Home Networks & Wi-Fi · Securing Your Wi-Fi · Lesson 2 of 5

Guest Networks

Give visitors their own Wi-Fi so they never touch your own devices.

A Separate Door for Visitors

When friends visit, they ask for the Wi-Fi password. Once a device joins your main network, it sits right next to your laptops, phones, printer and shared files. Most visitors mean no harm, but their devices might carry malware they don't know about.

A guest network is a second Wi-Fi network made by the same router. It has its own name and its own password. Guests get the internet, but they stay apart from your main devices.

The key feature is isolation. Isolation means devices on the guest network can't see or reach devices on your main network. Many routers can also stop guest devices from seeing each other. In your router's app or admin page, this often appears as a setting like "Allow guests to see each other and access my local network". Leave it off.

To set one up, look in your router's app or admin page for Guest network or Guest Wi-Fi. Then:

1. Turn the guest network on.
2. Give it a name, like "Blue Teapot Guest".
3. Choose WPA2 or WPA3 security and set its own password, different from your main one.
4. Keep access to your local network turned off.

Some routers can also limit guest speed or turn the guest network off after a set time. Those are handy extras, not must-haves.

A guest network doesn't slow your main Wi-Fi in any noticeable way when only a few guests use it.

On the practice computer, turn on a guest network and give it its own password. Make sure guests can't see each other or reach your local network.

When to Use the Guest Network

A guest network is useful any time a device you don't control needs the internet. Good examples:

• Friends and family visiting with their phones.
• A babysitter, dog walker or repair person working in your home.
• A renter or house sitter staying for a while.
• A friend's laptop that needs one quick download.

Many people also put smart home devices on a separate network, like a smart plug, TV or doorbell. These are devices that connect to the internet but rarely get updates. Keeping them apart from your laptops limits the damage if one is hacked. A later course covers this in detail.

There are times the guest network gets in the way. Isolation blocks devices from finding each other. So a visitor can't send a video to your TV or print to your printer from the guest side. If you truly need that, decide whether you trust the device enough to join the main network, or just print it for them.

Simple habits keep it working well:

• Share only the guest password with visitors. Keep the main one private.
• Change the guest password now and then, for example after a renter moves out.
• Turn the guest network off if you never use it. A network that isn't running can't be misused.

If your router has no guest option, check for a firmware update, a software update for the router that sometimes adds features. If it still has none, a newer router is worth thinking about.

Phones and Macs join a guest network exactly like any other Wi-Fi, by picking its name from the list.