Legacy Open Mesh: Using Lobby Assistant

Topic

This article explains how to use Lobby Assistant with CloudTrax.

Environment

• CloudTrax

Answer

Note: The Lobby Assistant is for those with master accounts. For assistance with Vouchers on current firmware versions, refer to Legacy Open Mesh: Voucher Editor Account.

Lobby Assistant is a free online tool that can be used by hotel operators, apartment managers, and other business owners to create and print real-time vouchers for guests, residents or customers to access the Internet.

Vouchers can be set to specific time increments or bandwidth tiers, ideal for situations where you want to limit access to users who you authorize to use the network for a specific period of time.

Key features include:

• You can create vouchers, customized with your text and logo, to print real-time on a compatible three-inch receipt printer.
• You can offer multiple bandwidth tiers, or offer a free lower-speed service tier and one or more paid tiers at higher speeds.
• You can set the number of users per voucher to support multiple devices—laptops, smart phones, etc.—under one voucher. In a hotel room or apartment, for example, you may want to allow five or so users per voucher.
• You can attribute specific vouchers to specific guests, allowing quicker troubleshooting, better management and easy renewal.

Here’s what’s about to happen:

1. We'll log in to Lobby Assistant.
2. We'll view existing vouchers where we can edit, renew and delete them.
3. We'll create and print new vouchers.

This guide is intended to be used with existing, fully configured networks.

What you’ll need

To use Lobby Assistant, you'll need the following:

1. A computer with access to the Internet.
2. A CloudTrax network name and Lobby Assistant password (create in CloudTrax or ask your network administrator).
3. A 3" receipt printer, such as the Star TSP100 (shown above on right), connected to your computer to print vouchers.

Step 1: Log in to Lobby Assistant

Log in to Lobby Assistant at http://www.cloudtrax.com. You’ll need the network login ID and Lobby Assistant password provided by your administrator.

Step 2: View and edit existing vouchers

Once you log in, you are shown the Edit/View Vouchers page with a list of all existing vouchers. These can be edited, renewed, or deleted at any time. If you don’t have any existing vouchers, skip to Step 3 and return here later.

Finding a specific voucher: There are two ways to find a specific voucher:

1. Browse the list of all vouchers, or
2. Search for a specific voucher code, client device (MAC address), or transaction number.

To edit a voucher: Click the "Edit" button next to the voucher you would like to edit. In the popup window, you’ll be able to change the duration of the voucher, the maximum number of client devices allowed to use the same voucher, and the amount of up and down bandwidth available to the specific voucher. You can also add a comment to the voucher (room number, client name, etc.) to help find it later or attach it to a specific guest. Click "Edit Voucher" to save changes.

Note: Editing a voucher will only affect clients who redeem the voucher after the changes have been made. It does not affect the voucher sessions of clients who have already redeemed the voucher code before changes were made to it. There is currently no way to force changes to clients who have already redeemed the voucher before changes were made.

To renew a voucher: Click the "Renew" button next to the voucher you would like to renew. This resets the used time to zero.

To delete a voucher: Click the "Delete" button next to the voucher you would like to delete. Deleted vouchers will be permanently removed from the system during a nightly purge.

To restore ("UnDelete") a voucher: Once a voucher is deleted, click "UnDelete" to restore it.

To delete a batch of vouchers: To delete a batch of vouchers, enter a variable into the "Search for" box at the top of the page. Select the type of variable you entered (for example, Voucher, Date, or Comment), then select "Delete" and click "Go." The batch of vouchers will be displayed with "Deleted" as the status on each one.

Once a voucher is deleted, it can be restored by following the same steps, but selecting "UnDelete" as the option. Deleted vouchers will be purged from the system nightly, after which time they can not be restored.

You can view a list of all vouchers and their status at any time by logging in to Lobby Assistant.

Step 3: Create and print vouchers

Next, click the "Create Vouchers" link in the top right corner of the screen. This will open a page asking you to enter several options, including:

Voucher code: When using unique codes for each guest, we recommend leaving this blank to auto-generate each voucher code.

If you would like one access code for all guests, you can enter a unique voucher code (letters or numbers) up to 16 characters in length. Note that this differs from a network key or password and must be entered into the splash page. If you use this option, set Max Devices to "0".

Comment: This field can be used for any information you'd like to associate with the voucher such as guest/resident name or room number. Comments are searchable and can help you edit, renew or troubleshoot should a particular user have problems.

Duration (hours): The number of hours each voucher will be valid (starting from first use).

Max devices: The maximum number of devices (1-9) that can use this voucher. A "device" is anything that accesses the Internet, including computers, tablets, smart phones and gaming consoles. Use "0" for unlimited devices or when using a custom voucher code to be used by multiple guests.

Bandwidth Down: Download limit in Mbits/sec, per user, for this voucher batch. Use the slider or enter a value such as .375 for 375kbps.

Bandwidth Up: Upload limit in Mbits/sec, per user, for this voucher batch. Use the slider or enter a value such as .125 for 125kbps.

Duration Text: Text to print to indicate how many hours the voucher is valid.

Access Text: Text to print on each voucher before the voucher code.

Draw Border: Check to draw a border around each voucher.

Show Logo: Includes your dashboard logo on each voucher. Your network administrator has the ability to change the logo in CloudTrax.

Printing vouchers

When your settings are correct, click “Create Vouchers” and a PDF file containing your voucher will open on your screen. Select “Print” and follow the prompts to print the voucher.

Vouchers generated by Lobby Assistant are formatted to print on the Star TSP100 receipt printer. Other three-inch wide receipt printers should work; however, they have not been tested by CloudTrax.

Additional notes on vouchers

When you generate a voucher, it is immediately added to your network. Vouchers are good for the specified period beginning with their first use. So a one day voucher is good for 24 hours from first use, not 24 hours of actual online activity over a longer period.

Note that vouchers can be created for a duration of up to one year, however they must be used for the first time within 90 days of creation or they will be automatically deleted. Expired vouchers will be periodically auto-removed so you don’t have to delete them manually.