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Comment by drewmol | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone have experience developing packages for OpenWRT/LEDE... && is willing to offer some time (maybe an hour or two, whenever it's convenient) to a fellow HNer who's getting ready to attempt developing my first OpenWRT package?

I've got pretty entry level ambitions: I plan to created a utility that allow the user to configure a list of scheduled SSID names for automated SSID changes. I use to do a lot of tech support for the bar & restaurant scene, and always wanted to schedule the public WiFi SSID to change daily and broadcast marketing info. (Think restaurant daily specials, retail store popup/promo coupon codes, estimated wait times, deal of the day, etc.)

Or, is anyone aware of this feature existing in a commercially available device&firmware?

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> Does anyone have experience developing packages for OpenWRT/LEDE... && is willing to offer some time (maybe an hour or two, whenever it's convenient) to a fellow HNer who's getting ready to attempt developing my first OpenWRT package?

Is your wish to have help in the specifics of packing existing software for OpenWrt/LEDE, or in developing your specific utility?

If you're interested in a guide to building/packaging software for OpenWrt/LEDE, there are already detailed guides describing how to create packages for the OpenWrt/LEDE build system. [1] [2]

> and always wanted to schedule the public WiFi SSID to change daily and broadcast marketing info. (Think restaurant daily specials, retail store popup/promo coupon codes, estimated wait times, deal of the day, etc.)

As a user/customer, that sounds very annoying. Why not have a captive portal on the network instead of abusing the SSID for advertising?

Something like pfSense can easily be configured with a captive portal where you could do this advertising while having a button for users to gain access to the internet. [3]

[1] https://watchmysys.com/blog/2015/10/build-package-your-softw...

[2] https://www.gargoyle-router.com/old-openwrt-coding.html

[3] https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Captive_Portal

more "developing my specific utility". Thanks for the links, 1 and 2 are where I've been looking.

>As a user/customer, that sounds very annoying. Why not have a captive portal...

To me, as a user/customer, captive portals are very annoying

>...instead of abusing the SSID for advertising? I have a propensity toward repurposing systems for different functionality (abusing things) ;-)

It looks like 3, using pfSense, may make using captive portals less terrible so I'll look into it.

Thanks for the suggestions!

> schedule the public WiFi SSID to change daily and broadcast marketing info

I actually like this idea, though I would suggest you broadcast two SSIDs, with one staying the same always (so returning customers could connect to it automatically).

Thanks. To me: daily changing SSID is much less hostile than a captive protal. I've thought about that, if it's only daily changes that recycle weekly it wouldn't be that big of a PITA to returning customers.

e.g.

Never been to Starbucks on a Sunday? You'll have to read (or ignore) the SSID marketing info to connect but after that you're good.

WTF, why diddn'I auto-connect to the Wi-Fi, I come here every Monday? Oh, looks like they have a new special

You're gonna squeeze all that info into an SSID!?

Why not just keep the SSID the same (more convenient for customers -- "returning" devices would auto-connect) and instead set up a captive portal that redirects to a custom web page that includes all that info?

Or just don't do this stuff at all. Either provide Wlan with Internet uplink and no bullshit (that includes captive portals), or don't do it at all.

Especially on a startup focused news portal this thinking is surprising. Ever heard of this funny thing called money?

Yes. But don't monetize public wlan access. It will lead to people not using it. So save yourself the money. Also, by definition you don't provide a public wlan accesss anymore.

I have come across many hotels/restaurants/whatever to tell you that this is cancer. I don't even try to use any public wlan anymore. In my own country I have cell coverage, abroad free roaming (at least in Europe).

The idea came from a client insisting on trying a WiFi marketing cancer known as "TurnStyle". Looking for an altenative to get a simple marketing message across without all the "conect w FB, Google Analytics, ad-laiden captive portal BS" that's out there now.

Fortunately for users, Yelp aquired TurnStyle so it's only uphill from here! /s

Love too create actively hostile user interfaces for money

You might want to look at https://github.com/google/physical-web.It's really great, and you could target SSDP as a starting point.

I was unaware of the SSDP component of that project, but it seems to require having the Physical Web app installed. Their BTLE beacons work on Android devices without anything special installed on the client. Maybe the SSDP does work on stock android but just takes a bit? This doesn't work if the client has to have a specific app installed to receive it.

This is great, thx for the link. Been thinking about this for 10 years, nice to see someone being more proactive than just thinking about it!

Or you could just setup a cron-job that runs a script that changes the SSID (e.g. using UCI)?

Thx for the suggestion, I have actually done this in the past

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