Hotspot is one of the most popular services in MikroTik router. MikroTik Hotspot Gateway is a policy to authorize network clients before to access local network resources as well as public network resources through MikroTik router. In a Hotspot network, the user can login or authenticate using almost any web browser, so there is no need to install any additional software to client end. As Hotspot login prompt is a webpage, Hotspot service can effectively be used as an advertising medium of your company as well as your partner company. MikroTik Hotspot has a lot of features which help to customize your network as your demand. So, this article is designed to show you how to apply various customize options in your MikroTik Hotspot network.

MikroTik Hotspot Server Customization

MikroTik Hotspot has a lot of features which help to customize Hotspot network as our demand. In this article, I will show you how to customize below Hotspot topics.

1. How to customize Hotspot login page
2. How to enable trial login in Hotspot Server
3. Advertisement According to Different User Profile
4. How to avoid frequent Hotspot login
5. How to bypass special users without Hotspot authentication
6. How to allow services without Hotspot authentication

But before going to start these customizations, you have to configure Hotspot service in your MikroTik router. If you are new about MikroTik Hotspot service, feel free to study my previous article about MikroTik Hotspot configuration using winbox and configure Hotspot in your MikroTik router and then continue the rest of this article.

How to Customize Hotspot Login Page

As no Hotspot user can get access to internet without authentication from login page, your login page can be a way to advertise your company as well as your partner company. For this, you need to customize Hotspot login page as your demand. To customize your Hotspot login page, follow my below steps.

• Click on Files menu from your winbox. You will find a lot of Hotspot files are there. Find hotspot/login.html file and drag and drop it to your Desktop.
• Now edit this file as your demand and then upload it to Files
• Similarly you can edit hotspot/status.html and hotspot/logout.html

For editing login page, you just need some HTML and CSS knowledge. If you don’t have enough knowledge on HTML and CSS, hire an expert person who knows HTML and CSS or you can contact with me. I will customize your login page as your demand with conditions.

How to Enable Trial Login in Hotspot Server

It is possible to enable trial login in your Hotspot server that means you can allow users to login to Hotspot without authentication and these free users can use internet for a period of time that you will assign. If you wish to allow trial login in your Hotspot server, follow my below steps carefully.

• Go to IP > Hotspot and click on Server Profiles You will find a default profile as well as another profile that was created while installing Hotspot server. Double click on the newly created profile. Hotspot Server Profile window will appear now.
• Click on Login tab and then click on Trial checkbox.
• Now provide trial user uptime limit that means how much time any user can use internet with this trial service, in Trial Uptime Limit input box. Default time is 30 minutes.
• Now provide trial user uptime reset time that means how much time later the user can again access internet with this trial user feature, in Trial Uptime Reset input box. The default time is 1 day.
• Now choose the trial user profile from Trial User Profile drop-down menu.
• Click Apply and OK button.

Now refresh login page and you will see a message like Free trial available click here. By clicking click here link, you will be able to login without authentication.

Advertisement According to Different User Profile

MikroTik Hotspot allows you to create different user profile. It also allows you to do advertisement according to different user profile that means you can advertise different ads to your different user according to your user profile periodically. If you wish to advertise different ads according to your user profile, follow below steps carefully.

• Go to IP > Hotspot menu and click on User Profiles tab and then double click on any user profile that you have created before. Hotspot User Profile window will appear now.
• Now click on Advertise checkbox.
• In Advertise tab, check the Advertise checkbox and provide below information.
  Advertise URL: Fully qualified domain URL for your advertisement page. For example, if you wish to advertise my System Zone website, put URL as https://systemzone.net.
  Advertise Interval: Period of time to show advertisement. If you wish that after every 30 minutes ads will be showed, put interval as 00:30:00.
  Advertise Timeout: How much time the ads will be shown. If you wish that ads will be disappear after 1 minute, put timeout value as 00:01:00.
• Click Apply and OK button.

After this configuration, your Hotspot user can be shown the ads that you have specified here within the time interval that you have provided.

How to Avoid Frequent Hotspot Login

How to Bypass Special Users without Hotspot Authentication

Sometimes it may be your requirement to allow special users without Hotspot authentication. MikroTik Hotspot has a feature to bypass special user without authentication. If you wish to bypass any user without Hotspot authentication, follow my below steps carefully.

• Collect MAC address of your desired user.
• Go to IP > Hotspot menu and click on IP Bindings tab.
• Click on PLUS SIGN (+) to add a new IP Bindings. New Hotspot IP Bindings window will appear.
• Put user MAC address in MAC Address input box and choose bypassed option from Type dropdown menu.
• Click Apply and OK button.

Now your desired user is able to get internet without Hotspot authentication through your MikroTik router.

How to Allow Services without Hotspot Authentication

Sometimes you may wish to allow some services without Hotspot authentication. For example, you may allow your clients to access your company web page without registration. Walled Garden system of MikroTik Hotspot is responsible for this type of job. So, if you wish to allow a specific services without Hotspot authentication, follow my below steps carefully.

• Go to IP > Hotspot menu and click on Walled Garden IP List tab.
• Click on PLUS SIGN (+) to add a new walled garden IP entry. New Walled Garden IP Entry window will appear now.
• Click on accept radio button from Action radio button group.
• Choose your active Hotspot server from Server dropdown menu.
• Now put your desired server IP which you want to allow publicly in Address input box.
• Click Apply and OK button.

Now your clients will be able to access your desired server without Hotspot authentication. Similarly, you can allow as many servers as you want.

If you face any confusion to follow above steps properly, please watch my below video about MikroTik Hotspot customization carefully. I hope it will reduce your any confusion.