Internet connection

[claudie]

Hello everybody. Our studio flat rental is attached to our house and I was wondering about our internet connection and how to moniter how our guests use it. I'm new to this and obviously I want to make their stay as comfortable as possible; I realise that they will want to be connected to the internet whilst they stay and I need to know how that works in terms of how much that will cost us. I would be really grateful for any advice. Thank you all.

[Ben McNevis]

Hello Claud and welcome to the forum!

Am I right in thinking that the rental flat is within your house? If so, you can share your WiFi. If the signal from your router is strong enough, then the guests can use it directly. If not, you can add a repeater or extender (only use a branded one e.g. TP-LINK, as the cheap ones are useless).

Do you need to monitor the usage? If your own broadband contract has bandwidth limits, you could possibly upgrade it to unlimited. Some guests go on holiday to watch movies on their tablets, so bandwidth demand can go through the roof sometimes. You can check with your provider whether you have limits and what it would cost to change to unlimited.

The negative of doing this is that you are at slight risk of people accessing your PCs/tablets etc through the network. If everything is set up correctly, there should be no risk but you need to get a geek to check it over.

[kevsboredagain]

The negative of doing this is that you are at slight risk of people accessing your PCs/tablets etc through the network. If everything is set up correctly, there should be no risk but you need to get a geek to check it over.

That's a good point. If on the same home network, it's easy to share content between machines but this could cause problems when "strangers" are on the same network. I think I'd be hanging a second router off my modem.

[akwe-xavante]

As a computer engineer I can say that as long as your own computers security settings are set at a default level or better their is no risk of having your own computers accessed or hacked.

I would however activate the elevated Administrators account hidden within your computer and password protect it. I would also password protect your own STD and administrator user accounts too. No silly passwords mind.

Do remember though that the broadband / internet access account holder (you) are responsible for actions of all those that access the net through your router.

Won't happen but if they rob a bank online, buy something using a stolen card, access illegal porn or abuse social networking sites then you as account holder are responsible.

If you are sharing data between computers within your own family then those computers should be within a Homegroup, this homegroup should be password protected, default passwords auto generated by windows are very strong. Your data is protected and cannot be accessed unless of course so changed the homegroup password on its creation for something silly!

If it were me doing this I would buy a professional router and create two or more isolated networks and limit bandwidth on the one that the students are using giving yourself the lions share of the overall limit.

[kevsboredagain]

As a computer engineer I can say that as long as your own computers security settings are set at a default level or better their is no risk of having your own computers accessed or hacked.

I would however activate the elevated Administrators account hidden within your computer and password protect it. I would also password protect your own STD and administrator user accounts too. No silly passwords mind.

Do remember though that the broadband / internet access account holder (you) are responsible for actions of all those that access the net through your router.

Won't happen but if they rob a bank online, buy something using a stolen card, access illegal porn or abuse social networking sites then you as account holder are responsible.

If you are sharing data between computers within your own family then those computers should be within a Homegroup, this homegroup should be password protected, default passwords auto generated by windows are very strong. Your data is protected and cannot be accessed unless of course so changed the homegroup password on its creation for something silly!

If it were me doing this I would buy a professional router and create two or more isolated networks and limit bandwidth on the one that the students are using giving yourself the lions share of the overall limit.

The risk is not really computer access or hacking but simply access to network shared data. Many people, including myself have home networks where some folders from PCs or network drives are shared and visible to others on the same network. Protections can be set to individual users but in some cases I simply make folders visible to anyone on the home network, as I know the only users are my own family.  
 
Even for my rental properties, where I provide a PC for guest use, I have a publically visible folder in case they need to use it for data transfer. I also setup the NAS used for movies very carefully so the guests only see the folders I want them to see when they are connected to the network with their own devices.
 
Therefore if strangers are connecting to your own network, you need to be 100% aware of what data is visible and what is not.

[akwe-xavante]

Ah yes, network drives etc.

Shared data inc hard drives are shared between people on a network via a Homegroup which is secure when using PC's after Winxp by a Homegroup password.

Even external USB hard drives are protected by default, Network Hard Drives are venerable unless they are running under an embedded Linux server software, if so you can username and password the drive.

By far the best option is to give them there own restricted network isolated from your own which isn't difficult to do with a decent router. A decent router allows you to create a second or more different networks including wireless networks completely isolating them from your own network. You can even hide your own wireless network so that it isn't even visible to guests.

[bobby spray]

Hello. We also have a situation the same as the OP. Can anyone recommend a decent router to allow us to create a separate network? we currently have an older Billion BiPAC 7800N. I take it we need to hard wire from our router to a new one in the other property?

[akwe-xavante]

You only need one router, not two.

You could have two switches / Hubs or routers with their on-board modems switched off then connect them to a modem.

You only need one router though to do this efficiently.

Draytek routers: https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-2860

This router will allow you set up, up to 7 Virtual LAN's and create up to 4 wireless LAN's all can be completely isolated from each other or mixed and share various different mixes of Ethernet pots with or without wireless access.

An example would be:

Two isolated networks created within one router.

Virtual LAN one:
Wireless SSID bound to two Ethernet ports, ports 1 & 2.
Virtual LAN two:
Wireless SSID bound to two Ethernet ports, ports 3 & 4

You can hide one or more of these Wireless LAN's.

