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Rich1963

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 18, 2008
259
0
I'm not sure what forum is most appropriate for this, so I thought I'd drop it in here and see what answer I got.

My mother runs a bakery/deli in Minnesota. She has resisted offering wi-fi for years because she is fearful that people will park themselves for long periods of time (especially during busy times of the day) and consume a seat and cup of coffee, while really not contributing much to the bottom line.

I am curious if the following is possible - Can you EASILY set up a wi-fi network (preferably with Apple products) that would have a password log-on system (like WPA2 currently has), that would only allow individual IP addresses on for one hour, then ban them for, say, a 12 hour period. My thinking is that this would allow an individual to come in, sit down with a cup of coffee, and relax for an hour. But it would also keep that same person from parking for 5 hours waiting for a sales call to go to.

I want to keep this easy, however, as I have a family and home/job of my own, and while I have no problem assisting my mother, I also don't want to become her constant IT support everytime a person complains that the wi-fi isn't working. She is also not that well versed in networks (or computers for that matter - she still thinks that calling a mouse a 'mouse' is funny) and my father thinks he's knowledgeable with computers and really isn't (and will tinker with every settings everytime there is a problem).

I would also like to take this opportunity (if this is actually feasible) to get my parents into the Apple product ecosystem....

So what say we all?
 
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