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# How Subscribers Use a Residential Portal

A residential portal is a Web application designed for use by individual subscribers who use their own computer to connect to the network, or households composed of multiple subscribers who use one or more computers and share the same network connection. The portal can be the single access point for subscribers to log in to the Internet. In addition to Internet access, a residential portal lets users manage subscriptions to services that supplement their basic Internet access package.

Residential portals can be used in wire-line, wireless, and roaming wireless environments:

- Fixed access environment—Subscribers can connect to a wholesaler or retailer using PPP, static IP, or DHCP through media such as cable, DSL, or telephone wire-line connections.

  For DHCP connections that do not use equipment registration, PPP connections, or static IP connections, subscribers establish connections to a specific provider. If they want to connect to a different provider, subscribers log out of the current connection, and then log in to another one.

- Local wireless environment—Subscribers registered with the local wireless operator can connect to the location, typically by using DHCP.
- Roaming wireless environment—Subscribers can log in at a variety of wireless locations owned by service providers that participate in a roaming network agreement. Typically the connections use DHCP.

In each of these scenarios, the subscriber’s experience is similar:

1. The subscriber connects to and logs in to an access point.
2. Based on the login, the subscriber’s user profile is retrieved, and services are started on the router.
3. The subscriber’s Web browser is redirected to a home or start page for the residential portal.
4. After logging in to the portal, subscribers can manage the services available from the provider.

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