How (and why) you should be setting up a guest Wi-Fi network
What exactly is a guest Wi-Fi network?
Your router allows anyone connected to a guest Wi-Fi network to use the internet, but prevents them from accessing any other smart devices like printers, thermostats and secure doorbells. It works by offering a different sub-network from where the other devices live. This network has different internal software rules to determine what network traffic can get sent where.
After your router sets up the subnet for your guests, it simply enables a rule forbidding traffic from the guest network to your main network.
Why it makes sense
Putting visitors on a guest network isn’t saying you don’t trust them, it’s about being sensible. You can be 99% sure that Uncle Bob isn’t a cyber criminal with intentions to hack into your computer and steal your identity, but unwittingly he could still download an app or programme that is loaded with sinister malware and is scooping up sensitive data like credit card numbers or birth dates.
If someone unintentionally invites bad things in whilst using your guest network, it will be contained and can’t spread to other areas of your home network. It’s essentially quarantined and isolated in your internet-only area.
This is why it’s ideal for kids too. Let’s be realistic, younger ones are more likely to accidentally download malicious software whilst browsing the web. Lessen the risk by keeping them on a separate network that is internet only. Plus, it’s also a great way of controlling their screen time as you can disable the guest network whenever you want to kick them off the Wi-Fi.
Simple set up
These days setting up a guest network is easy. Most recent routers won’t require you to go fiddling around with rules and subnets and VLANs on your own. There should be an option via an app or web browser and it will probably be a case of just clicking ‘enable guest network’. Then you’ll just have to choose a name and password you want your guests to use.
Typically once you enable the guest network, your router will start broadcasting and it will appear in the list of Wi-Fi networks on your computer or phone.
Don’t forget a password
You might assume that it’s okay to leave your guest network open so visitors don’t have to go through the rigmarole of adding a password. After all the traffic going over the guest network can’t affect your main network, so what’s the point? Well, there are a couple of huge points actually.
One is that without a password, any stranger that’s close enough to your router, say if the signal extends outside your house, can connect and do whatever they like over your internet which could be traced back to you if it’s illegal. But even if that doesn’t happen, not having a password could leave your guests open to having some of their internet activity spied upon or their data stolen as someone nearby could easily see any unencrypted data sent over an open guest network.
So don’t take these risks, assign a password, and if you want to make things simple on your guests, you can even generate a QR code with free online tools that you can print out and visitors can just scan it to join your password protected guest network.
What if you want a guest to be able to access part of your home network?
For example, if someone wants to show a video on your TV using Chromecast or if friends are trying to game with each other over Wi-Fi, you’ll likely need to do some more advanced configuration if your router allows it. Otherwise you’ll just have to give your guest access to your main network.