People / devices accessing on Virtual LAN one cannot get access to virtual LAN 2 and vice versa. Both LAN's have internet access to the internet through the same router and phone line.

You can also give full unrestricted access (but not over to the other VLAN) to one of the Virtual LAN's and impose restrictions on bandwidth and use to the other.

You can of course create two Virtual LAN's, give all 4 Ethernet ports to one of them and none to the other or any other configuration that you want.

By creating two isolated LAN's your network is isolated and secure and can be done through one router only, you don't need two routers.

[claudie]

Thank you so much for your replies. I'm completely clueless about this business and every helpful reply is very gratefully received. Talk again soon

[greenbarn]

One aspect of restricting bandwidth I can't get my head around (well, a lot more than one really). We have a relatively low bandwidth service at around 1.4M on a good day, and that has to serve us and the rentals. Rather than pleading with guests not to use torrent sites, Netflix etc etc which screws up everyone, it would be handy to be able to limit the bandwidth available to the guests' network; however it's obviously the download that needs restricting and that's where I lose the plot: if the router is inserting a deliberate bottleneck to incoming traffic on the guest network, how does that benefit my own network that's served by the same line?
IIRC it used to be just the upload B/W that the router could restrict, (which AIUI serves little practical purpose for a holiday let), but I'm way out of touch.

Am I misunderstanding something, or is the only partial solution to the issue still to attempt to restrict access to the sites in the first place?

[kevsboredagain]

Ah yes, network drives etc.

Shared data inc hard drives are shared between people on a network via a Homegroup which is secure when using PC's after Winxp by a Homegroup password.

Even external USB hard drives are protected by default, Network Hard Drives are venerable unless they are running under an embedded Linux server software, if so you can username and password the drive.

By far the best option is to give them there own restricted network isolated from your own which isn't difficult to do with a decent router. A decent router allows you to create a second or more different networks including wireless networks completely isolating them from your own network. You can even hide your own wireless network so that it isn't even visible to guests.

I always assumed joining the homegroup was just an option but you could still share folders without it? Just an assumption though as I've never tried to do this.

If a decent router is not available or too expensive, a old one laying around the house could also be used hanging off the modem/router. Easier with one box but always an option to use old gear.

[baringa]

By far the best option is to give them there own restricted network isolated from your own which isn't difficult to do with a decent router. A decent router allows you to create a second or more different networks including wireless networks completely isolating them from your own network. You can even hide your own wireless network so that it isn't even visible to guests.

Reading this with interest. Our problem with the gîtes is the guests using up the monthly quota and downing the service, so I will be looking into the idea of using a decent router in this way, hopefully my husband will understand how to set it up

[Annew]

By far the best option is to give them there own restricted network isolated from your own which isn't difficult to do with a decent router. A decent router allows you to create a second or more different networks including wireless networks completely isolating them from your own network. You can even hide your own wireless network so that it isn't even visible to guests.

This is exactly what we do on our hard to network farm. We have 2 cottages, so a network each for them and 3 further networks for our house - 2 of which are hidden. We have 3 routers to enable this, plus the homehub and change the passwords for the public (ie the guest networks and the 1 unhidden) regularly.

The only problem comes when you have a semi tecchie guest stay who does not understand the difficulties and fluctuation in speed of copper wire broadband - he managed to reset 1 network completely by pressing the hidden reset button on the router

[La Bucaille]

By far the best option is to give them there own restricted network isolated from your own which isn't difficult to do with a decent router. A decent router allows you to create a second or more different networks including wireless networks completely isolating them from your own network. You can even hide your own wireless network so that it isn't even visible to guests.

Reading this with interest. Our problem with the gîtes is the guests using up the monthly quota and downing the service, so I will be looking into the idea of using a decent router in this way, hopefully my husband will understand how to set it up

Hello,

We bought two Fonera for buisiness routers for our gite and campsite. These stay in our property so guests cannot mess with any settings.

Your customers connect by inputting THEIR own e-mail address or FB details or if they are a Fon member globally, BT fon for example. We can set the amount of free wifi they can receive per day from 30 mins to all day (unlimited). If people do not have any of the aforementioned they can buy time with credit/debit cards.

Basically you are creating a wifi Hot Spot for Fon. They "Fon the company" log the mac addresses etc of the customers ipad iphone laptop etc and if any unlawful activity is detected the user can be traced by the details that they have entered.

This is a great way of separating your personal wifi network from your holiday let network. You can set up your own hotspot homepage that takes them to your holiday website once they have logged in. No need for holiday makers knocking on our door to say internet is slow. We have Orange.fr as our phone provider.

We have used this without any problems and once you have set up your own "Fon Hotspot" you then have free wifi access wherever you travel globally that has a Fon Spot in the area.

Hope this helps.

Sorry for the long 1st post

Kindest Regards

M

[French Cricket]

I'm no geek, but I've found the easiest way to extend my internet connection to guests is simply to use the Devolo homeplug system - the wifi version. Not only does this get decent speed/strength internet through meter-thick stone walls and to far flung parts of the house without wires, but it effortlessly creates a second network with its own password that is used by guests. I keep my original network running directly off my router and set the SSID to hidden. The Devolo Cockpit software that I've installed on my own laptop allows me to monitor how many devices are connected, though not the bandwidth being used.

I don't mind that, but because we only have a rural (ie slow) connection speed I just ask them not to stream or download. And (mostly) they don't.