Zenbu wifi network

It is SO nice not to have to rush and worry about a clock ticking. Also the Zenbu pay and status pages are much better designed than those of eg. Follow the instructions below to purchase your own Zenbu wireless system and start providing wireless internet access at your place. Ordering your Zenbu Wireless Hotspot and setting up monitored, secure, wireless internet access at your place is easy. Enter your details below Confirm your details Make payment Connect and start using your Zenbu wireless system when it arrives at your place 1.

Make Payment Network: Zenbu. Direct credit. Order a hotspot. Buy credit. Zenbu Wireless is a network of wireless internet hotspots throughout New Zealand which allow the public to securely, cheaply and easily access the internet using their own computers, cellphones, or other Wi-Fi enabled devices. Zenbu is the most popular wireless internet access system at accommodations in New Zealand.

We have more zones at more locations than any other system. It's Wireless Internet Made Easy. Thanks for knowing how to do it right! Key benefits of the Zenbu wireless system. You can stop using the Zenbu system anytime you like. No early termination fees or any other nasty surprises. Very easy, plug and play setup. Simple to setup yourself, no computer geeks required. Our wireless router connects to your broadband modem just like your own computer.

Super reliable system. Our system is in use at over locations and has handled over It works. Print your own access vouchers. Or give free or discounted access vouchers to your customers when they make a purchase. You can print access vouchers directly from our website using your own printer. If you have Zenbu they know the internet access is cheap and they can connect at your place. You and your friends get free access.

Add friends or give free access vouchers to anyone you want to have free internet access. On average people who have recently purchased credit online have used Of course this can vary widely depending on what the person does watching or downloading movies would be much more expensive, sending only textual emails even cheaper but these figures are the averages from the real users who have recently connected at our wireless zones.

Basically if you do not download large files don't watch or download videos, update software or leave file sharing software running and just use websites like Facebook, Trade Me, NZ Herald, Google, your email etc normally you should find the connection to be cheap and fast. We recommend disabling automatic software updates as the updates are often large, not generally essential and downloading them can use a lot of data quickly.

Many websites use images and plugins mostly for displaying ads and it is generally the transfer of such files rather than the basic website itself that uses the most bandwidth. You should be able to easily display any images you actually want to see on demand from within your web browser. You might like to read the information below on why there is no time limit when you are connected at a Zenbu wireless zone. Here are a few examples of different file sizes that will hopefully give you a better idea because we know it's a bit difficult to imagine.

This web page is about kilobytes KB , so you could load it about 10 times and use 1 megabyte of data. An MP3 music file is typically about 1 megabyte per minute of music. So a song which is 3 minutes long is usually about 3 megabytes in size. You can generally talk to someone using Skype or other VOIP software for about 3 minutes per megabyte of data this will vary depending on the quality of the call and is an estimate applicable to voice only calls, not video calls which use a lot more data.

The photos below are available in a few different sizes. Click the links below each photo to display the different versions. Make sure you enlarge the bigger photos you display as they may be shrunk automatically by your web browser to fit on your screen. Normally a magnifying glass will appear over the image if it has been shrunk by your browser. Clicking on the image will enlarge it. Zenbu wireless zone operators can easily print their own access vouchers free of charge on the Zenbu website.

Just specify how many vouchers you'd like to print and what value you'd like to make them, then print away. The vouchers are formatted to fit A4 print-your-own-business-card paper. You can buy print-your-own-business-card paper at Warehouse Stationery, Whitcoulls, Paper Plus, and other stationery stores. If you are going to try printing vouchers on business card paper, we suggest you take a sheet of vouchers you have printed with you and make sure you buy paper that will match the template and the setup of your printer.

Of course you can print access vouchers on any paper you like and most people just use regular A4 paper. You are also welcome to copy access codes you have created from our website to your own design software and incorporate them in any design you like.

Already operate your own Zenbu wireless zone? Make sure you are logged in and then click here to print access vouchers. When you are logged in as a Zenbu wireless zone owner, a link to print vouchers is displayed on our website.

You must be logged in as an owner of your zone in order to print vouchers. The Zenbu wireless system works by allowing only users who successfully login via the secure login page and have credit available to access the internet. The Zenbu gateway software keeps track of how much data each user has used, and once their credit is exhausted, will deny that user further internet access until additional credit is added to their account.

