TARASEC HOTSPOTS

Earn. Test. Demonstrate.

A TaraSec hotspot is more than a way to share Wi-Fi. The same deployed hotspot can generate local income while TaraSec builds its network, provide a real test environment for students and partners, and let anyone experience cooperative cybersecurity through the TaraSec app.

Why hotspots matter Community hotspot groups Demo 4 for ISPs

THREE IMPORTANT USES

One hotspot deployment supports three parts of the TaraSec project.

Income while building the network

Hotspots can sell or sponsor Internet access and create income for local operators while TaraSec is still expanding. Each economically useful hotspot can also become part of the growing TaraSec edge network.

Demo 4 is directly connected to this role. It demonstrates how hotspots behind ordinary ISP or carrier NAT can still participate in cooperative security by sending TaraSec-tagged traffic through an identifiable TaraSec routing endpoint. If telecoms and ISPs join TaraSec, the commercial hotspot footprint can therefore grow into useful cooperative security infrastructure instead of remaining only a Wi-Fi business.

See Demo 4 and the ISP model

Test environment for students and partners

Universities, students, telecoms, ISPs and other partners can connect real devices to a TaraSec-controlled network and test reporting, tagging, blocking, routing and recovery across a real network path. The hotspot makes it possible to study TaraSec as a working system rather than only as a simulation.

Demo environment for everyone else

For public demonstrations, participants should normally need only the TaraSec app and a nearby TaraSec hotspot. The app can guide them into a challenge or demonstration and show how suspicious or infected traffic is identified, reported and handled without requiring participants to configure Linux, routers or firewalls.

POINT 1 + DEMO 4

The business network can become security infrastructure.

The important idea is that TaraSec does not need to deploy a second physical network just to test or operate cooperative cybersecurity.

Hotspots are deployed because they can provide useful local connectivity and revenue. As that footprint grows, the same gateways can participate in TaraSec. Demo 4 addresses a practical ISP challenge: many hotspots sit behind NAT and therefore do not have a stable public address that another ISP can recognize as a direct TaraSec participant.

For tagged traffic, a hotspot can use a designated TaraSec routing endpoint with a known public identity. A cooperating receiving ISP can recognize that endpoint as a TaraSec partner path while still treating the actual traffic according to the TaraSec security tag. This is not whitelisting; the point is to make already-classified suspicious traffic identifiable and actionable across network boundaries.

If telecom operators participate, the model becomes much more scalable: commercial hotspot deployment helps finance and expand the edge network, while ISP participation makes the resulting security cooperation more valuable.

Hotspots create local valueRevenue & connectivity

More hotspotsLarger TaraSec edge network

Demo 4 / ISP cooperationTagged traffic across NAT

Telecom participationGreater network value

YOUR HOTSPOT

Choose how you want to provide access.

Use a Linux computer

A Linux computer such as an Ubuntu machine is the current practical TaraSec hotspot platform. It provides the flexibility needed for security, monitoring, captive access and local services. Public step-by-step installation guidance is still being completed.

Router support is future research

An OpenWrt/openNDS design exists in source form, but TaraSec has not yet completed an installation on OpenWrt hardware. It must be treated as an unvalidated research direction—not a supported or tested hotspot option.

Free or paid access

You may choose to provide Internet access free of charge, sell access, sponsor selected users or grant access manually. The exact management options are still being developed.

PAYMENTS

Set your prices and choose how payments are handled.

The planned model gives the hotspot owner control over pricing and access. You could handle payment yourself and grant access manually, or use TaraSec-supported payment handling where it is available.

Payment methods differ between countries and communities, so TaraSec is being designed around configurable payment options rather than one global payment method. Automatic payment integration, settlement terms and supported providers are still under development.

LOCAL OPPORTUNITY

A hotspot can be more than Wi-Fi.

A locally operated hotspot can provide connectivity while creating a relationship between the local operator and the people using it. TaraSec aims to make that practical without requiring every operator to become a networking or payment expert.

You set the local model

Decide who receives access, what it costs and whether access is sold, sponsored or provided as a community service.

TaraSec can assist

We are developing tools for access management, security monitoring and optional payment automation. Features will be introduced as they are tested and ready.

Start with suitable hardware

Computer-based hotspots are expected to be the main flexible platform. Smaller routers may also be useful where their hardware and software capabilities are sufficient.

UNTESTED ROUTER RESEARCH

OpenWrt is not currently an installation option.

TaraSec has design notes and early installer source for a possible lightweight OpenWrt/openNDS implementation, but it has never yet been installed and validated on an OpenWrt router. Experienced contributors may review the research notes; hotspot operators should use the Linux-computer direction.

Read untested OpenWrt design notes