Get Connected: What Is Guest Wifi and How Does It Work?

When people visit your home or walk into your office, one of the first questions they ask is “what’s your wifi password?”.

It would be nice if it were possible to access the internet 24/7, but when you’re traveling you’re going to have to find your own way to connect.

Guest wifi could make it easier for visitors to your home to connect to the internet.

Are you curious about what guest wifi is, and why so many organizations and individuals have guest networks of their own? Keep reading for a quick rundown of everything you need to know about guest wifi. 

What Is Guest Wifi?

If you take a look at your phone when you’re out running errands, you may notice names network names like time warner wifi or a wifi network named after a popular local business pop up as possible networks to connect to.

When you see those networks pop up on your device, you’re most likely encountering guest networks. 

Guest wifi can give people access to the internet without having to give them your regular internet password, or access to important information on your main network. 

You can dedicate certain routers to providing guests internet access. You can also limit certain features and capabilities to people that are using your guest network. 

In the past businesses were the primary user of guest networks, but now, plenty of people have guest networks in their own homes.

What Are the Benefits of Using Guest Networks?

Guest networks provide benefits for both the owner of the network and the guests that connect to it.

Guest networks give users an easy to access a network with needing to do little to no setup on their end. Depending on network configurations, they can also access other important things on your network like files and printers.

It can also give network owners extra security. You won’t have to give out your network’s main password to visitors. Giving out your main password to too many people can open you up to security risks.

This is why guest networks are often used by businesses. They can easily allow people visiting the office to access the internet, but they don’t have to worry about giving them access to their secure network. 

Tips for Using Guest Wifi

If you want to use guest wifi in your own home, you can get started almost immediately. 

Your router may already have the ability to host different networks. You can check your router’s settings to see what you need to do to set everything up.

Some routers can only support one guest network at a time. If you happen to have a business-class router, you may have the ability to set up multiple guest networks on your device. 

When you create your guest network name, you may want to make it something easy to remember like the name of your regular network with a number, or the name of your regular network followed by _guest. 

If you want to keep your network extremely secure, consider changing the password after you have people visit. A password that changes periodically can make your network less vulnerable to cyber attacks. 

 

Keep Learning

As you can see, having guest wifi has a variety of benefits. You’ll be able to keep your network secure and give people a simple way to access the internet in your home.

Do you want to learn more about internet security and the best way to stay tech-savvy at home? Keep browsing the content on our site so you can keep up with trends in tech.