Guest Wi-Fi 101

Posted on Friday October 27, 2017

No matter who they are, people today expect Wi-Fi access when they're guests of your office. Setting up your Wi-Fi the wrong way can create a tedious experience for them and even expose your confidential information. So what's the right way to do it?

Never give guests access to your primary Wi-Fi

While giving guests password to your company's main Wi-Fi might be the easiest way to get them connected, you should avoid this at all costs.

Anyone with a little technical know-how can potentially access everything on your company network, including confidential data. Not to mention, guests' devices connected to your business network increase the risk of a malware infection or cyber attack since you can never be sure that they're safe and secure.

Ways to create secondary Wi-Fi for guests

If you router has built-in guest Wi-Fi support (you can check this feature through a quick web search) you could use it to create a separate “virtual” network. This means guests will have access to the internet without connecting to your main company network.

If your router doesn't support multiple Wi-Fi networks, you can implement a separate wireless access point that bypasses the rest of your network and connects directly to your Internet service provider (ISP) connection.

Both options will keep your guests' connectivity separate from your company network so you'll never have to worry about unauthorized persons accessing your company data.

Keep in mind that guest Wi-Fi still uses your ISP connection so you should limit bandwidth usage on your guest network. The last thing you want is a guest streaming videos that slow down the Internet for your employees. With that in mind, you can even have your employees use guest Wi-Fi for their personal devices too. This minimizes the chance of employees hogging company bandwidth for personal use.

Your guest Wi-Fi should only provide outsiders with internet access, nothing more. While proper setup isn't rocket science, it can be a tedious process. Having said that, if you need a team of experts to take care of it all for you, or simply have questions about how else to leverage your hardware for better efficiency and security, just give us a call.