How To Set Up Your House For A Party

'Tis almost the flavor for visitors to slow down your Wi-Fi network. Inviting friends and family to stay with you lot at the holidays means sharing your precious cyberspace with them. It also means enduring slowdowns, potential security holes, and sharing the Wi-Fi password (over again). Here are some tips to get your network ready for guests, and so you tin can focus less on troubleshooting and more on entertaining.

Improve Your Wi-Fi Coverage

If your house is full of dead zones and slowdown spots, your guests are going to accept a bad time. If you've ignored that spotty Wi-Fi coverage because it only really afflicted the guest room, at that place's no better fourth dimension than at present to prepare it upwards.

You might be able to simply motility the router to a new spot for better coverage. Try to go on it loftier on a shelf, without books and other objects blocking the signal. If yous tin, you'll also want information technology in a room that'southward central to the house, and then it can easily reach all the rooms.

If that doesn't piece of work, you lot may have to invest in a practiced Wi-Fi extender or mesh organization, which will rebroadcast your router's indicate to the furthest rooms, ensuring you ever get full bars. Check out our guide to boosting your Wi-Fi point for more tips and tricks in this surface area.

Top-Rated Wi-Fi Mesh Network Systems Nosotros've Tested

Enable Your Invitee Network

Many routers back up a feature called guest networking, which creates a separate Wi-Fi network for friends and family to use when they visit. From the guest network, they can access the internet, just they can't access network resource like shared folders, printers, or NAS devices. That means you can keep using your "Smith" network, while everyone else uses the more limited "Smith_Guest" network (or whatever you cull to proper name it).

To enable invitee networking, you volition need to connect to your router's direction interface. This is typically washed via a mobile app, but if your router doesn't have an app you'll have to apply the spider web panel. To become in that location, open a browser and type the IP accost of your router into the address box, usually something similar 192.168.1.1. (If yous aren't certain what your router's IP address is, our guide to managing your router's settings can help you lot find it.)

Guest networking menu settings screenshot

Your router volition prompt you for a username and password to admission the authoritative tools. If yous aren't sure what they are, bank check the user guide or the manufacturer's support website. Quite often this information can be constitute on the base of the router itself. Y'all should probably change these default credentials once you log in, lest shady characters also endeavor to access your router.

From there, look for the Guest Network settings. These settings can vary in location from router to router, but typically, you'll find them under the Wireless Settings or in a dedicated Invitee Network section.

Give your network a proper noun, make sure admission to your local network is turned off (if you have the option), and add a WPA2/WPA3 password to the network. Ideally, you want a strong password, simply it'due south a skillful thought to make information technology somewhat easy to recall—you don't desire to have to hunt for the pasty notation with the Wi-Fi countersign on it every time a invitee comes over.

Giving your guests a password that is easy to think works well enough, just for bonus points, you tin share the Wi-Fi in a more streamlined style. For case, I like to generate a QR code for my network with QiFi—then when my friends come up over, they can simply scan the code on the fridge using their phone'southward camera, instead of remembering and typing the password.

If y'all accept Android 10, you tin can actually practise this right from your phone. Open the phone'due south Settings menu, observe the network, and click the Share button to generate a QR code.

If y'all (and your friends) are Apple users, y'all tin can share saved Wi-Fi networks with them by joining the network and standing nearby when they attempt to connect. If they're in your contacts list and accept Bluetooth turned on, a prompt volition announced on your iPhone or Mac, request if you want to share the Wi-Fi network with them.

Update Your Router Firmware

In anticipation of extra devices and users on your home network, it's a good idea to brand sure your router's firmware is up to engagement, with all the most contempo security patches. On some routers, this is done automatically whenever a new update is released. For others, you'll find this option in the device'southward web interface or mobile app.

Yous may likewise need to become directly to the vendor's website, download a firmware file, and then upload it via the web panel to apply the update. Thankfully, this process is outdated and non necessary with many routers manufactured in the last few years.

Update router firmware screen screenshot

While you're thinking almost updates, it's not a bad idea to check with your Isp to meet if you have the latest firmware for your cable, DSL, or cobweb modem. Usually, the ISPs push these updates out automatically, but it never hurts to double-cheque.

Protect Network Resources With Passwords

If you don't have a guest networking selection, or you've already given out your normal network to some family members in the by, it'south a good idea to password protect any shared folders, printers, or servers on your network.

In Windows, you can add a password to a shared folder by opening the Outset menu, searching for "sharing," and choosing the Manage Advanced Sharing Settings selection. Expand the All Network choice and click the radio button next to "Turn on password protected sharing."

Windows settings for network password sharing screenshot

Enabling this setting will require that anyone without a username and countersign for file and binder access volition be denied access. (This was enabled by default on my machine, but it's a good idea to double-check anyhow.)

Do a Malware Sweep

Like to shared resources passwords, this step shouldn't strictly be necessary as long as everyone's on the guest network—only things don't always piece of work out that mode. Earlier you let anyone on your home network, y'all should likewise brand sureyou might not exist infectingthem with malware.

Some routers come up with anti-malware tools that will automatically scan new devices when they starting time log in and perform regularly scheduled network-broad scans. If your router lacks these tools, grab 1 of our favorite anti-malware tools and run a scan on all your PCs simply to be rubber—and brand certain you're keeping the software upward to appointment, too.

Enable QoS on Your Router

Quality of Service (QoS) is a feature on many routers that allows you to prioritize different types of traffic. That style, your kids' online gaming doesn't interfere with your guests watching Netflix with you in the living room. To admission this feature, visit your router's web interface as described above, and look for the QoS or bandwidth prioritization settings.

Plenty of modernistic routers make this easy past providing a list of pre-configured services and applications to which you can give high, medium, or depression traffic priority. For case, my Asus router allows me to arrange Video and Audio Streaming, Gaming, Web Surfing, File Transfers, and Messaging by importance. In other routers, y'all can set bandwidth limits and create QoS rules manually port past port. Cheque with the manual or your router's manufacturer.

Boot Off Unwanted Users

Let'southward say you gave your Wi-Fi password to a neighbor the terminal fourth dimension they visited, before y'all knew the best practices in this guide. Now let'south say that neighbor is using your Wi-Fi to watch their ain Netflix streams—either intentionally or unintentionally. Y'all don't want them stealing bandwidth from your actual guests, so it might behoove you to see who'south on your network.

Your router's administrative interface may provide a list of all the devices on your network, but if it doesn't, Wireless Network Watcher (Windows) and Who Is On My WiFi (Mac) are great tools that perform the aforementioned role. If yous run into something that doesn't wait correct—like, a laptop or streaming device you don't recognize—it may be time to modify your Wi-Fi password, or use your router's MAC filtering feature to boot them off the network.

If yous take a mesh Wi-Fi system, chances are yous can use your phone to block any user with the impact of a button.

Enable Parental Controls

Many modern routers bundle parental control software or deject services into the management interface. If yous wait piddling guys and gals as guests, it may exist a good thought to poke around your router settings to see if there are any congenital-in parental controls.

Parental controls in TP-Link web app screenshot

Parental controls will unremarkably let you block internet content by category (such as adult sites or gambling sites), block specific URLs, or block internet admission at certain times of the 24-hour interval. They may non be every bit advanced as dedicated parental control software, but hopefully in that location'southward something of use in in that location.

When yous're trying to entertain friends and family at your business firm, 1 of the last things on your mind should be helping them connect to your Wi-Fi network. With these tips, your network will be more than secure and ready for guests to connect. That leaves you with plenty of time to focus on more important matters, like what you're going to serve for dinner.

(Editors' Notation: John Delaney also contributed to this article.)

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