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WiFi Hotspot Password on Receipt?

I help do basic IT stuff for a local coffee shop.  They use Square Register and have a Star receipt printer.

 

The coffee shop is in the bottom floor of a building that has apartments directly above.  A routine problem that they have is that people living in the apartments will wirelessly leech free internet connectivity off of the coffee shop.  It can get bad at times...we've seen gaming consoles and machines with Bittorrent clients (just as a couple of examples) running 24/7 and consuming all available bandwidth, slowing down access for paying customers (not to mention for the Square POS iPad!)

 

Putting a one-and-done password on the WiFi network and handing that out to customers doesn't help since somebody living above can come down, make a purchase once, get the password, and hop back on.

 

The WiFi system that they have has the ability to either auto-generate a new password at a set interval (so a new one would be created every week, or every 24 hours, or whatever), or even to generate one-off access codes per person.  I have seen *other* POS systems that can be integrated with such an access control mechanism, such that a unique access code is generated for every sale and then printed on the receipt.  I haven't found a way to perform this kind of integration with Square, which kind of shocks me.

 

Is there no way to programmatically feed Square a password for a WiFi hotspot to be printed on a customer's receipt?

 

Thanks,

 

-- Nathan

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Super Seller

No, there is not a way to do that with a password being fed in. 

 

You could setup an up an item called WiFi password with the password after it and change it daily. The cashier would just have to add it to each transaction. 

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is there no way to boot all people logged on after the 24 hour mark?

Same way you can create a new key at intervals? 

I mean you guys could just write it on a receipt and change it the following day, thats what starbucks does at some locations

some coffee places don't really care if you use their free wifi aslong as nothing bad is being downloaded on it such as torrents

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@BeastMode_,

 

OK I have never tried to download a terrorist, but get the point about not having bad things happening.  There are programs that you can run as part of your Router Software that manange the users, content and amount of time users can stay online, such as 30-minutes free or daily access.  These are generally commercial applications but are not part of a POS system.  Somce can give a user free time and has a splash screen if they want to purchase additional access with a credit card.  

 

Many hotels just have a weekly or daly code they use and they simply post it or hand out a card with the login informaiton.

 

At my shop we use a passcode for the guest network and post the current password.  I set the lease time to 60 minutes which means they have to log in again or it clears their infomration making sure the availale ip addresses are not all tied up.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Bob

 

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Super Seller

@rsklar if you're looking for a solution that is seamless and does not change your current workflow or add any new responsibilities for the barista check this out.

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I have the SAME issue at my cafe in Seattle.  I am at the breaking point.  At some point I'm just going to pull wifi all together.  Currently I am at 1 hour free, 2 hours with code.  So I have people coming up all day asking for codes and my Barista's are too busy to know who has already received a code or who has purchased.  If I could get a unique printed code on my square receipt it would solve this.  

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Super Seller Alumni

There is a section on the receipt for a custom note, you can find this in settings on your dashboard, that you can put in the password - you just have to remember to change it on there when you change the password

Pesso - he/him
Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream
Square Super Seller - I'm here to help!
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Super Seller

@pessosices we help solve this problem. Learn more here.

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Super Seller

@briparker we help solve this problem. Each Square receipt becomes a unique code for WiFi use.

Learn more here.

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Super Seller

@NathanA 

 

You can now use Square's receipt to associate guest wifi amenity to a purchase for a certain period of time. Learn more  here.

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