Captive Portal

Portal Simulation

Portal Simulation lets you preview and test the complete captive portal experience for any zone and Journey combination — without needing to be physically connected to your WiFi network. Use it for QA before going live, client demonstrations, and verifying how the portal looks across different devices.

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Portal Simulation — select a zone and journey, choose a device frame, and interact with the live portal in the browser.

What It Does

The Simulation tool renders the actual live captive portal in an embedded browser frame inside the admin panel. Unlike the Preview button in Portal Designer (which only shows the template), Simulation runs the complete portal stack:

The Journey is fully resolved — login methods, template, redirect URL
Template variables are populated with realistic sample data
Login forms are functional — you can submit credentials and follow the complete authentication flow
The success/redirect page is rendered after a successful test login

Simulation Controls

A control bar above the device frame lets you configure the simulation environment:

Control	Description
Zone	Select the network zone to simulate. The zone's mapped Journey is loaded automatically. Changing the zone reloads the frame.
Journey	Override the zone's default Journey — pick any active Journey from the dropdown to preview how the portal would look if that Journey were mapped to the selected zone.
Device Size	Toggle the frame between Desktop (full-width), Tablet (~768 px), and Mobile (~375 px portrait). The frame resizes in real time.
Reload	Force-refresh the simulation frame without changing the selected zone or journey.

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The three device frame sizes — desktop, tablet, and mobile — let you verify responsive layout at every breakpoint.

Because Simulation renders the real portal, you can perform a complete end-to-end test:

Select the zone and journey you want to test
The portal login page loads in the frame
Enter valid test credentials (a real user account, voucher code, or OTP via the configured connector)
Submit the form — the portal authenticates the credentials against Kiwire's backend
The success page (or redirect URL) is rendered in the frame, completing the flow

This confirms that the entire chain — from Journey configuration through template rendering to credential validation and redirect — is working correctly.

Create a dedicated test user account (e.g., testguest) with a known password for use in Simulation. Assign it an access profile with a short session time so it is easy to reset between tests.

Common Use Cases

Pre-launch QA — Verify a new Journey is correctly configured before mapping it to live zones.
Client presentation — Show clients exactly how the portal will look on a mobile device, using their branding and login methods, without scheduling a site visit.
Responsive testing — Confirm that the portal template layout is correct on desktop, tablet, and mobile before publishing.
Login method validation — Test that each enabled login method (OTP, voucher, social) works correctly end-to-end.
Success page review — Check that the redirect URL and success message appear correctly after authentication.

Limitations & Differences from Production

Simulation runs in a privileged admin context — some production portal behaviours are intentionally different:

Feature	Simulation Behaviour
MAC binding	MAC address checks are bypassed — the simulation does not send a real device MAC. MAC-bound sessions and MAC auto-login are not testable here.
RADIUS session checks	RADIUS accounting and live session validation are not triggered during simulation logins. The user account is authenticated but no RADIUS session is opened.
Walled Garden	Walled Garden rules only apply to actual network traffic. In simulation, all URLs in the frame load normally regardless of walled garden configuration.
HTTPS redirect	Production portals may redirect HTTP-only traffic. In simulation, the portal is loaded directly over HTTPS with no intercept redirect.
SMS / WhatsApp OTP	OTP delivery works normally — real SMS/WhatsApp messages are sent to the phone number entered. Ensure you use a real phone number if testing these methods.

Test logins performed in Simulation create real authentication records in the tenant database (session logs, login count increments, etc.). If you need to keep test data separate, use a dedicated test user account that you reset periodically.

Required Permissions

view-simulation