It's a simple concept implemented with some fairly smart software. Zenbu wireless is a simple, affordable, sensible system that allows anyone with a broadband internet connection to easily offer secure wireless internet access. This is a tricky question to answer because the correct answer really is "it depends". Over people can connect simultaneously through a Zenbu wireless router but because everyone shares the same broadband internet connection the more people that connect and the more data they use the slower the internet connection will become.

The speed of the internet connection to which the Zenbu system is connected is nearly always the bottleneck. Also the more people devices that connect wirelessly the less reliable the wireless link will become for everyone and eventually the wireless network will become completely unusable.

This is because every transmitting wireless device increases the noise wireless noise, not a sound you can hear in the environment - all the devices are essentially shouting over the top of each other. Eventually this noise means the wireless signal can no longer get through at all. This is true of all wireless networks. You want to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio to maximize throughput and the reliability of the wireless link.

It is also possible to use additional access points on different, distinct wireless channels to increase the maximum wireless throughput. In our experience, at most locations it is very unlikely that more than a few people will be connected at any one time.

Of course you can! You pay for your internet connection and you can use it freely, both wirelessly or using ethernet standard network cables. Using our simple web interface you can also easily allow any user to access the internet freely at your own Zenbu wireless zone. Any computers plugged into unmonitored ports by default unmonitored ports are numbers of the Zenbu wireless router will also be able to access the internet freely and are not monitored by the Zenbu gateway software.

Want to let your family and friends access the internet at your zone free of charge? You can allow people to use the internet freely at your zone by adding them as a friend.

Simply add their Zenbu username to your list of friends on the admin page. One click and it's done. You can remove friends just as easily. Usage will still be monitored so you can keep tabs on how much data your friends are using but they'll be able to access the internet unrestricted. You can set a limit for how much data your friends can use per month and their quota will reset automatically on the day you choose.

Don't want your friends to have unlimited free access? You can always print your own access vouchers and give them to anyone you would like to be able to access the internet free of charge. This makes the Zenbu wireless system ideal for venues that want to offer free wireless internet access but restrict the amount of data people can use.

You can print your own access vouchers free of charge on the Zenbu website. Want to make your Zenbu wireless zone free for anyone to access?

You can make your Zenbu wireless zone free for everyone with a single click on the link on the admin page. People will still be required to login at your zone as they normally would and their data usage will still be monitored, but they will not be restricted or have their usage debited from their account.

The range of any wireless transmitter depends on many factors many of which are unrelated to the transmitter itself. This makes it very difficult to provide an accurate estimation of a distance over which the signal will be available in a particular situation. The distance always depends not only on the environment in which the transmitter is installed but also on the capability of the device that is connected at the other end of the wireless link.

That said, the following results are from tests we performed with true line of sight that is, with nothing but open space between the notebook computer and the Zenbu wireless router :. Test 1: Using the standard antennae a reliable connection was possible over a distance of approximately metres.

Test 2: Using 9dB high gain omni-directional antennae reliable connection and transmission of data was possible over a maximum distance of about metres. Test 3: Using a single 14dB high gain directional antenna gave a very robust reliable signal over the maximum measured distance of metres. Please note that the above tests were conducted in open space with no obstacles, not even a window, between the router and the computer.

These transmission distances will not be possible through walls, windows, doors, trees, wireless interference etc and are published only to give an indication of the relative performance of different antenna types. In the real world as a very rough guide Zenbu wireless routers typically transmit and receive data reliably over a distance of about 50 metres in a normal environment. For example, when visible through a window at reception the router should comfortably transmit 50 metres across a carpark into units at a motel.

This could be limited to 0 metres if there was bad interference or the router was beside some material that blocked the wireless signal or upwards of well over metres if the environment was better.

The range of the router is very dependent on the materials through which the signal is transmitted. Everything blocks Wi-Fi and other radio signals a little. Even in open space Earth's atmosphere radio transmissions are limited. Wood, plaster, cinder blocks, and glass don't generally interfere much, but brick, stone, and water hot water cylinders, fish tanks etc are more disruptive. Worse still are ceramic, concrete, metal, and mirrors, which can reflect or block visible light and radio waves alike.

