If you are setting up a network in an environment where customers are going to have access to your wireless network, there is a good chance you are going to want to set up a captive portal for that network. A captive portal is a web page that is displayed when users access a network on which a captive portal has been enabled. Such a web page typically contains, at a minimum, the network terms of service, and getting past the captive portal may require acceptance of the terms of service, authentication, payment, or a combination of all three.

This chapter covers the basics of captive portal, and how to implement a captive portal in pfSense. The different methods of authentication will be covered, and we will also discuss how to troubleshoot captive portal issues.

Completing this chapter should provide the reader with an understanding of the following topics:

• Captive portal basics
• Captive portal best practices
• Enabling a captive portal
• Captive portal examples
• Troubleshooting captive portals