mars Portal combines several reliable and scalable open source products. It combines them in certain ways and adds specific features wherever these features are missing. Additionally it ties together best practices to address typical problems of networks in developing/emerging countries.
Among other apsects it uses pfSense built on top of FreeBSD to implement a Captive Portal to grant individual devices access rights and permissions:
- Bandwidth limits
- Data volume limits
- Disconnect device when reaching limits
- Self-registration by users
Linux is used to host a freeRADIUS and daloRADIUS implementation for:
- Authentication and Accounting
- Grouping devices into groups
- Disconnect Message (Packet of Disconnect)
- Custom Directory Attributes
A MySQL database is used for custom reports and statistics.
Finally a simple, yet powerful router running EasyTomato can optionally be used as an 'edge router' to provide additional content filtering and simplified traffic shaping.