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Hot­spot operation

Hot­spot usage

Hot­spot installation

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Do I have to pay for the usa­ge of my own hotspot?

No, of cour­se not. As hot­spot ope­ra­tor you always access your hot­spot for free. After all, we do not want to put ope­ra­tors at a dis­ad­van­ta­ge. Fur­ther­mo­re you can make a list of free users. This way, fri­ends or flat mates don’t have to pay eit­her — inde­pen­dent of the cho­sen tariff.

You can add sel­ec­ted Mac addres­ses and user names in the cus­to­mer area under “My hot­spots”. In the data field under “Add free MAC” enter the phy­si­cal MAC address of the end device that you want to release and then click on [ Add ]. You can only enter and add one MAC address in the data field at a time. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, it is not pos­si­ble to enter seve­ral MAC addres­ses at the same time. The MAC addres­ses released on the hot­spot are dis­play­ed in the “Free MACs” list.

How does the bil­ling work for hot­spot operators?

With each usa­ge of a hot­spot, that is not free of char­ge, the hot­spot operator’s share is cal­cu­la­ted. At the begin­ning of a new calen­dar month, the paya­ble cre­dit balan­ce is updated.

You can trans­fer your inco­me to your bank account. The mini­mum amount for bank trans­fer is EUR 10.00.

Alter­na­tively you can use the money to pay for loca­ti­on tickets for reselling.

Can I return loca­ti­on tickets?

Yes. Go to the cus­to­mer area and choo­se the menu item “Loca­ti­on tickets”. Click “Opti­ons” for the tickets you want to return.

In the top part of the fol­lo­wing page you can chan­ge some pro­per­ties, which have no influence on the pri­ce HOTSPLOTS char­ges for the tickets, which more often than not makes retur­ning the tickets unneces­sa­ry. For the cases this is not suf­fi­ci­ent you will find the but­ton “Return tickets” at the bot­tom of the page.

Any amount alre­a­dy char­ged for retur­ned or still unu­sed tickets will be sett­led with the next invoice for loca­ti­on tickets or run­ning con­tracts. The retur­ned tickets of the sheet will then beco­me invalid.

Do I have to wri­te down names of ticket customers?

No. In the EU the­re ist no legal obli­ga­ti­on to record per­so­nal data of ticket customers.

Are the­re ser­vice accounts with limi­t­ed access for ticket management?

An exis­ting cus­to­mer account allows the crea­ti­on of sub­ac­counts with limi­t­ed user rights. This may be useful in such cases when, for exam­p­le, a hotel mana­ger wants to enable employees or the ser­vice per­son­nel to crea­te loca­ti­on tickets wit­hout giving them com­ple­te access to all func­tions of the hot­spot management.

At the bot­tom of the form under “Account” in the cus­to­mer area you can find a but­ton to regis­ter a “New ser­vice account”.

The new account is then lin­ked to the “parent account”. After log­ging in to the ser­vice account all ticket func­tions of the “parent account”, such as prin­ting or reor­de­ring tickets, can be used. Mana­ging hot­spots, chan­ges to the set­tings or using hot­spots are not pos­si­ble with such an account.

How can I check whe­ther VPN rou­ting is on?

Hot­spot ope­ra­tors can check the func­tion­a­li­ty of VPN rou­ting in three ways:

  1. If you are con­nec­ted to your own WLAN hot­spot, you can open iptest.hotsplots.de with any web brow­ser. On this page your public IP is shown and whe­ther VPN rou­ting is acti­ve or not.
  2. The sta­tus of the VPN con­nec­tion is shown under menu items Sta­tus and VPN rou­ting in the hot­spot router’s web interface.
  3. In the cus­to­mer area under menu item My hot­spots in the row labe­led “VPN-Rou­ting” it is shown whe­ther VPN rou­ting is acti­ve or not. For acti­ve VPN con­nec­tions date and time of the last VPN accoun­ting ent­ry is given as well as the IP adress of the VPN server.
What infor­ma­ti­on is stored at usa­ge of VPN routing?

After con­nec­ting to or dis­con­nec­ting from the VPN ser­ver timestamp, hot­spot name, IP address of the VPN ser­ver, the hotspot’s public IP and VPN IP address are saved tog­e­ther with the amount of trans­fe­red data.

