Log into SputnikNet, then click on "Prepaid" from the Authentication menu.

Click on "Add New Authentication System" to do just that. Or, select your existing prepaid authentication system from the list (if you have just one, you will skip this step.)

In SputnikNet, prepaid cards are not necessarily physical cards, but user accounts with the following information:

- User ID (the login name)

- Password

- Type: either continuous or discontinuous (see below for explanation)

- Minutes: the amount of network access time allowed ("account time limit")

- Bandwidth (optional): amount of upload + download bandwidth allowed in megabytes (2^20 bytes or 1,048,576 bytes)

Note:

- "Continuous" starts the clock when the user first logs in; the clock keeps ticking continuously until the account time limit is used up regardless of whether the user is logged in or not

- "Discontinuous" starts the clock when the user first logs in; the clock ticks only when the user is logged in (has an active session); the account is valid until the account time limit is used up

- if you set both time and bandwidth limits, the account will expire when either the time or maximum bandwidth is used up, whichever comes first

- set the bandwidth limit as 0 if you want only time limits to apply

- maximum total bandwidth setting is approximately ten exabytes (ten trillion megabytes)

To create prepaid cards in SputnikNet, click "Edit Settings" from the Prepaid Authentication System menu. Fill out the fields under "Generate Paid Cards" as follows:

- Name for this batch: a unique name for the set of generated prepaid cards that will be displayed in SputnikNet, and can be used for searching, managing, and downloading cards

- Username prefix: text that is appended to the beginning of each user ID code

- Starting suffix number: starting number for this batch of prepaid cards, which will be incremented for each new card

- Number of accounts to create: the number of cards in the new batch

- Number of minutes for each account: the amount of network access time allowed by the prepaid card

- Amount of upload + download bandwidth allowed for each account, in megabytes

- Continuous/discontinuous: see above

Click "Execute" to create your new prepaid card batch.

SputnikNet displays the newly generated prepaid cards for review.

Click "Download as CSV" to download your new prepaid card batch to format that you can open with a text editor or spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel.

Click "Continue" to save your prepaid cards in SputnikNet. If you do not want to do this, click on a different link on the page.

Open the CSV ("comma separated values") file in a spreadsheet application such as Excel to review. If you want to print the user IDs on cards, see the online documentation chapter titled "Printing Prepaid Cards".

You can download prepaid card batches at any time. Under "Download Paid Card CSV File" select the batch you want and then click "Execute". A CSV file is downloaded to your PC for use in a spreadsheet or other application.

Under "Display Cards":

- choose the prepaid card batch you want to display

- select whether you want to see all cards, unused, partially used, or completely used cards

- filter by username (leave blank for all)

- filter by use date (select "All" to view all dates)

SputnikNet displays the cards that match your selection criteria. Copy these values for use in an external application, such as a spreadsheet.

Under "Delete Pre-Paid Card(s)":

- choose a batch from which you will delete one or more cards

- filter by username

- confirm that you want to delete the entire batch (also leave username field blank)

SputnikNet displays the prepaid cards that match your selection criteria. Click "Delete" to delete them.

SputnikNet confirms the deletion. Click "Continue" to do just that.