Home Networks & Wi-Fi · Securing Your Wi-Fi · Lesson 5 of 5

Challenge: The Bakery's Wi-Fi

Help a family bakery give customers Wi-Fi while keeping the till safe.

A Look Behind the Counter

Your cousin Ana runs a small family bakery. Customers keep asking for Wi-Fi, and she wants to offer it. She asks you to check her setup first.

You open the router's app with her. Here is what you find:

• The network is called "Ana Ruiz Bakery Office".
• The password is "bread123", and it's written on the menu board for customers.
• The card reader, the laptop with her orders and the security camera all use this same network.
• The security mode is set to WEP.

Ana says, "It works fine. Why change anything?" You know that working and being safe are not the same thing. The first fix is the lock itself.

Customers Get Their Own Door

You switch the mode to WPA2/WPA3 mixed. Ana's card reader and laptop rejoin fine.

Now for the customers. Right now they share the same network as the card reader and the order laptop. Anyone sitting at a table could reach them.

You turn on a separate network just for customers, called "Bakery Guest", with its own password for the menu board.

A Better Password and Name

The guest network is ready. Next is the main network that only Ana's devices use.

You rename it to "Flour Cloud" so it no longer shows her name or that it's the office. Then you replace "bread123" with four random words strung together, like "oven lark violet canoe", and save it in her password manager.

The menu board now shows only the guest network's name and password.

Closing the Last Doors

Last, you open the router's advanced settings. WPS is on. UPnP is on, though nothing in the shop needs it. Remote management from the internet is on too, and Ana has never used it. Automatic firmware updates are off.

Ana asks why a few switches matter. You tell her each unused feature is one more way in.