A guest Wi-Fi network provides a business’ customers, contractors, or vendors with the convenience of Wi-Fi while keeping the business’ network separate and secure.

Why It Matters to Your Customers

Guest Wi-Fi is a convenience many businesses want to offer their guest or customers, whether at no charge or for a fee. Retailers and restaurants, hotels and lodging, even enterprises that host on-site demos and contractors are seeking cost-effective solutions for guest Wi-Fi that address security and bandwidth issues.

If guests use the same network as the business and its employees, it can create new vulnerabilities and risks for malware and cyberattack. A guest network minimizes that concern by providing a unique SSID for guests. The guest password can be changed periodically to limit access to network and help keep guests’ devices and data secure.

Another concern is guest traffic using resources that the business needs to operate. A separate Wi-Fi network allows businesses to limit guests to a network speed that allows them to access the internet and work on the network but that doesn’t interfere with business operations.

Why Guest Wi-Fi is an Opportunity

Solutions providers may find opportunity to consult, perform a site survey and upgrade the network to be able to support two networks before deploying guest Wi-Fi. There is an opportunity for recurring revenue through network monitoring, which checks the status of routers, signal strength, and traffic on the network. You can also provide your customers with reports for billing or auditing purposes on who accessed the guest network and their activity. Network monitoring can be bundled with managed security for both the primary and guest networks.