6 tips to securely share guest Wi-Fi with friends

Whether you’re hosting a game night playing Fibbage or having guests stay over, you’ll likely need to share your Wi-Fi password. Unfortunately, sharing your password can put your devices and home network at risk of potential data breaches or cybersecurity threats.

Instead of checking each guest’s phone or laptop, it’s easier to set up a guest Wi-Fi network separate from the primary network. A guest network runs parallel to the primary network on the router. Small business premises, coffee shops, or community spaces can set up a guest network to separate their work devices and protect them from hackers sniffing to exploit any vulnerabilities.

Besides reliable internet access, the guest Wi-Fi network can safeguard your guests’ data and privacy. You can employ these security practices to ensure the guest network is secure. They also protect and separate your personal devices and primary networks from security risks.

6

Make it easy to access

Quick to connect and use

If you don’t want to waste time setting up your guest network for everyone who walks through your door, make sure it’s easy to access. You can use a QR code to bake in the guest network’s login details. It is convenient for people to scan the code and join the guest network.

Typically, the router interface of several modern routers lets you create a QR code while you set a complex password for the guest network. Otherwise, check the router’s companion app for options to create a QR code for the guest network. If the router or its companion app lacks such an option, try out Wi-Fi QR code creator apps or websites to generate one.

While a QR code offers a seamless experience, you can take it a notch up and set it to expire after a specific time to increase security and prevent misuse after the event.

5

Use strong passwords and encryption

Make it tough and secure

A QR code for the guest Wi-Fi login makes it easy to use, but a weak or easy-to-guess password defeats the purpose. It’s crucial to use stronger passwords and encryption for the login details. Choose at least a WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) encryption-based authentication method with a stronger password. Of course, don’t reuse old passwords; generate a new one whenever you want to set up a guest network.

Most modern routers support WPA2 and WPA3 encryption-based authentication, and using a combination of both is a good idea. You can try out the free password managers to generate stronger alphanumeric passwords with symbols. These password managers can also help to create unique passwords that are difficult to guess and intercept by malware on a compromised device.

4

Limit how long it stays active

Cease free access after the party ends

Typically, you can shut down the guest network when the party ends and guests leave. You can set a time limit for how long the guests’ Wi-Fi needs to stay alive — hours or a few days — and it turns off automatically afterward. That way, you won’t have to log into your Wi-Fi router’s account page and turn it off if you forget. An always-active guest network wastes resources unless you have it in a home office or workspace.

Setting the guest Wi-Fi to turn off automatically after a set time can also help you save a fraction of your internet bill. Most routers from ASUS, TP-Link, Netgear, Linksys, Cisco, D-Link, Ubiquiti, and others offer a time limit setting to keep the guest Wi-Fi network alive.

3

Block pop-ups and sketchy sites

Restrict malicious content serving pages

Any guest or friend might unknowingly carry a compromised or unsecured phone, tablet, or laptop that can easily infect other devices on your network. While you can’t check every guest’s device, you can protect all devices by blocking malware content serving websites. Also, you can restrict access to specific sites as the network owner. While it’s unlikely someone would open such a site, the network-level block can prevent anyone from accidentally clicking a lurid, misleading pop-up.

To block malicious content and adult sites, you can set Cloudflare’s dedicated DNS IP addresses on your router. You must set these custom DNS IP addresses in the WAN settings if you can’t set them up for the guest network. Custom firmware (ASUSwrt-Merlin, OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato) for routers makes it possible to use separate DNS IPs for guest networks.

2

Manage the usable bandwidth

Regulate the data usage

If you’re setting up a LAN gaming party, it might require more bandwidth than a local multiplayer game on phones. To do so, you can configure a relevant Quality of Service (QoS) profile so that your router assigns appropriate bandwidth for everyone joining the guest network. After that, no guest can hog or leech the bandwidth by streaming movies, downloading large files, or playing online multiplayer games.

By default, the Quality of Service for the guest network limits or offers an option to cap the bandwidth without focusing on a specific task or application. Instead of this blanket cap, you can tweak the Quality of Service settings to favor specific tasks and applications. You can also pick a Quality of Service profile, like web surfing or learning from home, or customize it to suit the needs of your guests.

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1

Make personal devices undiscoverable

Protect smart devices and gadgets

If you have a lot of smart TVs, game consoles, and Internet-of-Things supporting gadgets set up, consider disabling Universal Plug-and-Play from the router. You wouldn’t want anyone to command your smart speaker to tinker with other smart devices or mess with the smart playlists. Most Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) devices require zero configuration and automatically connect to other devices. Many routers have UPnP enabled by default, which makes compatible devices discoverable on the network. You can disable UPnP to prevent your IoT and smart devices from being visible on guests’ smartphones and computers.

For devices using a wired connection with your router, enable login-based authentication. Otherwise, you can disable Intranet Access to prevent anyone from browsing your private media library without permission. That means the guest devices can see other devices on the guest network, but not the ones connected to the primary network. You can skip configuring Access Point Isolation since it won’t let guests see each other’s devices on the wireless network.

Seamless guest Wi-Fi experience with strong security

These best practices will protect all personal devices and let people enjoy the best performance and speeds on the guest Wi-Fi network. Setting up a guest network is typically a one-time task. Don’t go overboard with stringent internet access rules, which might ruin the guests’ wireless performance and browsing experience.

Of course, you may not find specific options, like setting a time limit or using a custom DNS IP address just for the guest network. You can explore custom firmware for routers such as OpenWRT, DD-WRT, and ASUSwrt-merlin (only for ASUS routers) to leverage additional settings for a guest network. Managing NAS, home lab, and other smart devices on your home network is tricky. Check all the essentials when building or upgrading your home network to manage and improve the performance of the devices on your network.