Wireless interference from other wireless devices can also be very problematic and can even render the Wi-Fi completely unusable. When deciding where to place your Zenbu wireless router if you imagine it beaming light in all directions and place it somewhere that would shine light on the area you want to cover you should be alright. Of course the fewer walls the signal has to go through the better. Just like with light, windows generally allow the signal from your Zenbu wireless router through nicely.

A little bit of experimentation may be required to maximize coverage achieved by your router. The standard antennae can simply be unscrewed from the Zenbu wireless router and replaced with any antenna that has a standard reverse polarity TNC male connector. A great way to increase coverage is by connecting a secondary access point to the monitored ethernet port of the Zenbu wireless router.

For more information on improving coverage, please see our hints for improving coverage. Want to be listed here? Send us an email with your contact and service details and we will add you to the list.

Zenbu wireless routers are Linksys WRT54GL routers that have been modified to run our own wireless gateway software which facilitates monitored, secure, public internet access anywhere broadband is available.

The oldest of our hotspots have been running with no problems since Security for our users and zone operators is very important to us. Many people leave their computers open to at least file sharing over a local area connection simply because they are unaware of the risks. This means that in a public network environment it could be possible for malicious parties to access data on their computer. However, Zenbu wireless routers have an internal firewall which blocks all traffic between any client connected wirelessly and any other client.

Quite simply it is impossible for one user to access, or even see, any other user's computer when connected to the internet through a Zenbu wireless router. Zenbu wireless user's and zone operator's computers are secure regardless of any insecure network settings they may have.

By default port number 1 of the Zenbu wireless router is monitored by the Zenbu gateway software just like the wireless interface and has the same firewall protecting it, so any computer connected by cable to port number one is also protected.

In addition to blocking traffic between any two clients, the internal firewall also blocks clients from accessing any local computers through the Zenbu router. Any computer connected to a Zenbu router or "behind" the Zenbu router is secure from access by wireless users. Regarding wireless security, that is encryption of data sent over the wireless interface, it is not possible to reliably encrypt all data sent over a wireless connection using shared security keys and allow the public to use the internet over the same connection.

If the security key eg. WEP key, WPA-PSK etc is given to users, which it must be in order for them to connect, then data is no longer secure as anyone with the key could decrypt it. Unlike with shared encryption keys WPA enterprise uniquely encrypts traffic for every device, every connection so not even the user knows the keys being used for encryption and decryption of data sent over their connection.

Connecting to the WPA enterprise encrypted network also allows people to confirm that the signal they are connecting to is indeed a Zenbu hotspot. Not all devices can connect to WPA enterprise encrypted wireless networks but for those that can it is very easy. When people connect to the network they just need to enter the username and password "zen", "zen" when prompted, then login as always.

Regardless of how you connect to the internet whether at a Zenbu wireless hotspot or by any other means we recommend encrypting any files you want to send and using a VPN to access any services which require high security. Most services which require data security such as internet banking typically use end-to-end encryption so regardless of whether you are connected wirelessly or by wire, your data is already securely encrypted.

In this case secondary encryption on the wireless connection is unnecessary. URLs beginning with 'https' are encrypted. There is software available that can provide encryption even for websites which do not provide their own. Anchor Free's Hotspot Shield is a popular package which can securely encrypt traffic to and from unsecure websites.

Hotspot Shield can also be used to allow access to sites that are blocked by network administrators. If Facebook, Twitter, TradeMe or some other website you want to access is blocked by your network administrator, software such as Hotspot Shield can allow you to not only access it, but access it securely. Yes, by connecting an ethernet switch to port number 1 on the Zenbu router you can monitor a cabled network.

Many motels use this capability to monitor and control usage of their existing cabled network. People will connect to the system by ethernet cable an ethernet port to provide internet access is often available in motel units and will purchase credit and login in exactly the same way as if they were connecting wirelessly. This is a very cost effective way to monitor and bill for internet usage if you already have cabling available for customers to connect to using their own computers.

There is no wall-mounting "kit" with the Zenbu router, but you can easily mount it on the wall yourself.

