The European Commission approved a budget of 120 Million Euros to finance President Juncker’s Commission project to provide free Wi-Fi to 8.000 European cities and towns.

Almost one year has passed, since European Comission’s President Juncker brought forward the proposal, with his “State of the Union” speech, to equip 6.000 to 8.000 European municipalities with high-quality free Wi-Fi. Now, the time has come.

The WiFi4EU initiative was finally approved on May 29th, but the procedure to access the funds have not been yet made public (but will be available before the end of this year).

What you should know about the WiFi4EU program…

LOCATIONS INVOLVED. The program involves any public location mentioned by a local authority or government in the EU, including parks, squares, libraries, public buildings, hospitals, etc.

BOTH FOR INDOOR AND OUTDOOR WI-FI. People will be able to access Wi-Fi both in indoor and outdoor locations

GOALS. The goals of this project are to incentivize tourism, allowing citizens to access digital services, provide better health assistance.

SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES. It seems that the EU will provide vouchers to buy wireless devices and to pay for their installation.

“FIRST COMES, FIRST SERVED” APPROACH. Requests to access these funds will be evaluated and selected based on the order of arrival

6000 TO 8000 TOWNS/CITIES INVOLVED. The program doesn’t involve only big cities, as media previously reported. Instead, it seems that there are funds to equip almost 8000 towns in Europe with free public Wi-Fi.

MAINTENANCE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS. The costs for the Wi-Fi hotspots maintenance and for eventual subscriptions (or license purchases) will not be covered by European funds

WIFI WILL BE WHERE IT IS NOT NOW. Places without public Wi-Fi connectivity will be advantaged in the selection process.

What does this mean for hospitals, libraries, public places, and in general for municipalities that want to offer WiFi?

Basically, it means saving most of the costs for the installation of well-working Wi-Fi networks. Tanaza will assist all municipalities and local authorities that want to request funds from the European Union, in selecting the best equipment to buy for their premises.

As the EU will fund the purchase of Wi-Fi equipment, it is very important to correctly estimate the number of Wi-Fi users and particularly, the type of internet usage that they’ll do.

But… why is Tanaza the best choice?

If you’re using Tanaza, you get something invaluable: the freedom to use routers from different vendors! Thanks to this you can use the best of the best on the market. For example you can buy an AC model from Ubiquiti for your library’s PC room, where internet usage is heavy, and inexpensive 802.11n devices for outdoor Wi-Fi in parks, where density is lower and Wi-Fi usage is not heavy.

As a municipality, you also need to know that buying a Wi-Fi router doesn’t mean setting up a public Wi-Fi network. The EU funds cover the purchase of Wi-Fi equipment only, but that’s not enough. For example, you will need a system to make your Wi-Fi users log into the Wi-Fi network in a simple way: a system, like Tanaza, that allows login through a platform called a “captive portal” and includes social login features (such as authentication to Wi-Fi using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…).

That’s not all. Once you have purchased your network’s access points, you probably need someone to surveying your site, to choose the devices’ positioning, to have a perfect signal coverage and no interference. There are many professionals out there that can help municipalities identifying potential physical obstacles to the signal’s diffusion (a lake, trees, walls…), potential sources of interference and strategies to avoid them. In some deployments, it may be necessary to install the access point on the ceiling or on a pole. In this scenario, the assistance of a Wi-Fi professional is key. (Tanaza has a huge network of Tanaza Authorized Partners if you need help with this!).

Last but not least, after installing the Wi-Fi network you need a professional software to manage the devices, maintain them, change the configurations if needed… obviously without needing to go on site, or this will cost you a lot! That’s where Tanaza comes in. Tanaza is an affordable full-featured software to maintain, manage and monitor multi-vendor networks, from the cloud – easily, remotely and quickly, thanks to a centralized dashboard! Do you want to get help with your project? Simply fill out our form and we’ll get in touch! 

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In this post we will focus on the latest innovations that WiFi 5 and WiGig technologies will bring to the market, in order to effectively improve and expand the Wi-Fi experience. Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and WiGig are the latest Wi-Fi technologies that will bring new features and benefits for Wi-Fi users. At present, indeed, the market requires innovative Wi-Fi products that can meet users’ expectations in terms of higher performance and capacity. Let’s find out how Wi-Fi certified ac devices with Wave 2 and WiGig will empower the Wi-Fi experience.

WiFi 5 Wave 2

Wi-Fi Alliance’s WiFi 5 standard with Wave 2 certification has been designed in order to provide Wi-Fi networks with multi-gigabit speed and high performance. It increases capacity by better handling bandwidth hungry apps – such as YouTube, Skype and Netflix – from a larger number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, i.e. smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc., which are simultaneously connected to a Wi-Fi network. This last element helps limiting network congestions and it is realized by virtue of MU-MIMO. Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), indeed, allows multiple devices to be connected on the same network and still benefit from high performance. In addition, the WiFi 5 Wave 2 technology aims at improving maximum channel bandwidth, by bringing it from 80 to 160 MHz, as well as at reducing channel interference. The Wi-Fi ac standard, indeed, supports the use of additional channels in the larger 5 GHz band, so as to better avoid the overlapping of many devices operating on the same channel. You can opt for many access points supporting the WiFi 5 Wave 2 technology with MU-MIMO on the market. Here are the multi-vendor models supported by Tanaza: TP-Link AC1200 (Archer C5); TP-Link AC1750 (Archer C7); Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO; Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC LR; Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC LITE.

