Does a guest WLAN make sense?

Imagine this situation in your restaurant — it is very likely that you have experienced it yourself at least once: It is Sunday evening on a lovely warm summer day. The light wind blows gently across your face and your restaurant is occupied down to the last place. Unfortunately, you cancelled a kitchen aid just today, causing a bottleneck. The orders are recorded. The kitchen is busy, but you still can't keep up with the dishes. This has a negative effect on your guests, whose mood is slowly but surely falling. But what if you had offered open WiFi for your guests?

In this blog article, you will learn the benefits of an open Guest WiFi and how you can best use it for your catering business.

What is a guest WLAN?

There is one way to be hospitable and protected at the same time, and that's by setting up a guest WiFi. A guest network is basically nothing more than a separate access point on your DSL router. All your devices, such as your cash register system or your private mobile phone, are connected to a single network. The guest network, on the other hand, is an isolated point that has access to the Internet but not to your main network. As the name suggests, guest WiFi is a separate network just for your guests.

With a guest network, you can speak of a win-win situation: On the one hand, your guests don't lose contact with the outside world and, on the other hand, your network cannot be damaged or attacked. Viruses that have sneaked onto a guest's smartphone in any way are therefore unable to access your personal and business data.

How does this access work?

As described above, the guest WLAN is a separate network and is therefore separated from the main network. It has its own network ID and IP address range. The firewall in the router then ensures that the IP packets from the guest WLAN do not reach the main network. The routers of Socialwave are not intended for private use, but are specifically optimized for a professional solution for business customers.

Guest WiFi

How do you set up a guest account in the private sector?

In full, we will provide instructions on how to use a private guest account below. But be careful: This is only suitable for private use and should never be used commercially.

Setting up a separate guest network is easier than you might think. You don't have to lay an additional cable or pay twice for your Internet service provider. Most likely, you can set up an additional network for guests using your wireless router — all you need to do is go to your router's settings and activate the guest network. To do this, enter your router's IP address into your browser's URL bar. This should be found in your router's user manual.

Enter the administrator username and password in the dialog box that opens. If you haven't made any changes to this information, you'll likely find them in your router manual.

In the router settings, look for the Guest Access or Guest Network option. Typically, this option can be found in the “WiFi” section. If you're having trouble searching, check the guide again or ask Google for your router's model name. If you're using an old or low-end router model, you may not be able to set up your own guest network. However, most modern routers should offer this option.

After you check the box, you can add the name of your guest network (called SSID in the control panel of most routers). This name will be shown to your friends and family later.

• Set a password for the new network. So only people to whom you have given the password can access the connection
• Set a security standard. In this way, information that is transmitted via WLAN cannot be intercepted. For example, select WPA2 (WPA2-PSK or WPA2-Personal) — a reliable security standard that is supported by all modern wireless devices.
• Make sure that the “Allow guest access to local network resources” (or similar) check box is unchecked. This setting option, should it be available, must always be turned off so that guests cannot access your files and other information stored on your computer.
• Uncheck Allow access to settings (or similar) if such an option exists. When this option is enabled, guest network users can access your router settings and change things, including their own access permissions

Ready! That's how quickly you've set up a guest WiFi network that provides secure Internet access.

With many routers, guest WiFi is immediately available afterwards, others may need additional fine-tuning. But even if the guest network is already up and running, you should always ensure that it is correctly configured.

Guest WiFi in business areas

As was briefly mentioned above, you cannot extend this private WiFi network to the business sector. However, you can opt for a more professional solution, such as the offer of Socialwave access. The benefits in a nutshell: You are 100% ahead of warnings, such as illegal File sharing or GDPR Injuries, protected and don't have to worry about anything. In order to take preventive action against downloading illegal content, we can also activate a youth protection filter for you. This not only protects you from trouble, but also your customers. In addition, with the WLAN marketing package, you can expand your reach by simply adding positive Google reviews collect and send automated email campaigns. Guests log in via Facebook, Instagram or email and thus gain access to the free WiFi. By clicking when signing in, you can redirect guests to any page, such as your homepage, and have a pop-up appear. By signing up, you'll also receive email addresses that you can use for campaigns. Automated emails are particularly useful for birthday wishes, discount campaigns or the like.

Important: Depending on your wishes, you can either adjust the information just described yourself or we can do it for you.

Conclusion — guest WiFi

If you're planning to provide WiFi to your guests, you should do so through a company that specializes in this. This makes things so much easier for you and avoids a lot of trouble. This allows you to fully concentrate on your business again and thus benefit from the product in two ways. If you only use private WiFi, remember to create a guest account for friends and family.

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