[Chilli] CoovaAP and an all-offsite (centralised?) solution

[Ronald MacDonald]

Hello all,

After fighting with configuration for a few hours, I thought it'd be a good idea to see if what I'm trying to do is actually possible.

Many of the web sites with documentation as to going about setting up an AP with Coova assume having a CoovaChilli server running at the gateway for authentication management and so as to provide DHCP service etc.

I am using a Linksys WGR54GL which originally had the stock firmware, but I've just put CoovaAP on it. I am able to get it to show up the internal portal and let users log in as such, but what I'd like to see is a bit different again.

I've got it in my head that it should be possible to have the AP sitting on the LAN, which has a direct internet connection. Unauthenticated users would be sent to a portal login running on a remote server (across the 'net) which itself has mechanisms by which to register and authenticate users. The server already has a table of credentials which Radius is configured to look up.

However I can't see how doing that would work, as CoovaChilli seems to be built around this notion of a local gateway server, two nic's, it providing the DHCP server for the AP clients, etc.

Surely I must be doing something wrong or have simply failed to understand how CoovaAP running on my router fits into the big scheme of things.

Best wishes,
Ronald.