ANTlabs recently added Office 365 and LinkedIn to its ever-growing list of Social WiFi authentication methods. Aside from allowing your guests to connect via social media quickly, here is the comprehensive list of ways you and your guests can connect to WiFi when using ANTlabs gateways:
Social media – Encourage your guests to log in via Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Line, WeChat, and LinkedIn–and let them post good things about your venue
Complimentary access – invite more guests to your venue with free WiFi
User ID and password authentication (local accounts) – provide your guests, members, VIPs, and staff their WiFi user name and password
Access code authentication (local accounts) – generate and give out WiFi access codes to your guests
MAC-level authentication for non-HTTP devices – choose which devices can connect to your network
PMS authentication and Billing – conveniently connect your esteemed guests through your hotel’s property management system
Email / SMS authentication – let your guests connect to your network through email or SMS
Office 365 login – your guests and office staff can use their Office 365 account to login to your WiFi network
Auto-login – no login page for areas where you want guests to connect to your network sans access codes seamlessly
Account Printer – one-tap access code generation on a hand-held device (i.e. ANTlabs Account Printer AP 3100)
ANTlabs gateways also support credit card authentication and billing through Worldpay, Authorize.net, Payflow Pro, Payflow Link.
Recently in December, WeChat rejoined ANTlabs’ roster of social WiFi login methods after its brief hiatus.
Did you know that your neighbors may also know that you are watching Netflix when you cast Netflix on your hotel TV? Even high-end hotel guests are not spared the surprise nor embarrassment and have experienced getting a mobile notification that somebody nearby is streaming Netflix on their hotel TV. This situation usually happens when the network does not have any private network setup.
Upon reaching your hotel room, one of the first things you will most likely do is get your devices connected to WiFi—whether for work or to relax after a long day by catching up on your favorite shows on Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, or Disney+. Unlike in the home network–where we only see the devices we own–guest networks would most likely also show other people’s devices connected to that AP when you scan for your devices to cast on your hotel TV. If you can see your neighbor cast Netflix from their phone to TV, imagine what else we could be unknowingly broadcasting when connected to guest networks.
As a service provider, be it for hotels or MDUs, how can you assure the users in your network that their devices are only “speaking” with one another? And that intruders cannot easily find their devices? As more users are practically doing everything online these days, customers are also getting more aware of privacy matters and the need to protect themselves from intrusion.
One way to accomplish this is to provide each user with their private network. Providing private networks for each of your guests will ensure that only the user’s devices can “see” each other online, whether they are ‘working from hotel’—the other WFH—or just unwinding and casting Netflix on their hotel room Smart TV. Guests can also connect their gaming consoles to it, just like how they set it up at home, thus, improving the guest experience. The traditional way of achieving this is not straightforward and very time-consuming. As a service provider, the easier way to do this is through ANTlabs’ PAN (Private Area Network) module.
User experience is more than just a buzzword now, especially when transacting business online. It usually starts with how fast and easy you can connect to the Internet, how stable it is, and how secure it is wherever you are, especially guest WiFi networks. Improving network security protects your staff and guests from privacy intrusion and simplifies operations support.
With PAN module, you can tell your guests that they have a private network within their hotel room and can expect to quickly hook up their gaming consoles or enjoy casting their favorite Netflix shows on their TV—without letting the whole building know about it. They can trust that they will have a pleasant and enjoyable stay and secure business transactions online.
ANTlabs gateways also have other modules that complement the PAN module. Take, for example, the Advanced QoS module. You enjoy the best of both worlds with both PAN and Advanced QoS through operational efficiency, high-quality internet connectivity and privacy. These benefits are not only for the guests but also for the hotel staff. For one, it is easy for your team to set up private networks for your guests with the PAN module, and it is just as easy to allocate differentiated bandwidth tiers for your guests.
For example, your hotel can allocate VIPs and premium-paying guests with their 1GBps private network while non-guests who are enjoying free WiFi at the hotel lobby café share 200MBps among themselves. This means that no matter how hectic it gets during the day within your staff’s own 1GBps network, your VIPs and premium-paying guests will still be happily casting and streaming Netflix or making Zoom calls in their rooms. On top of this, other users will not see your devices that are within your private network.
