When Friends Come Over for Dinner

When Friends Come Over for Dinner

This past quarter we’ve spent a lot of time talking about things everyone loves—breakfast and lunch—making this article’s star the final meal of the day. Your IT dinner may be last on the list, but it’s just as important when considering your IT solution in a holistic view; and when prepared well, it can add a ton of value to your operation.

In the same way that your “IT diet” is methodically planned for optimal security, flexibility, and resiliency, it’s important to think about how associates and prospective clients will interface with your business when they’re stopping by the office. Internet and constant connectivity follow us everywhere. So, the final food group of our IT meal plan is considering your guests.

One of the first questions you can expect a visitor to ask is: “What’s the Wi-Fi?”

A great response is to have this answer ready to go with complete confidence that you’re not unintentionally providing access to sensitive data. The alternatives here are somewhat less desirable…stating that wireless access is either unavailable, or if it is, it’s reserved for internal use only.

Breaking out a guest wireless network ahead of time is a great way to create your own Wow service experience from the moment someone walks through the door to the time your services are engaged. So, with your IT dinner in mind, we have a few ingredients to settle on such as presentation, security options, and availability.

The first part of planning any meal is deciding how much to make. Will you need to feed one-hundred people, or do you only expect five or six guests at any given time? Depending on the answer, your first step will be to confirm Wi-Fi coverage throughout your office and conference rooms. By preparing this ahead of time, the remainder of your guest Wi-Fi implementation will be straightforward and flexible.

Next up are your security settings. This network will be separate from all your internal resources and only allow guests internet access to public facing sites like Google or Bing. Bearing that in mind, a simple password is usually appropriate, but consider swapping it out every few weeks for maximum security (no one likes a lack of variety, and neither does your network security). Consider this to be the same as “spicing things up” every now and again.

Finally, we move onto the presentation. You’ll want to decide if your network will have a broadcasted name at all, and if so, what it should be. Our general recommendation is to stay away from names like: Your Company – Guest. Not only does this highlight whose network is being shared, but it’s boring. Picking something a little more interesting will improve your security and highlight your creativity, so thinking outside the box is encouraged! How about something like, Our Loyal Friends.

That’s it! Now you’re ready to put your plan into action. By configuring a guest network, your visitors will be thrilled at how easy you’re making their journey with your company.

P.S.: As an added bonus, most home routers also support guest access networks. Configuring your own guest Wi-Fi can be a quick and easy way to secure your home network as well!

Have questions about setting up a guest Wi-Fi? Click here to contact us, and we'd be happy to help you reach Wow service and exceed your client's expectations.

First published in our June 2019 IT Radix Resource newsletter