> 	Let me prefix this with the obligatory "I'm new to m0n0wall". I'm a
> longtime FreeBSD user, and happened to come up with an idea that
>

Hi and welcome to the list,

> #2 - I intend on using the captive portal feature in order to provide
> potential users with a signup page, granting them X amount of time free
> access. Once that time had elapsed, the next time they logged in it

The best way is to use a server service as backend do to the AAA:
authentication, authorization and accounting.

Let me first say that I haven’t tried the captive portal on the m0n0Wall yet.

The most used approach is to use a RADIUS server to handle the AAA.
m0n0Wall should be able to use radius. There are at least two free RADIUS
servers on the marked: GNU Radius (1) and FreeRadius (2).

Both Radius servers allow you to place user- and accounting data in a
MySQL database. So when a user enters username and password on the captive
portal it will send a radius request to the radius server with location
detail and user details. Depending on how much time to user has paid for
the session-timeout attribute will be set and will block the user after xx
min/hours. This is perfect for pre-paid user accounts. People can buy one
hour, month etc.

However, one feature that in my opinion is vital for a hotspot box is
email/SMTP redirection. I would really like to see this feature in the
m0n0Wall. 70 % percent of the users will not figure out how to change SMTP
server settings. The hardware we use (I work for a danish WISP) redirects
all traffic on port 25 to our own mail server to be as user-friendly as
possible.

1 http://www.gnu.org/software/radius/radius.html
2 http://www.freeradius.org/

Good lock with your project.

/ morten