After log­out data that is not nee­ded for bil­ling pur­po­ses is tem­po­r­a­ri­ly stored for tech­ni­cal main­ten­an­ce and sup­port. In an effort to reach an opti­mum bet­ween pri­va­cy pro­tec­tion and qua­li­ty of ser­vice we go cle­ar­ly below the legal limit of seven days. At the moment we dele­te the­se data after three days.

All data that is nee­ded for bil­ling pur­po­ses is dele­ted month­ly if it is older than five months and the bill is paid wit­hout objection.

Plea­se noti­ce the data pro­tec­tion poli­cy of our web­site too.

Is HOTSPLOTS regis­tered with the Bun­des­netz­agen­tur (Fede­ral Net­work Agency)?

Of cour­se. hot­splots GmbH was regis­tered with the Bun­des­netz­agen­tur for its offer of com­mer­cial tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on ser­vices for the public in accordance with § 6 Tele­kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­ons­ge­setz (TKG — Tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons Act) under the regis­tra­ti­on num­ber 05/423 in 2005.

Equal­ly natu­ral­ly HOTSPLOTS com­pli­es with the obli­ga­ti­on to crea­te and main­tain a secu­ri­ty con­cept accor­ding to § 109 TKG.

Like any pro­vi­der offe­ring char­geable time-based tariffs accor­ding to § 45g TKG HOTSPLOTS is requi­red to pro­ve the cor­rect­ness of the con­nec­tion rate cal­cu­la­ti­on. For this reason, HOTPLOTS has its­elf audi­ted by a publicly appoin­ted and sworn expert for tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and con­nec­tion rate cal­cu­la­ti­on every year. Eva­lua­ti­on and audit report are then che­cked by the Bundesnetzagentur.

Do I get a regu­lar receipt?

Yes. For the sake of the envi­ron­ment and becau­se it’s sim­ply con­ve­ni­ent and inex­pen­si­ve, we offer down­loa­ding as a PDF file as standard.

If you always want an invoice by post, we offer this for a surchar­ge of EUR 1.50 plus sta­tu­to­ry VAT. VAT on. To do this, plea­se cont­act buchhaltung(at)hotsplots.de, sta­ting your cus­to­mer number.

Plea­se note: If you need the sales tax shown in the cre­dit note, you must first have pro­vi­ded us with pro­of of your sales tax lia­bi­li­ty. You have the fol­lo­wing opti­ons for this:

  1. Enter your company’s VAT iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on num­ber online in the cus­to­mer area under “Account” in the “Edit account” sec­tion (scroll down).
  2. Send us a con­fir­ma­ti­on from your tax office using the USt 1 TN form.
  3. Send us a let­ter of con­fir­ma­ti­on from your tax office that your com­pa­ny is regis­tered the­re under the spe­ci­fied tax num­ber. is mana­ged and is not exempt from VAT.
  4. Send us a let­ter from your accoun­tant con­fir­ming that your com­pa­ny is lis­ted under the tax num­ber pro­vi­ded and is not exempt from VAT.

Not suf­fi­ci­ent are:

  • own busi­ness papers
  • Copies of busi­ness regis­tra­ti­on and regis­ter entries,
  • Tax state­ments older than one year.
Does HOTSPLOTS also offer Inter­net connections?

Yes. In the con­text of so-cal­led hot­spot pro­vi­sio­ning con­tracts HOTSPLOTS acts as the ope­ra­tor of the local hot­spot net­work and acti­va­tes Inter­net con­nec­tions in its own name to ope­ra­te the hot­spot. This works sta­tio­na­ry with DSL con­nec­tions, fib­re optic or coaxi­al cable as well as SIM cards for mobi­le pho­ne networks.

I have seve­ral hot­spots. How can I add dif­fe­rent bil­ling addresses?

If you have various bil­ling addres­ses you need one user account for each bil­ling address. The­r­e­fo­re, you should crea­te dif­fe­rent user accounts befo­re set­ting up the hot­spots and link them to the respec­ti­ve account.

For ques­ti­ons and moving a hot­spot to a dif­fe­rent user account plea­se cont­act our con­tract manage­ment team.

How can I abro­ga­te the HOTSPLOTS service?

