The purpose of anything in the rental, like the WiFi Porter, is to make it easy for guests to check in effortlessly/conveniently without assistance from me. To have something like that has to be seamless–or why have it?
I bought one of these things yesterday just to try it. Didn’t see the “AIR” code for the 40% discount until now 
I guess I should have done research on this before the purchase. The wood block is a nice novelty, but NFC stickers all over the house/villa are much cheaper … like 25 for $20… and can be programmed at will in place. Even the QR codes can be generated online and stuck to the NFC stickers for those lonely IPhones that can’t use NFC technology yet. Of course this doesn’t really solve the issue for laptops unless they have a built in camera or NFC reader.
Oh no! We’ll get that discount applied to your order by way of a refund.
Yes! We love that there’s an easy solution for all the DIY’ers. We’d love to see/hear about how anyone else may already be using NFC or QR codes in their AirBnB!
Apple users who have an iPhone and Macbook can share their wifi credentials from their phone to laptop. This will be a more streamlined process once Apple opens up the ability to read and write NFC tags for Wi-Fi. (In the meantime, the QR method works great with iPhones built QR code reader in the camera app). For other laptops or devices that do not have NFC, Wifi Porter provides a space to include the Wi-Fi credentials on the bottom, near the QR code.
1 Like
Thanks for sharing!
Between One-Tap Wi-Fi and QR code features, most all modern mobile devices will work with Wifi Porter. (We say “most” simply because some newer inexpensive Android phones do not have NFC)
Even with these two methods included, there still may be devices (like laptops), that can not tap or scan. By default, Wifi Porter prints the Wi-Fi password on the bottom in clear unambiguous characters. The printed password can be turned off in the configuration app, but it’s on by default to help everyone feel welcome even if they’re not connecting a phone.
Seamless and magical is our goal. We believe good design and excellent function can shape a guests experience just as easily as good design with poor function can ruin an experience. Wifi Porter is still new, and we may not have found the optimal solution, but I think we’re nearly there. We’re listening hard for feedback about any pain points or ways to improve our messaging.
I would love to purchase software or hardware that creates a wifi code for each guest, turning on and off according to the length of stay (as my remotelock6i does, integrated with airbnb). The ability too to cap wifi usage for a specific access code would be very helpful for those who have plans for access.
Just a thought…
2 Likes
HOLY COW! Refund just showed up… and so did the device. Just playing with it. What I didn’t really think about is for notebooks, if you have a smart phone… it scans the QR code and translates it into a text phrase. This has the added benefit that the password is not really just out there in the open, but rather you need to scan in order to see what it is… and of course that is easily transferrable to a laptop.
1 Like
This is awesome to hear, thanks for sharing!
Now you’ve got my attention!
1 Like
Exactly, it is a complex solution for a non-existing problem.
What does it solve? Long Wifi Passwords? They are long for a reason, and if you are opening up your wifi for all guests, then you might as wel shorten it.
Needing to type an easy PW is not more hassle than going around the house looking for a wooden thingy to log in.
It only works for phones and tablets, not work for laptops and other devices, so the PW still has to be shared as a code too.
It does not work for “hotspots”.
1 Like
So I have been experimenting with my newly acquired Porter for a few hours now. I have an iPhone 6+ so I can only create the QR code for the back. No problems… the app works easily and creates the insert for the porter with the wifi SSID and the password. I also bought the recommended NFC card writer from ACS that was recommended on their setup page and downloaded the NFCTools computer software. I’ve been playing with this a bit… I can read and write to the Porter… but the questions is write what? Is there some sort of code to prefix the SSID with and the Password with in the text string before writing it to the Porter so that is recognizes it as a wife SSID and password. This is completely missing from the instructions. Sooooo the question to the wifi Porter people is this: What do I put in what data fields on the porter to make it work for tap connection with the android (that I don’t have but my guests will!)?
The two I purchased Wednesday arrived speedy-quick on Friday. I will install them in my rentals the first week of May after my snowbirds leave.
I already have easy plain English 1-word password to type in for access. However I like this idea for phones. To type the password on the tiny smart phone type can be a challenge for fat fingers grabbing an R instead of a T.
I think this is a great idea for frequent guest change overs with phones & tablets.
There is no way to prevent things from being stolen but we can make it less easy. I’m going to zip strip the power cord to the table leg & to the power strip then gorilla glue a zip strip from the power cable to the body of the device. A good pair of scissors will snip through it all but then it will be clearly a conscious decision to steal; not an “oh I accidentally packed it”.
