establishment and you can also add your logo. On this page, as manager of establishment, you will have to decide what kind of authentication the users will have to deal with in order to connect to Wi-Fi.
The Mac address is a kind of serial number of the hardware that comes in addition to the IP address, assigned by the service provider or the administrator of a network. Unlike the IP address, the MAC address is supposed to never change: when the computer is moved (physically), a new IP address is assigned to it, however its MAC address remains unchanged. Each MAC address is unique in the world: it can be considered as a kind of license plate for electronic devices. When you offer your visitors / customers public Wi-Fi access via hotspots, you are under a legal obligation not to keep the names of the people who connect, but to archive the MAC addresses of the devices used. This archiving should last 1 year.
Our solutions are multi-tenants which means that you can manage several clients on one platform. The term multi-tenant refers to the concept of multi-business. In addition, this term also means that different rights are granted to your clients on the platform. For example, as an integrator or an operator, you will have “super administration” rights on the platform. It means that you will be able to put the logo of your company on it. You will also be able to see the connection data of all your clients. Whereras your clients who will get regular rights, will only be able to see their own data. To summarize, when we say that our platforms are multi-tenants, it means that they are multi-business and that they support different levels of administration.
We rely on a simple pricing model of ADIPSYS solutions.
Our pricing depends on the number of Wi-Fi terminals (and not the number of connections of your users).
In addition, our pricing depends on the type of hosting you choose. You can choose to host the solutions in your server. You can also choose that we will host the solutions for you.
By subscribing to Hotspot Manager, DNS Protect or Studio, you will have to pay (regardless of the type of hosting chosen):
- A license that you only pay once. This licence depends on the number of Wi-Fi terminals that you have in your establishment, as well as the duration of your commitment (from 3 months to 5 years).
- Your monthly variable costs based on the number of terminals you installed in your building. We charge you in the quarter or semester.
In addition, if you decide to host our solutions on your own server, we will charge you a training that will make you 100% autonomous.
We will also charge you for renewing your maintenance every year.
For Logview, please consult us.
Support
You can contact support via your account, or by going to the bottom of our website and clicking on contact technical support.
Yes, ADIPSYS can count on a technical highly qualified support, available to answer all your questions in term of set up, compatibility or configuration. It is located in Sophia Antipolis, and is reachable from 9am to 12am and 2pm to 5:30pm from Monday to Friday. Depending on the type of hosting chosen, our support will provide a number of services such as set up, updates, supervision and security of our solutions.