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Assumptions

The following assumptions were made about the environment the hotspot will be operated in:

• Only one IP address available
  The operator of the hotspot does not have the means to supply each client with a world-wide unique IP address. Typically, a hotspot would be operated on a dialup or DSL connection.
  
  
• No user list
  There is no list of users. Instead, users will acquire vouchers for predefined amounts of access time. Users do not want to join a club before checking their mail.
  
  
• Users acquire their IP addresses via DHCP
  Users have their system set up in a way that it automatically requests an IP address via DHCP after joining a network. This is the default setting of most operating systems.
  
  
• Users have a web browser installed
  The users have a web browser capable of communicating via HTTP and HTTPS installed. While this sounds fairly obvious at first, it also means that the users are not expected to have any other specific kind of software installed. Everybody has a web browser, at least.
  
  
• Users dont want to configure things
  User do not want to enter their network parameters manually, especially not a 128bit hexadecimal WEP key.
  
  
• Users can not change their MAC address
  Users do not have the option of changing their hardware address. Because changing the hardware address has to be done by the WLAN driver, only users of open source kernels can change their MAC address at the moment.