NoCatSplash is a Open Public Network Gateway Daemon.  It performs as a
[captive/open/active] portal.  When run on a gateway/router on a network,
all web requests are redirected until the client either logs in or clicks
"I Accept" to an AUP. The gateway daemon then changes the firewall rules
on the gateway to pass traffic for that client (based on IP address and
MAC address).

NoCatSplash is the successor to NoCatAuth, which was written in Perl.
NoCatSplash is written in ANSI C in order to be smaller and work better on
embedded style devices. NoCatSplash uses the portable GLib library from the
GNOME Project for its event loop, memory management, and high-level data
structures.

*** Quickstart

./configure
make 
make install
vi /usr/local/etc/nocat.conf
/usr/local/sbin/splashd

*** Requirements - Current

- Linux
 * glib 1.2
 * iptables
 * netfilter kernel modules for NAT, redirection, etc.
 * GnuPG (passive mode only)
 * libghttp (remote splash only)

*** Requirements - Future Version

- FreeBSD
 * ipfw - no MAC address filtering
 * ipfwv2 - includes MAC address filtering
 * gmake

- OpenBSD
 * pfctl

- NetBSD

- Mac OS X

*** Building NoCatSplash for normal operation

To build and configure the NoCatSplash gateway, run:

$ cd NoCatSplash-nightly
$ ./configure
$ make 

iptables must be in your path when you run ./configure! Next, as root:

# make install
# vi /usr/local/etc/nocat.conf [or use your editor of choice]

In addition to the usual GNU ./configure options, NoCatSplash also supports:

  --prefix=<path to install> 
	defaults to /usr/local

  --with-remote-splash
	If enabled, splashd will attempt to fetch its splash page
	from the URL specified by SplashURL, rather than using the
	local one specified by SplashForm. SplashForm is retained
	as a fallback in the event that SplashURL can't be loaded.

  --with-mode=passive
	Compile for *experimental* authenticating passive mode. Passive mode
	basically doesn't really work yet. Patches welcome.

  --with-firewall=loopback       
	Compiles with "loopback" firewall scripts for testing.

  --with-ghttpd
	Also compiles ghttpd for local web server testing.


*** Running the NoCatSplash gateway

To run the NoCatSplash gateway, you must be root. Run:

# export PATH=$PATH:/sbin
# ./splashd

In particular, you need to make sure that iptables can be found via the
PATH environment variable before executing splashd.

*** Building NoCatSplash for testing purposes

You can build NoCatSplash with the "loopback" firewall scripts in order
to test it on a machine without any network connection:

$ cd splash
$ ./configure --prefix=/tmp/nocat --with-firewall=loopback \
     --with-ghttpd
$ make
$ make install
$ vi /tmp/nocat/etc/nocat.conf

Set "LoginTimeout" to a low value, say, 120 seconds. As root, run:

# /tmp/nocat/sbin/ghttpd &
# /tmp/nocat/sbin/splashd

If you're not currently running a web server,  this will start ghttpd, a
lightweight web server, running on port 80, serving data out of the
DocumentRoot specified in nocat.conf.  Then run /tmp/nocat/sbin/splashd. Open a
browser, and go to http://localhost/test.html or some other page on your local
web server. You should be captured and allowed to log in, at which point you
should be directed to the web page you attempted to visit. You should be able
to browse your local web server until your login expires.

*** Notes

NoCatSplash only runs on Linux at present. Contact me if you are
interested in porting it to other operating systems, particularly *BSD,
and I will give you pointers on how to do so.

People who have been paying attention will note that I've temporarily
thrown out my original design for NoCatSplash, and concentrated on
building a simplified rendition of the NoCatAuth Open mode in C. This
is deliberate. The original design was nice, but too baroque for getting
this project off the ground.

Anyway, this code is going to change very rapidly. It might
not be fancy, but it should work. Comments and questions welcome.

SDE <schuyler@nocat.net>