Whenever you have someone new in your home, one of the first questions “What is wifi?” Sure, you could tell him, but do you know? To be honest, I don’t. If you’re like me, you have a complicated wifi name and password combination at the bottom of your router that you need to refer to when you need it. In this article, you can get all information about how to connect guests to your wifi seamlessly.
If you and your guest have an iPhone, you can share your network credentials with just one click. To start this process, however, your friend must first select their wifi network from the list and be a contact on your phone, which adds extra steps to what could be a seamless setup.
You can share your wifi password via an embedded QR code on the Android side. Again more practical than in the past, but there is room for improvement. You shouldn’t need to be involved when clients want to connect to Wi-Fi.
How NFC can improve wifi password sharing
In 2022, the solution for sharing wifi passwords as quickly as possible came down to NFC. You probably use NFC (Near Field Communication) a lot, as it is the leading technology behind mobile payments (e.g., Apple Pay, Android Pay, or Samsung Pay). When you hold your smartphone over the POS terminal, your phone’s NFC chip communicates with the terminal’s NFC chip and runs the payment process from there.
The same seamless technology can be at your fingertips for various use cases. But in this particular case, we’ll focus on using it to share wifi. Just like you scan an NFC tag to pay for your morning coffee, you can scan an NFC tag to connect to your current wifi network instantly. It allows you to place the NFC tag in a convenient location, e.g., B. at your entrance, and ask guests to swipe their phones to connect to wifi without needing a password.
Although it may seem reserved for businesses or corporate environments, NFC is a very accessible and affordable technology. You can buy NFC tags in packs of 10, 30, 50, or even 100 for as little as 28 cents a day.
The only problem is this: while you can set up NFC tags from any smartphone, now only Android devices can connect to wifi using an NFC tag. While iPhones obviously have NFC, iOS doesn’t let you connect directly to wifi from one. It’s also a shame because this trick works so well on Android, but there is a workaround to make things easier for everyone.
How to share your wifi password with NFC
Setting up beacons is easy. Open the app, tap Compose, then tap Add Recording. Scroll down and tap wifi Network. Here under Authentication, tap on “Edit” and select the encryption type of your WLAN (most connections are WPA/WPA2-Personal). Now enter the name of your wifi network under “SSID” and the password under “Password” and press “OK.”
The app will now write your data onto the tag after you tap “Write” and scan a blank NFC tag when prompted.
While you can leave your wifi credentials on a note next to the NFC tag, there are more creative and technical ways to do this.
Embroider the NFC tag with a digital note.
If you have an Apple device handy, you can try adding a digital note to your NFC tag that iPhone friends can access by scanning. This way, they will still see the credentials, although it’s less convenient than on Android.
First, open the Apple Notes app and enter your wifi credentials here. You can name it something like “My wifi” with your wifi name and password listed below. Now tap the Share icon, tap ‘Collaborate,’ then select ‘Anyone with the link’ under ‘Who can access.’ Go back and select “Copy link.”
Now go back to the NFC tools settings. Choose Add Record, tap URL/URI, then paste your iCloud link into the text box. Select “OK” and make sure “URL/URI” is in the list of actions under “Wifi network” so that it only appears if the first action fails. Now write this process to your NFC tag.
This combination should have the following results: your Android friends will scan the beacon and see the option to connect to wifi, while your iPhone friends will not be able to initiate the link to the note.
Create a QR code with your wifi credentials
While iPhones can’t connect to wifi networks directly via NFC, they can via a QR code. You can use your wifi access data to create a QR code, print it out and place it on the NFC tag. This way, iPhone users could scan the code, and Android users would have a choice: scan the code or save time, bring their phone close to the code/tag, and get wifi instantly.
Any QR code generator will work, but whether you choose a website or an app, choose one with a good reputation. For example, you can try Bitly’s QR code generator. The setup here is similar to the NFC tag: Enter your network name, password, and encryption type, then tap Download to save the code to your computer. Please print it out and place it anywhere you like.
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