 You can dele­te you cus­to­mer account sim­ply with a mou­se click in the Cus­to­mer area. If you have acti­ve con­tracts plea­se can­cel the­se con­tracts in writ­ten form.

We recom­mend to dele­te your hot­spots befo­re you dele­te your account. In the cus­to­mer area under My hot­spots you find a but­ton at the bot­tom of the page, whe­re pre­fe­reren­ces of the hot­spot, like tarif, are set, cal­led “dele­te this hot­spot”. Plea­se con­sider that the inco­me of a hot­spot will be cre­di­ted to your account on the 1st of the fol­lo­wing month. You can with­draw you paya­ble inco­me under My account > Pay out. The hot­spot can curr­ent­ly be dele­ted in the old cus­to­mer area (as of June 2022)

You can dele­te your user account in the cus­to­mer area under cus­to­mer data after you have cli­cked on “dele­te account” under “Account”.

You can have your ear­nings trans­fer­red to you under “My hot­spots” > “Cre­dit payout”.

To per­ma­nent­ly dele­te your user account, plea­se click on “Dele­te account” under “Cus­to­mer data” in the cus­to­mer area — and on the sub­se­quent but­ton to confirm.

Your account will be deac­ti­va­ted with imme­dia­te effect. Plea­se note that any remai­ning cre­dit will be lost for you.

How do I find the MAC address of my device (Android, iOS)?

You can find the MAC address in the set­tings of your mobi­le device. You can down­load a short ins­truc­tion for various Android and iOS ver­si­ons here: Quick Gui­de MAC address

What shall I do with a defec­ti­ve device?

Plea­se call our sup­port team. You can cont­act us at +49 30 29 77 348–0 (week­days Mon­day-Fri­day, 08:00 — 20:00).
Plea­se have the seri­al num­ber of the device and/or the deli­very bill rea­dy. If the device has to be sent in for tech­ni­cal inspec­tion, a return bill will be sent to you. This must be com­ple­ted and enc­lo­sed with the hard­ware ship­ment. Plea­se coor­di­na­te each return ship­ment in advan­ce by tele­pho­ne in order to obtain the man­da­to­ry pro­cess num­ber.
Ship­ments which can­not be assi­gned, e.g. becau­se of miss­ing tran­sac­tion num­ber or insuf­fi­ci­ent­ly fil­led out return bill, will be sent back with cos­ts (39,00 € net expen­se fee).

Or alter­na­tively use our cont­act here.

Is it pos­si­ble for users to log in with mul­ti­ple devices at the same time?

Yes.
The­re is no limi­ta­ti­on on the num­ber of users log­ged in at the same time using Direct-Log­in.
For loca­ti­on tickets, the maxi­mum num­ber of simul­ta­neous users can be sel­ec­ted. Tickets that can be used with seve­ral devices, i.e. by seve­ral peo­p­le at the same time, are cal­led “group tickets”. For hot­spots with a time-based dai­ly tariff, the opti­on can be acti­va­ted that a maxi­mum of three devices can log in at the same time. Plea­se cont­act our sup­port for this option.

Is it pos­si­ble that users do not have to log in to the hot­spot each time again?

Yes. We can acti­va­te the “Auto-Log­in” fea­ture in the hot­spot set­tings. Under the “My hot­spots” tab, we sel­ect the hot­spot we want to con­fi­gu­re by cli­cking on the spro­cket that is in the field for the respec­ti­ve hot­spot. We can now acti­va­te the “Auto-Log­in” fea­ture under “Name and address”. Devices with a known MAC address are then auto­ma­ti­cal­ly log­ged in. The MAC addres­ses are saved after a log­in for a cer­tain peri­od of time. Curr­ent­ly, the fol­lo­wing time peri­ods can be defined:

  • 0 days limited
  • 1 day limited
  • 2 days limi­t­ed or continuous
  • 3 days limi­t­ed or continuous
  • 4 days limi­t­ed or continuous
  • 5 days limi­t­ed or continuous
  • 6 days limi­t­ed or continuous
  • 7 days limi­t­ed or continuous
  • 30 days limi­t­ed or continuous
  • 42 days limi­t­ed or continuous

