Captive portal setup

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Overview



The nodogsplash project is a lightweight, highly configurable captive portal solution. It integrates nicely with RaspAP and is recommended over other methods. No configuration changes are needed with RaspAP, however you will need to modify some default settings in the nodogsplash config. This step-by-step guide assumes you have already installed RaspAP, either with the Quick Installer or manual setup instructions.

Note

This walkthrough is provided as a courtesy only; there is no support for NDS or any integration with this project.

Installing the software



Begin by updating your RPi with the latest package information:

Code TEXT : 
sudo apt-get update


With our package manager up to date, install a dependency required by nodogsplash:

Code TEXT : 
sudo apt-get install libmicrohttpd-dev


Next, clone the nodogsplash GitHub repository to your home directory:

Code TEXT : 
cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/nodogsplash/nodogsplash.git


We can now compile nodogsplash from the source:

Code TEXT : 
cd nodogsplash
make
sudo make install


Configuration changes



With nodogsplash installed in the Pi's system, we will make two small changes to its configuration. The nodogsplash 
GatewayInterface
 should be set to the interface RaspAP runs on (
wlan0
 is the default). You will also need to change the 
GateWayAddress
 to 
10.3.141.1
.

Note

If you have modified RaspAP's default configuration, be sure this setting reflects your changes, otherwise the captive portal will not work correctly.

Code TEXT : 
sudo nano /etc/nodogsplash/nodogsplash.conf


Code TEXT : 
# GatewayInterface is not autodetected, has no default, and must be set here.
# Set GatewayInterface to the interface on your router
# that is to be managed by Nodogsplash.
# Typically br-lan for the wired and wireless lan.
#
GatewayInterface wlan0
#
# Parameter: GatewayAddress
# Default: Discovered from GatewayInterface
#
# This should be autodetected on an OpenWRT system, but if not:
# Set GatewayAddress to the IP address of the router on
# the GatewayInterface.  This is the address that the Nodogsplash
# server listens on.
GatewayAddress 10.3.141.1


Save and quit out of the editor by pressing Ctrl+X and then pressing Y and finally Enter.

Starting the captive portal



We are now ready to start up the software. This can be done by simply executing the binary with 
sudo nodogsplash
. However, we'll make things a bit easier by adding a 
systemd
 service provided by the project. Copy the service control file and enable it:

Code TEXT : 
sudo cp ~/nodogsplash/debian/nodogsplash.service /lib/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable nodogsplash.service


Next, start the service and check its status:

Code TEXT : 
sudo systemctl start nodogsplash.service
sudo systemctl status nodogsplash.service


You should see output similar to the following:

Code TEXT : 
● nodogsplash.service - NoDogSplash Captive Portal
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nodogsplash.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2020-02-11 09:19:44 GMT; 34min ago
Main PID: 10539 (nodogsplash)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 1599)
Memory: 1.7M
CGroup: /system.slice/nodogsplash.service
└─10539 /usr/bin/nodogsplash
 
Feb 11 09:19:44 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting NoDogSplash Captive Portal...
Feb 11 09:19:44 raspberrypi nodogsplash[10538]: [5][Tue Feb 11 09:19:44 2020][10538](src/main.c:496) Starting as daemon, forking to background
Feb 11 09:19:44 raspberrypi nodogsplash[10538]: [5][Tue Feb 11 09:19:44 2020][10539](src/main.c:271) Detected gateway wlan0 at 10.3.141.1 (dc:a6:32:3d:ff:9d)
Feb 11 09:19:44 raspberrypi nodogsplash[10538]: [5][Tue Feb 11 09:19:44 2020][10539](src/main.c:275) MHD Unescape Callback is Disabled
Feb 11 09:19:44 raspberrypi nodogsplash[10538]: [5][Tue Feb 11 09:19:44 2020][10539](src/main.c:305) Created web server on 10.3.141.1:2050
Feb 11 09:19:44 raspberrypi nodogsplash[10538]: [5][Tue Feb 11 09:19:44 2020][10539](src/main.c:319) Using config options for FAS or Templated Splash.
Feb 11 09:19:44 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started NoDogSplash Captive Portal.
Feb 11 09:19:46 raspberrypi nodogsplash[10538]: [5][Tue Feb 11 09:19:46 2020][10539](src/fw_iptables.c:382) Initializing firewall rules


Note

The captive portal may be stopped with 
sudo systemctl stop nodogsplash.service
 or disabled completely with 
sudo systemctl disable nodogsplash.service
.

Connecting clients



Connect a client to RaspAP's hotspot. You should now see nodogsplash's captive portal screen:

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Optional: you can customize the captive portal screen by modifying the files located in 
/etc/nodogsplash/htdocs/
.

More information



Full documentation of nodogsplash is available here.