How to let your hotel guests cast Netflix to TV securely

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.

How to cast anything securely on the hotel TV

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.

Excellent user experience with PAN 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.

Increase WiFi revenue and staff productivity while ensuring privacy

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. 

Peace of mind while casting Netflix on hotel TV with ANTlabs Private Area Network Module

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.

Photos by John-Mark Smith, Nicolas , and cottonbro  from Pexels

This update adds the following enhancements:

• More downstream authentication methods:
  • Authorize.Net Accept.js and Payway payment gateways
    • Note: Please refer following advisory https://www.antlabs.com//advisories/advisory-https-walled-garden-urls-for-payment-gateways/ to configure the relevant walled-garden HTTPS domains for all supported payment gateways.
  • LinkedIn and Office 365 social media platforms
• Accor FLINT-HTNG PMS integration to support FLINT server to gateway authentication
• QoS enhancement: Added option to support shared bandwidth limit by device
• SNMP upgrade to support version 3
• Payflow Pro credit card number and expiry input fields to have placeholder labels
• Verified and unverified users report to include login location and device MAC address
• Licensing module upgrade
• API upgrade
  • smtp_post support for comma-separated multiple send-to email addresses
  • account_get and account_get_all output to include dynamic VLAN

T​his update fixes the following issues where:

• License page​​’s status field shows OK despite an orga​​nization-wide enforced no new logins
• System monitoring service does not detect that ​​database or DHCP service is down
• Use Web Proxy setting does not take effect.  Note: a reboot is required to apply the Use Web Proxy setting if it has been enabled
• PMS-authenticated devices in a PAN VLAN are not migrated to new VLAN after room change.  Note: Event Handler – GC Event – Update Dynamic VLAN will need to be turned on to fix the issue.
• System logging stops when transiting from active to passive mode under some conditions
• CSV export for verified users do not show non-English characters properly.

It is recommended to reboot the machine after applying this update.

IG4 S-Series Update 2
File Name: 02.IG4000S_base-sys-bulk01-20200720-01.pkg
File Size: 3482688 bytes
MD5 Checksum: e7692b81b9f869b8f16ad8161ba1ddb8
Release Date: 2020-09-08 16:00 SGT

This update includes the following enhancements:

• More downstream authentication methods:
  • Authorize.Net Accept.js and Payway payment gateways
    Note: Please refer to this advisory to configure the relevant HTTPS walled-garden domains for all supported payment gateways.
  • LinkedIn and Office 365 social media platforms
• Accor FLINT-HTNG PMS integration to support FLINT server to gateway authentication
• QoS enhancement: Added option to support shared bandwidth limit by device
• SNMP upgrade to support version 3
• Payflow Pro credit card number and expiry input fields to have placeholder labels
• API upgrade
  • smtp_post support for comma-separated multiple send-to email addresses
  • account_get and account_get_all output to include dynamic VLAN

This update fixes the following issues where:

• System monitoring service does not detect that ​​database or DHCP service is down
• Use Web Proxy setting does not take effect.  Note: A reboot is required to apply the Use Web Proxy setting if it has been enabled
• PMS-authenticated devices in a PAN VLAN are not migrated to new VLAN after room change.  Note: Event Handler – GC Event – Update Dynamic VLAN will need to be turned on to fix the issue.
• System logging stops when transiting from active to passive mode under some condition.
• CSV export for verified users do not show non-English characters properly.

Note: It is recommended to reboot the machine after applying this update.

IG4 update 40
File Name: 40.IG4000_base-sys-bulk21-20200310-01.pkg
File Size: 3107880 bytes
MD5 Checksum: f0ecd9caae5b181260d11d226b34a532
Release Date: 2020-07-16 11:00 SGT