If the time peri­od is “limi­t­ed”, it expi­res inde­pendent­ly of auto­ma­tic log­ins. If the peri­od is “con­ti­nuous”, it starts anew with each auto­ma­tic log­in.
For peri­ods excee­ding 7 days, the user’s con­sent must be obtai­ned by ticking a box.
The Auto-Log­in fea­ture can be com­bi­ned with the Direct-Log­in tariffs, dai­ly tariffs, with Loca­ti­on Tickets and also with Fle­xiFlat and Loca­ti­on­F­lats.
The func­tion is not available with time tariffs, which are bil­led by minu­te, and volu­me tariffs, which are bil­led by the mega­byte, as the user would other­wi­se lose con­trol of the cos­ts if he does not actively log out.
The “Auto-Log­in” func­tion­a­li­ty is available at no addi­tio­nal cost. Plea­se cont­act our sup­port for this option.

How do I add free MAC addresses?
 Plea­se note that you can only use free MAC addres­ses at loca­ti­ons with the “Direct Log­in” and “HOTSPLOTS V.I.P” tariff opti­ons. A con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on must also be stored on your hot­spot rou­ter that enables auto­ma­tic log­in with MAC addres­ses. If you have not yet used the auto­ma­tic log­in with free MAC addres­ses, plea­se cont­act tech­ni­cal sup­port, who can car­ry out this con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on for you.
Choo­se “Rate & Free User/MAC” from the hot­spot side menu (My hot­spots > Sel­ect hot­spot with gear icon > Hot­spot menu), click Rate & Free User/MAC. Then enter your MAC or WLAN address in the “Add free MAC” field. Your MAC address is auto­ma­ti­cal­ly adapt­ed to the for­mat rele­vant for the cus­to­mer area. The­r­e­fo­re, ent­ries with “:” or “-” are possible.
How do I dele­te free MAC addresses?
Choo­se “Rate & Free User/MAC” from the hot­spot side menu (My hot­spots > Sel­ect hot­spot with gear icon > Hot­spot menu), click Rate & Free User/MAC. Using the “Free MACs” list, click the MAC address that you want to dele­te. The sel­ec­ted MAC address now appears with a blue back­ground. Final­ly, click on “Dele­te” to remo­ve the MAC address from the list of free MACs.
How do I add free users?
Choo­se “Rate & Free User/MAC” from the hot­spot side menu (My hot­spots > Sel­ect hot­spot with gear icon > Hot­spot menu), click Rate & Free User/MAC. In the data field under “Add free user”, you can enter the user names of regis­tered HOTSPLOTS users who should have per­ma­nent free access to the hot­spot. Final­ly, click “Add” to add the ente­red user to the list of free users. All HOTSPLOTS users who have free access to the hot­spot are lis­ted under “Free users”.
How do I dele­te free users?
Choo­se “Rate & Free User/MAC” from the hot­spot side menu (My hot­spots > Sel­ect hot­spot with gear icon > Hot­spot menu), click Rate & Free User/MAC. Using the “Free users” list, click the name of the user you want to dele­te. The sel­ec­ted user name now appears with a blue back­ground. Final­ly, click on “Dele­te” to remo­ve the user from the list of free users.
How do I con­fi­gu­re ope­ning hours for my hotspot?
Choo­se “Office hours” in the hot­spot side menu (My hot­spots > Sel­ect hot­spot with gear icon > Hot­spot menu).
From the drop-down menu, choo­se one of the fol­lo­wing set­tings for the cho­sen one week­day off:
• Always open (open all day) week­day color green
• Part­ly open (con­cre­te ope­ning and clo­sing times), week­day color oran­ge
• Clo­sed (clo­sed all day) week­day color red
If you sel­ect “Par­ti­al­ly open”, 2 input fields will open. Enter the ope­ning time in the first input field and the clo­sing time in the second.
By cli­cking on the plus sign but­ton you add fur­ther ope­ning and clo­sing times, with the minus sign but­ton you remo­ve them again. To dele­te the ente­red time, click on the cross sym­bol. To chan­ge the ente­red time, click in the hour or minu­te input field so that the num­bers appear with a blue back­ground and then enter the desi­red num­bers. Final­ly, to save the ope­ning times, click on “App­ly ope­ning times”. If you lea­ve the page wit­hout con­fir­ming that you have accept­ed the ope­ning hours, all the data you have ente­red will be lost.

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