D-Link announces launch of DSA-3100 wireless hot spot service gateway in the Middle East

It is a complete hot spot gateway that provides a firewall, DHCP server and router functions for both public and private broadband Internet access in a single device simultaneously.

Designed to allow businesses to create a public hot spot right out of the box to cater to the growing force of Wi-Fi enabled mobile consumers and businesspeople, the D-Link DSA-3100 delivers intelligent management capabilities for monitoring and controlling up to 250 public user accounts while maintaining a private LAN for employees behind a robust physical firewall.
The D-Link Airspot Gateway provides key management features and audit trails such as the ability to authenticate and authorize who can log on to the public LAN, how long users are connected, how much bandwidth is consumed and where users can surf the web. From the gateway's web-based configuration menu "command center", the administrator can limit user access according to specific MAC addresses, direct customers to custom-designed welcome pages and manage web access and session times.

The D-Link DSA-3100 can manage up to 250 user accounts in its database and it also supports POP3, RADIUS, and LDAP external authentication for larger-scale Airspot networks.

"With Wi-Fi access available through laptops, PDAs and even mobile phones, people today expect to be able to stay connected to the Internet in a public environment," said Wilson C.Xavier, of D-Link Middle East, "This Airspot gateway is giving small to medium businesses the power to simply manage both a private and a public network over a single broadband connection, while offering free or fee-based access to the Internet."

With the D-Link DSA-3100 Airspot Gateway, a coffeeshop customer can purchase a cup of coffee and thirty minutes of Internet access, receiving a printed ticket with an assigned hot spot username and password. The DSA-3100's IP Plug-n-Play (IP PnP) capability automatically configures the customer's laptop or PDA to the wired or wireless network and directs the web browser to the coffeeshop's customized web page for login. While the customer surfs the web, the store owner can track time and monitor the sites being visited, blocking unwanted sites through the D-Link Airspot Gateway's URL blocking capability.

Bandwidth allocation can be limited per user to ensure quality service for all users. Meanwhile, the store owner can use the same Internet connection to work behind the DSA-3100's firewall, ensuring that coffeeshop customers will not have access to confidential business information.

The D-Link Airspot Gateway provides enhanced network monitoring capability to businesses. With its high-speed routing engine, the gateway can track and store user traffic, providing a list of IP addresses visited and times logged on and off. Businesses can gauge who is logged on by username, IP address and MAC address.

Configuration of the D-Link DSA-3100 gateway is easily handled through the web-based interface. The gateway supports up to 50 logged-in users at one time and up to 10 guest accounts. Businesses can configure a HTML customizable free surf area and login page that is accessible to all users prior to being logged in. Guests and login users are configured and managed separately. To ensure maximum security against intruder attacks, the D-Link DSA-3100 provides Denial of Service (DoS) protection, Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and a built-in NAT firewall.