MikroTik UserManager with Wireless HotSpot

This tutorial follows on from the ʻHow to setup a MirkoTik Hotspotʼ tutorial. Please ensure that your hotspot is currently running as described before proceeding with this tutorial.

The MikroTik usermanager is an add-on application that is able to centralize all accounting and user management for your hotspot systems.

To start off we will need to install the UserManager package onto a MikroTik router of your choice. Proceed to www.mikrotik.com and click on their downloads section.

Once in the download section you can select the series of Routerboard that your are particularly using.

Download the latest version of the MikroTik RouterOS software, but make sure you download the ʻAll Packagesʼ option as this has the Usermanger package that we require.

Unzip the file and inside you will find all of the individual packages available for the MikroTik RouterOS, particularly the Usermanager package. If you are already on the latest version of MikroTik, then just copy the usermanager package, if not, just copy all of the packages inside the folder.

Log into winbox and open up the ʻFilesʼ window. Click the ʻPasteʼ button and this will copy all of the files that you have selected onto the MikroTik router.

Once the files have finished copying, goto ʻSystem -> Rebootʼ and reboot the router. This will take a few seconds longer than normal for the router to reboot as it needs to install the new packages.

To check that the UserManager package is installed correctly, head to ʻSystem -> Packagesʼ and check that the package is displayed.

Now that the usermanager package is installed, we must configure our hotspot to use this service for all user accounting. We will do this via the Radius feature. Head to ʻIP -> Hotspotʼ and click on the ʻServer Profilesʼ tab. Here you should find a hotspot profile that was created for you when you initially setup the hotspot. Double click on this profile.

Once you have opened the profile, click on the Radius tab and click ʻUse Radiusʼ. You will now never have to create a hotspot user inside winbox again. Everything will be handled by the usermanager.

Now we need to configure the Radius settings. Click on ʻRadiusʼ, and add a new radius interface. Make sure you have ʻHotspotʼ selected and then proceed to enter in an address for the usermanager. If the usermanager package is located on the same MikroTik router as the actual hotspot (such as in this example), the IP of 127.0.0.1 can be used. If the Usermanager is installed on a remote MikroTik router, you will need to type in the IP address of that remote router. Lastly, a password/secret is needed and can be anything of your choice. For this example, I will use 123.

We can now proceed to login to our Usermanager interface. Open up your web-browser (any web-browser should work perfectly) and type in the IP address of your Routerʼs ethernet port and add a /userman on the end. Eg; http://192.168.88.1/userman

You should then be prompted for a username and password. The default username is admin and the password is left blank.

The first thing that we need to configure is the routers section. Click on ʻRouters -> Addʼ to add a new router interface.

This interface is where you can inform the Usermanager system about the Hotspot system, and to grant it access. If the Hotspot system is running on the same Router as the usermanager system (as it is in this tutorial), an IP address of 127.0.0.1 can be used. If the Hotspot is running on a remote MikroTik router, then the IP address of that remote router must be used. The shared secret should be the same as the one specified when we configured the Radius. In our example we set it to 123.

The next step is to configure some profiles and limitations for our hotspot users. We will start with the Limitations. Click on ʻProfilesʼ and then click on the ʻLimitationsʼ tab and add a new limitation. You can name this limitation anything of your choice and you can create as many limitations as you require. This is where you will be able to ʻCAPʼ your users upload/download amounts, as well as limit their upload and download speeds. Set these values according to your specifications and then click ʻAddʼ.

Now that we have a limitation (or a few), we can proceed to creating a profile. Click on the ʻProfilesʼ tab and click the ʻ+ʼ button. Give the profile a name of your choice and click ʻCreateʼ.

Once the profile has been created we can apply one of our previously created limitations. Click on ʻAdd new Limitationʼ. Here you will be able to select the time and days that this limitation will take effect. Tick the limitation you created earlier and then click ʻAddʼ.

Finally we can head to ʻUsersʼ and add our first hotspot username and password. Assign a profile to this user and click ʻAddʼ. This username and password will now be able to be used by a hotspot client. You can also generate full reports on users login data.

Tutorial by Chris SutherlandMiro distributionwww.miro.co.za