How to Configure Remote Portal Authentication (Remote Web Server & Local Authentication Server) on TP-Link CAP/AC Serial Products?

TP-LINK AC controller supports multiple kinds of portal authentication methods. This article will introduce how to configure Remote Portal Authentication (Remote Web Server & Local Authentication Server) on TP-Link CAP/AC serial products.

Step 1 Remote Portal config

Please go to Authentication – Portal Authentication – Remote Portal page to designate the Remote Portal Address and the Authentication Server Type as Local Authentication Server as shown below.

Note:

The Remote Portal Address can be the IP address or the Domain Name. Here we take 172.30.30.121 for example. You need to set up your own Portal Server first.
You can also bind this authentication method with some specific VLANs, here we just leave the VLAN ID option blank, which means this authentication method takes effect into all the SSIDs that does not bind with any VLANs.

Step 2 User Management

In this example, we use the AC Controller as the Local Authentication Server, so please go to Authentication – User Management page and click add button to add some user accounts. These accounts will be used for the authentication for the Internet access. Here we add an account admin/admin for test as shown in the picture below.

Note:

There are two user types you can choose, Free User and Formal User. If you choose Formal User, you can bind this account with a specific user (based on the MAC address) as shown below.

The Maximum Users option defines the max number of the users that can use this account for authentication.

Step 3 Connect to the SSID and pass the authentication

After finishing all these configurations, please connect your phone or laptop to the SSID that is binded with this authentication method, and then a portal page will pop up automatically when you visit any HTTP website and requires the Username and Password for authentication as shown below. Please use the account we created just now for the authentication and then enjoy the Internet.

Note:

In this example, we just use a simple Portal page for the test and instruction, you can customize delicate Portal page as you like.
The construction of the Portal page and Portal server is beyond the scope of the article. In the appendix, we will introduce a simple way to build the Portal Server by using Microsoft Internet Information Service (IIS).

Appendix

How to set up a Portal Server by using Microsoft Internet Information Service (IIS) on a Windows 7 computer.

Prepare a web page file which contains the customized portal page in advance.
On Windows 7 computer, please go to Start – Control Panel – Program – Turn Windows features on or off, then in the pop-up window, find and turn on Internet Information Service (IIS) as shown in the picture below.

Then please find IIS manager in the start menu and import the prepared Portal page, after that you can type http://127.0.0.1 in browser’s address bar to check if the Portal Server works.

Note: the default authentication port of the portal is 8080, please make sure it is the same as you defined in your portal page. You can also change it on the Authentication – Portal Authentication – Authentication Config page.