One easy way is to simply remove the rubber feet from the router, screw them onto the wall then attach the router to them. Mounting the router on the wall is often a good way to both keep it out of the way and position it in a place which provides good coverage. While we do not sell any additional equipment for increasing coverage from your router, we do provide some information with different ideas for improving coverage right here on our website.

We want all our zone operators to achieve the coverage they want from their Zenbu wireless router as cheaply as possible and hope this information will help. Yes all usage through the Zenbu wireless router will count towards your broadband allowance from your ISP.

The Zenbu wireless system provides a way for you to share your broadband connection but maintain control over how much data others can use. There is no special internet connection required, the Zenbu router uses your existing broadband internet connection just like your own computers do. You could use a normal wireless router that has no control over how much data people use to provide internet access.

In fact many people start out doing exactly this. However, once they discover their monthly broadband allowance has been fully used in a matter of hours, their internet connection is always overloaded and slow or they receive a huge bill from their ISP many people search for a solution and find the Zenbu wireless system to be the perfect answer to the problem.

Basically if there is no control over how much data people can use it is inevitable that eventually someone will very quickly use a lot of data leaving you with either a slow broadband connection or, even worse, a huge bill at the end of the month! People do not necessarily even know what uses a lot of data and often come from countries in which internet connections are fast perhaps hundreds of times faster than broadband connections in New Zealand and have no monthly data limits.

So even if you ask people not to use too much data and they really try not to, it is quite possible they will still inadvertently use a lot. There will also be people who simply don't care and will abuse the unrestricted connection and fully use your broadband allowance quickly, overload your internet connection making it slow for everyone even if you don't have a monthly broadband limit or leave you with an unexpectedly large bill from your ISP if you are charged for excess usage.

Quite simply if you are sharing an internet connection amongst numerous people it is important to control access so the connection remains as fast as possible for everyone. The Zenbu system provides that control. Many operators choose to provide some or even unlimited free access to particular users and the Zenbu wireless system offers several ways in which free credit can be provided. You can simply give an access code to the person you want to provide with free access.

Access vouchers are free to create and have a fixed amount of credit associated with them. Once the user has reached the limit their connection will end and they will need to purchase additional credit or get another access voucher from you to continue using the internet. You can also add users as friends and provide them with either unlimited free access or a certain amount of data they can use each month.

To add a user as a friend you just need to add their Zenbu username to your list of friends on your zone administration page. Even if you are going to provide people with free credit it is generally best to restrict how much data they can use or there will be no incentive for them to limit usage and they will tend to use a lot of data downloading movies etc which will make your broadband connection slow for everyone including yourself.

It is very difficult in many cases impossible to both provide general internet access and also reliably block access to particular internet services. So for us to implement and advertise such a service would at best provide a false sense of security. Apart from the technical issues we believe that if people want to access the internet they should be able to access whatever services they want to and we do not want to be involved with censoring internet access.

We will of course assist law enforcement agencies where possible to help them investigate and prevent criminal activity. No you cannot limit the connection speed of people who connect to your Zenbu system. Our system will always provide full speed internet access as fast as the broadband connection to which it is connected will allow.

Because the total bandwidth available, number of users connected and bandwidth any individual user is consuming at any time is variable it doesn't make sense to attempt to limit the bandwidth available to individual users. The overheads of accurately calculating the bandwidth available per user in this dynamic environment mean doing so is simply not worthwhile. It is best that all users just share the total bandwidth available.

That way everyone is always connected as fast as the broadband connection will allow at any given moment. If you want to restrict the total bandwidth available to share amongst everyone using your Zenbu system this would be done at the broadband modem to which the Zenbu hotspot is connected. It is not possible to modify the layout of the login page but a description of your hotspot location including contact information and a link to your website is automatically displayed on the login page.

It is also possible to display any web page eg. An example of the login page that people see and use to login when they want to connect to the internet is available here.

The Zenbu system can be used with any internet connection to which a computer can connect by network cable. We are unaware of any internet connection which is unsuitable for using our system. And we know our system is used on all the broadband internet connection types mentioned. We even heard from one location that rigged up our system to work through a computer that connected to the internet via dialup!

They were in a location at which even satellite broadband was not available but still wanted to provide Wi-Fi internet access to their customers albeit at very slow speeds!