I currently offer a 6 USB power station bedside with a multi-charger attached to one of the USB ports. I zip-stripped it like I described above. 18 months later, it is still there.
I also have a four outlet station with 2 USB stations beside the desk. I can tell it gets heavy usage.
NO ONE has commented in their review either privately or publicly about these or the convenience they offer. The USB outlets are common in hotels so now I think guests think of it as the norm.
I’m not expecting this delightful gadget to increase my guest satisfaction but be a little icing on the cake.
2 Likes
I’m sorry for the delay in my response here!
Configuring the NFC method requires the Wifi Porter app and an Android mobile device with NFC. I found myself in the exact same situation where I’m strictly Apple product household… our solution? We went to Best Buy, downloaded the Wifi Porter app onto a demo phone and programed the Wifi Porter to our network. (Pro tip, you can program a Wifi Porter even when you’re not on or around the network!) Perhaps an easier alternative is to invite over a friend who has an Android.
Please don’t hesitate to shoot us any other questions. In fact, you can speak directly to the designer/developer behind Wifi Porter by emailing info@tenonedesign.com
I’m not certain where you may have seen a recommendation to purchase an NFC card writer, could you share more about where you saw this recommendation?
If your “hotspot” has a user name and password, it’ll work great! I configure Wifi Porter’s to my phone’s tethering hotspot and connect other devices easily, it’s great!
Sooooo Dave. if you click on the link on the setup page that says “why this is and some workaround ideas”, the instructions say (and sorry I cannot post pictures in this forum or I would have snap-shop your website for you…):
"There are two other remote possibilities that may work in a pinch:
If you have access to a Mac or PC, a free app called NFC Tools can write Wi-Fi credentials to your Wifi Porter. It requires a USB NFC writing peripheral, so consider this a workable but overly-expensive last resort. After programming, One-Tap Wifi will work with Android phones. Here are links to a suitable peripheral and software:
Peripheral: ACR1252U USB NFC Reader/Writer (second choice: ACR122U USB Reader/Writer)
NFC Tools for Mac Link to App Store
NFC Tools for Windows Direct download "
Don’t try to spin it, you know exactly what I mean.
A public hotspot works with credentials after you connected network. Most used system work with vouchers.
Thanks for clarifying! We agree, captive portal redirects is common practice. Hotels, I think , is where I most commonly see this type of connection process.Wifi Porter can still work great with a network that has a captive portal, though you’re correct in that it won’t be ideal if the captive portal requires credential input after connection. We’d love to make this specific use case a better experience and are all ears if you have any suggestions. Thanks!
Oh! Thanks! My dev team (aka, my brother) is sneaking updates while neglecting to fill me in! After a quick “update me” session, I should be able to help get this going for you.
It sounds like you’ve already got the appropriate NFC tools downloaded onto your computer. If you hadn’t seen it yet, here’s a quick breakdown on the next steps for writing Wi-Fi credentials to the NFC tag.
Instructions for Using NFC Tools and a USB Reader/Writer
- Plug in the reader
- Run NFC Tools
- Place the Wifi Porter on the reader (and keep it there). The information tab should load with data about the Wifi Porter.
- Click the Write tab
- Click Add a record
- Select Wi-Fi
- Enter the following information
Authentication: WPA2-Personal
Encryption: None
SSID: yourwifissid
Password: yourwifipassword
- Click ok
- Click Write
It’s a good idea to double-check your SSID and password during programming since you won’t be able to test it without an Android phone.
Are these helpful for completing setup?
Yes I emailed your developers on Monday and they sent me these instructions for the asking. I found I could write pretty much anything to the NFC but didn’t understand there were specific fields for things like “URL”, “text” etc. it works quite well, and in fact we have taken this idea a step further by purchasing some NTAG216 NFC patches, programming them with URLs that point to instructions for devices hosted on our website, and deploying the patches on the equipment. That way when our guests want to know how to use the expresso machine, they scan te patch… it takes them to the instructions on our website. Very proactive.
1 Like
I love this. We’d love to hear how it goes!
@dskinner - I’ll chime in here (I’m Mrs William). I always had the vision of getting rid of signs and manuals laying around our villa for guests. Thanks to this thread - which I showed to Mr William - you got us up and running on getting that vision enabled. He’s working on the internet access and NFC, but that got me trying out QR codes. I’ve already successfully set up a QR code to take people to our website. Much, much easier than I thought. Oh, and I programmed Alexa to answer questions, too.
2 Likes