Sine the early part of last year, I have been poking my head around alternatives to the typical ready to go hotspot in a box solutions offered by major broadband carriers. At one point, I felt that Less Networks Hotspot Server was the best route for creating a public hotspot. From what I have been able to learn of them thus far, it would seem to me that they have a lot to offer. It’s secure, easy to use and offers a network of other hotspot providers as a backbone of sorts to create a real sense of community within the hotspot world.

This all changed today when I discovered the following: Public IP’s ZoneCD. Not only do these guys offer me an option that is Open Source, but they do so with an easy to configure Live CD ISO that can be downloaded by anyone. Unlike my first option, they were ready with tutorials that really spoke to me. The point about the guy from Kansas City being able to do this with minimal computer experience really made me feel like this is something worth bringing to the Lockergnome table.

Operating in both Open and Closed modes, I felt like ZoneCD offers its users a way to get a hotspot setup in a matter of minutes without a lot of hassle. Not only that, but if something goes wrong, you can just reboot. After all, it’s a Live CD! I was also impressed by the feature list provided to me on its Web site. Check this out:

Open Mode

• Homepage Redirection

• Customize ZoneCD splash page
• Content Filtering (block porn, downloads, etc.)
• Customize Firewall rules

Closed Mode

• User authentication/registration

• Homepage redirection
• Bandwidth shaping
• Daily time limits
• Daily download limits
• Zone open and close times
• Block by mac address
• Configure end-user network permissions(Classes)
• Customize firewall rules for each Class
• Content Filtering (block porn, downloads, etc.)
• Daily Log Mailer program
• Block traffic to *wired* network
• Customize ZoneCD login pages
• Branded “Terms of Use” template or use your own
• Usage statistics
• Multilingual login pages (Dutch, French, German, Spanish, English)
• End-User reporting

Now correct me if I am wrong, but this is not too shabby for the whopping price of $0! Besides that, the system requirements look to be quite reachable as well. Now, this alone is fine and dandy. Yet, how simple is the setup really? Well, take a look for yourself… ya, it is really this easy. To be fair, however, I am not going to sit here and say that any person brand new to computing is going to set this up with ease. What I am going to tell you is that anyone looking at setting up a hotspot of their own would be nuts to not at least examine the benefits of ZoneCD first. I mean seriously, while many OSS projects have hideous help documentation with tons of lingo, these guys seem to really get the fact that Joe average might be interested in using this for themselves! Great job, Public IP!