The PAN module is also suitable for co-working spaces and MDUs (e.g., condominiums, dormitories, serviced apartments). While the current global situation does not encourage a lot of human traffic in these areas, it somehow shows the opposite on online traffic. Everyone is online to do practically everything; thus, more and more devices connect to the Internet daily. With the PAN module, service providers can provide a seamless and private user experience to their users no matter how busy the network gets with WFH (both ‘work from home’ and ‘work from hotel’) online activities during the day, and casting Netflix or YouTube at night.
Learn more about how the PAN module can improve your guest network.
ANTlabs has again released WeChat login for captive portals on December 14 and 21, 2020 for IG4 and SG 4, and IG 4 S-Series and SG 4 S-Series. WeChat login was first released in 2018 as an additional social WiFi authentication method for ANTlabs gateway captive portals. However, in 2019, WeChat deprecated portal login due […]
What is Hotspot 2.0? Hotspot 2.0 is a standard designed to provide a secure and more accessible way for end-users to connect to WiFi hotspots. Developed by the WiFi Alliance, the standard uses 802.11u and 802.1x as a foundation to create a seamless WiFi connectivity experience for users by automating network discovery, registration, and authentication. […]
With more than 20 years of R&D and experience working with global hotel brands and world-class venues in the hospitality & MICE industry, ANTlabs has created products that allow managed service providers (MSPs) to adapt to rapid changes, scale as the business grows, and to make sure that users get great connectivity. The ANTlabs Service […]
Overview Tourism in Singapore is a major industry, and its strategic and convenient location also makes it the premier choice for hosting huge events from varying business sectors and industries. Singapore attracted 19.1 million visitors in 2019—that is more than three times its population. Recognizing this strength, one of ANTlabs’ customers who we shall refer […]
Your VIPs and valued members can now easily gain Internet access across multiple locations (even across the globe) by just logging in once. This is made possible with the new ACS feature, Multi-Site Roaming Support. HOW MULTI-SITE ROAMING WORKS Multi-Site Roaming is an ANTlabs Cloud Services (ACS) feature that enables users to seamlessly roam from […]
It may sound like an oxymoron, but it is possible to get a private, secure, home-like network connectivity while connected to public guest networks such as those that are found in hotels, condos, dormitories, serviced suites, and co-working spaces. ANTlabs created the PAN (Personal Area Network) module for the IG 4 and SG 4 gateways for this very reason: good high-speed Internet access and privacy for each user in a guest network.
Picture this scenario: You just arrived at your hotel straight from the airport and you just want to relax by watching your saved shows on Netflix or play games on your Nintendo Switch on the Smart TV in your hotel room.
When you are
in a hotel guest network, that scenario is not usually as straightforward as sitting
down on your couch and finding your own devices in your own home network, and
then connecting these devices so they could ‘talk’ to one another. What would
most likely happen is that you would search for the SSID of the access point
(AP) where you are supposed to connect to, connect to that, and after that, you
do the same thing for your other devices, and search for the ones that you want
to connect to the Smart TV. Unlike your home network where you only see the
devices that you own, you would most likely be also shown other people’s
devices that are also connected to that AP—and that is usually a very long
list. Convenience is one thing, but
security is another very significant concern.
In the age of the IoT (Internet of Things) and digital nomads, the need for us and our personal devices to stay connected virtually everywhere is ever-increasing daily. Free, fast, and easy—that is how the ideal WiFi connectivity is for most people. How many people are there who think this way? Let’s get to the numbers.
Out of the
world’s total population of 7.676 billion, 4.388 billion are Internet users,
and 5.112 billion are unique mobile users1. That is a lot of users
and that data does not even include the other devices users own that also need
to connect to the Internet daily (i.e. IoT devices). According to Gartner’s
forecast2, the average number of users or devices supported per
deployed WLAN AP will increase by approximately 20% to 30% from 2018 through
2023. With those figures, it is even more crucial to have privacy, especially when
connected to guest networks and transferring sensitive data (e.g. personal data
or work files) over the Internet. Can hotels, serviced suites, or co-working
spaces provide that kind of privacy for each user? For service providers, is
providing each guest with private networks affordable and easy to implement?
