Randomly Generating, Aging passwords for user authentication

[pmrphs2002]

Hey all..... I wrote a long, detailed post about an hour ago, and somehow hit the backspace key....and lost it all.

So Ill get the abridged version out:

I was approached by a coffee shop owner to set up a wireless hotspot in his place of business.

I have an idea, and its simple enough that im sure its already in operation, but this is what im thinking:

A computer running Linux with multiple ethernet cards to accept the internet connection, and bridge it to a wireless access point

A way to randomly generate a username/password combo based on some algorithm.

Print out the Username and Password.

AGE each username or password.

Force users to log onto the server to access the internet


Anybody want to weigh in on their own thoughts?

[je_fro]

What's wrong with just a linksys and dhcp? I'd be irritated with anything more obtrusive than that.....it's why I refuse to go to starbucks...

[pmrphs2002]

Well, because theres a place down the street from me that just puts the code on a whiteboard. Im in a big college area, and Wi-fi collects bandwidth leeches. If it were to print up authentications based on a preset algorithm, and age them... say, gone in 1 hour, it forces users to make another purchase, or to stop using the "free" hotspot in favor of another paying customer......

[pmrphs2002]

And..... thats not how starbucks works btw.

Last I checked, they go through a WISP, don't they? You need to sign up for service..... making it non-free, and a non-issue. :-)

[julian1199]

HI there, I'm new to the linux world....lol. If anybody could tellme of a chat room or any forum where I can ask the simplest questions about linux. I'm really new to it and don't now any command or basic desktop management!
please, give me some sugestions, I would really appreciate it! thanks JZ......

[pmrphs2002]

Not into hijacking the thread.

Luckily, you found the only site you need for even the simplest of questions. They also have an IRC channel (i've never used it....) Not pretending to be a moderator, but I've been on here quite a few times- before posting, read the forum guidelines (they're on every forum, stickied to the top), and dont hijack/add your own issues to threads, unless their closely related- we'd rather you started your own!

Linux is great, have fun learning!

[pmrphs2002]

This is sort of a bump, but more for anyone following this thread.

More than welcome to add input.

Decided that the way to go is to install the Cryptlib security toolkit

It contains a whole bunch of algorithms for encryption, plus I can call it to make and compare the crypted keys. (Im basically winging it here- I've only just started the project so am in no way suggesting that this is easy/worthwhile/possible, or that this is the only/most viable implementation.)

I need to write the program by hand still, but the package includes header files to call, and takes care of the entropy engine.

[bwkaz]

I'm probably a bit late here, but what about one of the various portal-capture packages? At work we use NoCatAuth (customized a bit) between our wide-open wireless network and the Internet, to ensure that the only people that are using it were given the password-of-the-week. And we only give that to suppliers or customers who are visiting and need "guest" access.

(Basically, the portal-capture program blocks any traffic except web for each new MAC address that it sees. Web traffic (to any server) gets REDIRECTed to a custom tiny HTTP server, which sends an HTTP redirect pointing to the real gateway server, which accepts a username and password. If the credentials are valid (and the authentication backend can be almost anything), then the user's MAC address is added to the firewall allow-rule chain, and they get redirected back to their original URL, which goes through this time.)