If you are on holiday, can you survive without the internet? Well, you cannot. So, this article is all about how to set up guest Wifi and how to prepare and safely share your password for the guests.
Guest WiFi Access
Whenever guests visit your house and want to look for some information on the internet, they often ask for “What is your WiFi password?”. In that situation, you left with no other option than to give your password to the guest. Perhaps it is not possible for every time to share your personal network password to everyone.
Therefore, the best solution for this is to create a guest Wi-Fi network for the guests. Guest WiFi is a better way to give house guests access to the internet and in this way, you also maintain your privacy and also you don’t have to share the primary password anymore.
How Does It Work?
When you create a guest network on your personal router, basically you are creating a secondary WiFi access point for the guests who want to use it. An individual SSID and password is created, which is totally different from the primary credentials. So, when the guest wants to access your Wi-Fi connectivity, you can easily handover the secondary SSID and password other than the primary ones. This ensures that whatever your visitors want, will not compromise with your device.
Reasons to Have Guest WiFi:
There are several reasons for you to set up a guest WiFi at your home, some of which are as follows:
Password
Howsoever the complicated your password is, you can protect your main network. Perhaps you can create a simple and easy password for your guests. Also, you can change the password anytime you want, without even impacting the devices of your home.
Limited Access
You can keep your files, data, and personal information safe from the main or primary network. Whenever your guest stream, surf or check their mail, they will be doing so with the secondary network access.
Network Security Improved
What if your guest or visitor brings in an infected device? For that, you won’t have to worry a bit as the guest Wifi network helps to protect from security threats such a network worms or malware. Thus, it will not spread from one device to another device.
Smart Home Security
Guest network Wifi adds another level of security for your network. It is recommended by some experts to connect your home security devices with the guest Wifi network. As if a simple smart home device gets hacked, the hacker will not be able to access your main primary network.
Popular Ways to Set Up Your Guest Wi-Fi:
With all the above introduction about Guest WiFi, you can now set up your guest Wifi at your home for the guest or visitors. For that, go through the steps listed below:
Improve the Wi-Fi Coverage
However, your guest is going to have a bad time if your house is full of dead spots and slowdown spots. So to fix it up, there is no better time than now. You have to check for the most Wifi coverage area and perhaps it is better in the guest room.
You just have to move the router to a new spot to let the guest have a better experience. Also, try to maintain to keep it high on a shelf, so that books or any other objects cannot block it. Therefore, ensure that it enters all the rooms.
However, if it does not work, then you need to add a Wifi extender or Mesh system. This will rebroadcast your Wifi signal to the furthest rooms and makes sure that you get the full bars.
Share Password Easily
You can create a QR code system for your network system and help the guest to access the guest network easily. Because you should give your guest short and small passwords that are not only easy-to-access but will also help the guest. If you generate the QR code, you can simply tell your guest to scan the QR code and access the Guest Network.
Update Router Firmware
However, you should make sure that your router’s firmware is up to date. Besides, it is a good idea to ensure the anticipation of the extra devices. For that, you can access the manufacturer’s website and download the latest firmware. Then upload it to the Network Setting.
However, some newer routers such as the mesh systems have a single button for the admin interface that will let you update the firmware directly.
Password Protection Network Resources
This setting will enable others not to access your personal files or data even if they had your previous username and password. Password protection is very useful when you have given your username and password earlier to a guest. Perhaps this is a good idea to protect your files or servers on your network.
Check for Malware
If anyone is having an infected device from the network system, it is easy to get this into the system. To maintain it, you can simply check for malware. However, this will ensure the presence of any malware. And if there’s any, it will help to remove it.
Enable QoS on the Router
You need to visit the manufacturer’s website and look for the QoS settings. Quality of Service is an option that will allow you to prioritize the traffic. For instance, if someone is watching Netflix and another person is playing a game, then none of there’s network will interfere. A lot of modern Wifi comes with easily configurable services and applications.
Remove Unwanted Users
If you want any person to steal your bandwidth from you intentionally or unintentionally, you can then simply remove the user. In accordance with it, you will be able to filter the user of your network.
Enable the Parental Controls
If you have little guests coming to your house and using your network, then you can use the parental control that will block some specific URLs such as adult sites or gambling sites at certain times of the day.
Steps to Set Up a Guest Wi-Fi:
You can go through the steps below to set up a Guest Wifi Network.
- Firstly, launch your web browser from a computer or mobile device which is connected to your router’s network.
- And then enter the router’s login page.
- After that, a login page will popup. Then enter the router admin username and password. (You can type admin for both the cases.). Now, the Dashboard will display.
- Then Click on Settings, and you will get the Guest Network.
- Now the Guest Network Settings page pops up.
- Mark on the Enable Guest Network checkbox and not on the Enable SSID Broadcast checkbox.
- After that, pick a password and provide it to the guest network mode. You can choose a password to secure your guest network.
- However, If you have selected WPA2 PSK [AES], WPA PSK [TKIP] + WPA-PSK [AES], or WPA or WPA2 Enterprise, then you need to enter a password in the Password field.
- Following that, now click on the “Apply” button.
Now your settings are saved and you have successfully created guest Wifi that will enable your guest to access it. This also makes sure that none of your primary or main credentials are out.