Validate Email on External Captive Portal

[jvilomar]

Hi Everybody!!

I have a requriment, in which I need to validate the email for the guest user, before allowing him to navigate, that is, previously, using an external captive portal.

The user fill a form, with and a email, then, receive a link, asking to validate the email, but, since, don't have internet, won't be able to navigate to the email provider.  So, there is any way in meraki to bypass this problem, using an external captive portal?  One solution, I thougth is, giving a 5 - 10 minute session in order to allow the user to navigate and validate de email, but this isn't aceptable for our manager.

Any idea?

Thanks in advance

J.M

[Borisorism · Accepted solution]

The first thing that comes to mind is Walled Garden.

You can defined IP ranges and websites which are accessible to user without them going through to the Splash Page. Here is the info: https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Cross-Platform_Content/Walled_Garden

You could then list all the common email provider webpages there. The users should then be able to access their email through a web-browser. Not sure if Walled Garden would work for accessing email through apps.

[jvilomar]

Thanks for your reply,

We thought about that too, setting majors email providers on the wallet garden and allowing the user to navigate and validate the email, but this solution exclude people using others email domains.  And this looks like the most viable solution.

Anyway, thanks!!

[PhilipDAth]

Have you considered using either self registration or sponsored guest mode?

With self registration the user is guided through setting up their own account using their email address which must be verified.  The system then gives the user 10 minutes of Internet access.  During that time they must click on the link thay are emailed to prove they used a legit email address.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Splash_Page/Self-registration_for_Splash_User_Accounts

Info on sponsored guest mode.  In this case the email is sent to someone in your company and they have to click on the link to approve the guest access.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Encryption_and_Authentication/Sponsored_Guest

[jvilomar]

Hi Phillip, 

Thanks for your reply,

The volume of guests are huge, so the sponsor guest isn´t an option, since we are talking about thousands of users.

The First option, we are kind of trying to implement it, but using our custom splash or captive portal.  we have a lot of custom features so, that´s why we can´t use the self registration feature.

Basically, I will allow the user register the account, collect the info and flag the email as unverified in my db, allow the user to navigate for 5 or 10 minutes in order to them to go verify the email an log in with the verified account.

Appreciate your response,

Thanks.

JMV