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CoovaChilli Captive Portal on WRT54GL

This page discusses how to use CoovaChilli (openwrt-54g-squashfs.bin) with a WRT54GL as a captive portal.  It took me several times to get this to work.  During my attempts, I somehow messed up my configuration.  tried to upload a new firmware and start over, and it turns out that CoovaAP takes over the firmware, and won't let you install anything else.  SO USE COOVAAP AT YOUR OWN RISK.  The only way I was able to reflash the router was with the JTAG cable again.   This thing has been worth its weight in gold with this router, as it's helped me recover from a corrupt BIOS (CFE Image), enabled me to reflash the router when the boot-wait was not turned on, enabled me to reflash nvram that was corrupt and I couldn't fix (say with the reset button), but mostly just fix bad firmware images that like to take over the OS and lot let it go.  

Uploaded the CoovaAP WRT54GL 1.0-beta.8 openwrt-54g-squashfs.bin file to the router, and started over.   Tried to do this directly via the JTAG cable, which took over three hours, but it didn't work.   So I uploaded the original Linksys firmware, and upgraded through the GUI.  

When CoovaAP booted, I changed the default password, and then went to the Hotspot section.  Under the "Configuration Tab", I changed the Hotspot type to Internal, Wireless only, Deny, Http for configured users.  

Under the "Access List" tab, I added one guest.  

Under the Portal Tab, I selected "Login Page", and changed the HTML to what I wanted it to say.  The cool thing about this is that it allows you to customize your login page!  

I applied changes, and tested it.  It didn't work.  So I went in to the GUI and started CoovaChilli (it was installed, but not running).   This worked like a champ (after unplugging and then plugging the router back in).   

I uploaded an image for my splash screen, to test if I can modify the redirect page.  This was done by scp'ing it up with the command: 
#scp beboNoBorder.jpg root@192.168.1.1:/jffs/usr/bebo.jpg  

I tried several times to get CoovaChilli to see this image, but it wouldn't until I put it in the /etc/chilli/www/ directory.  So apparently any files that you want CoovaChilli to display have to be here.   

I then changed went to Hotspot/Portal and selected Header from the drop-down, and edited it to read: 



    ALT="Bebo HotSpot"
    TITLE="Bebo Hotspot"

A couple of items worth note is that the Coova firmware is a little buggy, and wouldn't finish applying the changes I made unless it had an Internet connection.  Also, a user has to have a browser with JavaScript enabled to see the login page.   This is a little ghetto, but I suppose that most folks have Javascript enabled on their browsers anyway, so I guess that I can live with it. 

So I have an authenticated, encrypted Captive Portal to the Internet.   Finally!   Here is a screenshot of what the portal page looks like:



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