At present, creating numerous SSIDs for each location and providing multiple Internet links for each IoT device type are the most commonly used methods for addressing these concerns but neither exactly answer privacy concerns nor are they easy and cheap to implement. Your guests can still see other devices on the network and the reality is, not all guests are Internet security-conscious enough to safeguard their own devices before connecting to public networks. A security or data breach that happens on your network is the last thing you want to happen. On top of that, the hotel staff must repeatedly adjust or create plans for Internet access provisioning especially during peak seasons or times when there are big events. The cost of training and maintenance is also added to your existing Internet service expenses.
ANTlabs, with 20 years of experience in guest network technology creation and innovation, had these concerns in mind when PAN module was created. This module allows service providers to give a multitude of users with multiple devices their own private networks, where they can manage their devices on their own during their stay, and it works well with ANTlabs’ signature 3-stage Advanced QoS. When these two modules are working together, your hotel staff’s devices, guest room IoT devices and guests’ personal devices can co-exist without sacrificing quality and user privacy. For example, you can set it in a way that with your hotel’s 10 GB pipe, each VIP gets a private network with guaranteed 1 GB bandwidth while your premium guests also get their own private network with 200 MB. Your hotel staff and offices each get a private network with 500 MB while non-staying visitors get 200 MB to share among themselves. Giving your guests peace of mind in knowing that they have their own private networks is one big plus to their total experience.
With PAN Module, there is no more need for multiple Internet links for different IoT device types and your guests shall not see other guests’ devices on your network. This is not only applicable for hotels but also for long-stay serviced apartments, dormitories, condos, shared offices, and other multi-dwelling units. PAN Module will potentially increase network security, protect your staff and guests from privacy intrusion, simplify operations support, and therefore improve the overall user experience in your hotel.
Whether you
are running a small hotel or a chain of hotels around the world, you and your
guests still want the same thing: a good experience—and to help usher in that
kind of experience calls for fast, seamless, and secure connectivity.
Related Articles:
1 WeAreSocial and HootsuiteTM (2019) ‘Essential Insights Into How People Around the World Use the Internet, Mobile Devices, Social Media, and E-Commerce’ [PowerPoint presentation]. Available at: https://datareportal.com/reports/?tag=Digital+2019 (Accessed: 7 July 2019).
2 Naresh Singh,
Christian Canales, Joe Skorupa, Evan Zeng. (2019). Forecast Analysis:
Enterprise Network Equipment, Worldwide. Connecticut: Gartner.
The user form authentication method requires downstream users to fill in a form to access the Internet. There is an option to verify the identity of the user via SMS or email and gateway administrators can enable it upon setting up the form. The data collected is then presented in the web admin GUI and […]
ANTlabs Cloud Services, ever since its launch, has made global guest WiFi management easier for many huge properties in the world by allowing their venue owners to be able to configure thousands of devices, run diagnostics and view reports in one place. More features have been released to improve both guest and admin/venue owner experience while using ACS.
The following features have been recently rolled out in ACS Update #15:
ACS portals can now support multiple languages so whether you are remotely managing an overseas site and want to localize your messages, or you just want to add more ways to communicate to your guests more effectively, this feature will help make that possible for you. Admins can configure text and create user login pages in up to 10 different languages.
We added three new templates: Natural, Minimalist and Corporate. Have your login portals up in no time by selecting any of the available templates in ACS, or easily make custom pages that adheres to your brand. Deploying the same portal design across a large number of sites? No problem. ACS can let you duplicate a site across multiple venues.
New Real-Time Downloadable Reports Tracking the progress of your guest Internet revenue is made easier with the new downloadable reports. These three new reports can be found under Reports and Analytics:
These are just three of the many features to be explored in ACS. Login to your ACS account now to try these out. Interested in ANTlabs Cloud Services? Email us to know more about ACS.