 WiGig

The Wi-Fi Certified WiGig technology will provide a high-quality Wi-Fi experience, as it will enable Wi-Fi devices to use not only the current 2.4 or 5 GHz frequency bands, but also the less congested 60 GHz: this will expand the Wi-Fi network capacity, which will benefit from a multi-gigabit per second transmission speed and seamless data transfer across the three bands. In this way, WiGig will reduce interference and increase available bandwidth in any crowded location. Furthermore, by virtue of higher speeds and an increased bandwidth availability, Wi-Fi-enabled devices incorporating the WiGig technology will be able to: stream high-definition videos, i.e. virtual reality 4K videos; download movies in a quicker way; benefit from an improved virtual reality gaming experience; handle apps that consume a lot of bandwidth in an easier way; enable wireless docking between devices, i.e. the wireless communication enabled between a laptop and smartphone, projector, or other peripherals. All in all, by virtue of Wi-Fi Certified ac Wave 2 and WiGig technologies, Wi-Fi products will expand the Wi-Fi experience and will open up high-performing usages possibilities.

By stealing your Wi-Fi we mean that an AP might be faking to be an authorized device within your Wi-Fi network without your authorization and so try to access your clients’ personal information. Moreover, if a hacker entered on your Wi-Fi network, he can also steal private data, like passwords for example.

Check with online tools and applications

You have the possibility to scan your Wi-Fi network thanks to online tools and applications.

For example, you can use Tanaza’s surveying tool, that scans all networks in your area.

Screenshot 2: scan all networks in your area thanks to Tanaza

Alternatively, you can use:

Router Checker, that checks the router’s connection settings; or Wi-Fi Inspector, to:

• Fing Network Tools,
• IP Tools: Network Utilities

How to protect my Wi-Fi network from hackers?

To enhance the security of your Wi-Fi network, you can first start to change the password that you use to manage your Wi-Fi network. Create a personalized one with caps, numbers and symbols.

Last but not least, be sure that your router runs the latest firmware in order to improve the security.

Nowadays, Wi-Fi is a crucial service that the hospitality industry should leverage in order to improve customer satisfaction and increase revenues. Indeed, when traveling, customers expect to access high-quality internet during their stay, so as to check their emails, plan their routes, engage on social networks, upload pictures, stream videos and stay in contact with their friends and families. Accordingly, hotel owners are constantly looking for new solutions able to meet guests’ expectations. In-wall Wi-Fi access points can be an innovative way to provide guests with a positive Wi-Fi experience.

Installing in-wall access points in hotel rooms, B&B and motels is the right hotel Wi-Fi solution for different reasons. For instance, from an visual and aesthetic point of view, the small dimensions of in-wall access points and the fact that no cables are visible make them harmoniously fit in with the hotel room design. Furthermore, by minimizing range and interferences issues, in-wall access points bring big benefits both for the Wi-Fi guest experience and for hotel owners. Indeed, one great advantage of in-wall access points is that they can be easily placed close to the connected user, being able to limit signal interferences created by other access points and increase the chances of getting a better connection.

Examples of well-performing in-wall access points are UniFi In-Wall and the new UniFi AC In-Wall. UniFi AP In-Wall can be quickly deployed as it can retrofit an existing in-wall wired Ethernet jack to a Wi-Fi access point, without adding any wiring. It provides one RJ45 data port and one PoE port to connect devices like a VoIP phone. Also, it is capable of speeds of up to 150 Mbps with a range of up to 25 m (82 ft). In addition, another advantage of this device is that the reset button isn’t visible to users, meaning there is no risk guests might accidentally press it, i.e. while trying to arrange the Wi-Fi connection. The new UniFi AC In-Wall is an effective solution as it can be easily installed and deployed on pre-existing as well as new Wi-Fi and wired networks. Furthermore, as the UniFi AC in-wall device has two Ethernet ports, users can connect their wired devices without the necessity to add cables from the access point to the wiring closet: in this way, hotel owners do not need to invest money equipping each accommodation room with Ethernet ports. Compared to the new UniFi AC In-Wall access point, the UniFi In-Wall is more affordable and more suitable for small deployments, such as hotels and B&B of small dimensions. Tanaza, among its wide range of devices, supports and will soon release the UniFi In-Wall access point!

All in all, given their aesthetic and functional aspects, in-wall access points are a valuable solution for hotels whose goal is to improve their guest experience in a innovative way. 

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https://www.classichotspot.com/blog/how-fast-hotel-wi-fi-keeps-visitors-coming-back/