Residential Guest Wifi - Why & How

IN PROGRESS

What's the Guest Wifi for?

This may seem like just another password to remember, or another item on your todo list, but if you want to ensure you aren't being spied on, protect your devices from viruses, or worse, you should set this up. It is very simple and you can jump to the instructions below in the How to Setup section.

Basically, your primary home wifi- the one that you use daily- allows all the devices connected to it to talk to each other by default. That makes sense because you need your phone to talk to your laptop or your desktop your printer. But devices like your smart fridge, robot vacuum, TVs and whatever else, should not be able to:

1. Connect to your devices that store or connect to PII and / or sensitive data.
2. Connect to each other.

Technically, the printer is an IoT device. To keep your life as simple as possible, I recommend blocking the printer from reaching the internet while keeping it on your primary wifi.

IoT: Internet of Things: edge devices that exist for one main feature.

How to Setup

This handbook chapter is being written. It will explain why a separate guest Wi-Fi network matters in a family home, then show how to create and test one so visitors and untrusted devices stay off private systems.

Return to The Parent's Technical Handbook to continue through the series.