Wi-Fi sign

When to use

Put the Wi-Fi sign where a phone is in someone’s hand: the kitchen counter, the desk, or the back of the welcome card. {wifi_network} and {wifi_password} are the guest network if you have one. They are not the network that runs your locks and cameras, unless you truly have only one network and you have accepted that guests will see it. {device_note} is the local quirk: “the television is already signed in” or “the printer is not shared” or “2.4 GHz is the name that ends in 24, for older devices.” {retry_step} is one action, the same one as in the Wi-Fi message.

{property_name} stops a printed stack for the studio from being posted in the one-bedroom. Tick the boxes as you proofread. They are reminders for you and for the guest. If a box is wrong, rewrite the line. Do not leave a ticked box over a false sentence.

The Wi-Fi card generator prints a card, including a QR code, in the browser. Passwords typed there stay on that device. A QR card is easier for a phone. This sign is the readable backup when a camera roll is full or a guest does not want to scan a code. The words on both have to match.

Timing tip

Print after you join the network yourself with {wifi_password} from the paper, not from memory. Reprint the day you rotate a password. Old signs in a folder will return. Tear them up. A password on paper in the trash is still a password, so cross it out before it leaves the home.

If the router reboots on a schedule, {retry_step} can say “wait two minutes and rejoin” rather than “unplug the black box in the closet.” Only name a plug if you want guests to touch it, and describe the plug so they do not unplug the freezer.

Replace the sign when handwriting fills the margin. Guests add their own notes. The next guest then joins a network that existed in October.

Common mistakes

A cute password printed in a font nobody can read is the first one. {wifi_password} should be characters a person can distinguish: a zero and a letter O look different in Atkinson and in your handwriting. If you write it by hand, print the zeros with a slash. If the password is long, this sign is better than a tiny card. Check it from two feet away.

The second is two networks and no guidance. {device_note} should say which name is for guests if both appear on the phone. “Use Cottage-Guest, not Cottage-IoT” prevents a lock network from being shared in a group chat. If you do not have a second name, say “there is one network” so they stop hunting.

The third is a support essay. Speed-test results, a lecture about streaming, and a threat about illegal downloads do not fit one page and do not help a phone that will not associate. {retry_step} is the help. If the internet is out for the building, the outage message belongs in the thread, not on this sign.

Keep the message and the paper identical

The check-in message and this sign quote each other on purpose. When you edit one, edit the other in the same sitting. {retry_step} that differs between them (“forget the network” on the sign, “restart your life” in the text) is how you get three replies. Pick the step that has worked on your router and use it in both places.

Do not print a personal email “if Wi-Fi fails.” The booking thread is the place they already have. A sign lasts longer than a stay, and an address on it lasts as long as the paper.