To Wifi or not to Wifi, that is the quesiton

[RedEye]

So this coming Sunday I will be the proud owner of my first coffee shop. My business partners and I are wrapping up the last few loose ends this week. Setting up the businesses Wifi is on my to-do list and I'm not sure what speed is appropriate for our customers. Our coffee shop is 1700 Square feet with a fire occupancy of 65, the previous owner has been running a 20Mbps/5Mbps but that seems rather slow if you've got 15-20 people using the internet. We are right across the street from a High school and we're looking to capture more of that demographic as customers so it would make sense to up the internet capabilities. I know there's some people out there that have run into this issue before so I'd like to hear what your coffee shops are using, any problems you've run into. Things to look out for in a service provider etc. I just set up my account yesterday and I'm really glad I found this forum, it's a treasure trove of info and experience.
~Jon

 

[chast]

are you going to charge? setting time limits? If you have a customer that orders one cup of coffee and sits there for 4 hours on their laptop what is your policy going to be. That is a problem in a lot of shops in my area. Across form a High School is automatic income as the new generation is into coffee & espresso. Good Luck on your new venture!

 

[PinkRose]

Does the High School have free WiFi for the students? (some do, and some don't).

You're right across the street from the High School, and they may already be able to tap into the school's WiFi from your location.

You already know that the connection that the previous owner used was too slow, so you'll need to decide how much to increase it to suit your needs.

Did you use the same service provider that you use for your telephone service? Some of them offer a combination package for business owners, and you can always increase your Internet connection speed later if you need to.

Also, you may want to think about changing the password every day so that only your customers can use your connection for that day only.

Some coffee shop owners have had a problem with people bringing in their devices and plugging them into the electrical outlets to recharge them. You'll need to decide what your policy will be before you get started, so you can block the outlets if necessary.

 

[hanytrade]

i think you will have to use bandwith option in router setting to limit the speed for each customer. and you have to check wireless static perudicaly to check who is current user . and you have to use mac filter to ban the peopel out side the cafe and you have to change password evryday and i hear about program limit the covrage area . install aprogram to control your router from mobile i have one .
i hope that ideas can help

 

[Musicphan]

I can't help much on the decision to offer/not but I can offer some advise if you choose to offer WiFi. First, its best to have a decent basic firewall in place so you can do basic URL/website and guest/customer wireless 'mgmt'. With URL filtering you can block certain categories of websites (Example - porn/adult content) or block websites which are huge bandwidth hogs (Example- Music Download/Pirate sites). Guest/customer mgmt. features typically you offer more advanced ways to limit or control who can get on your network (Example - do you want people on your network when your closed?). And MOST important.. if your running a POS which is connected to the internet make sure you segment your network. Basically a way to split your network (done with settings on the firewall) to route all POS traffic down one segment of the network, all customer traffic down another segment. If your public network is wide open.. you don't want your POS exposed.

 

[RedEye]

Q&A

Wow there's a whole lot more to consider than I thought. Just when I thought I was connecting the dots I discover there's like twenty more dots I didn't even know existed. Now on to the questions.....

Charlie
-Are you going to charge?

No. Not directly at least depending on the the end cost of said internet speed and capabilities my partners and I might decided to increase the price of coffee to compensate for the additional overhead (although this would be a last resort type option)​

-Are you going to set time limits

No. For the same reason that casino's will comp a winner with a free room, stay long enough and the house will win. With respect to the coffee shop the longer I can keep them in my business the higher the probability of them buying something or multiple somethings.​

PinkRose
-Does the highschool have free wifi for the students?

I have no idea, however I do have a email prepared to send out to the principle expressing that the business is under new ownership and whatever we can do to support them and the service they provide our community like; allowing seniors in the graphic arts program the ability to hang up artwork for sale (obviously good works of art) in the coffee shop. Posting any flyers for school plays, athletic fundraising, food drives etc. I will definitely add the WiFi question to the email tho.​

-Tap in to the schools WiFi network

The school is to far for my business to tap into their network. There's a parking lot, football field and a four lane street between us. Also I wouldn't like to depend on an outside source for our internet especially with regards to our POS​

-Bundling my residential internet with business account. Increasing later on.

There are three options for internet and phone; DSL, CABLE, and FIBER. DSL is the price we want but their highest speed is less than what I have at my house ($85 a month for 20mb/5mb). Cable is the speed we want ($205 100mb/25mb) but the cost is insane. Fiber is the variable that I don't have the details on yet I'm calling them tomorrow hopefully they can be somewhere in the middle.​

-Change the password everyday

LOVE THIS IDEA, there's a coffee shop that here in salt lake that does this and it's an easy less aggressive way to control who can access the WiFi​

Hanytrade
-Bandwidth options to control the users speed
-Check wireless static periodically to check who is current user
-Use mac filter to ban the people out side the cafe
-Install a program to control router from my phone

As computer savvy as I like to think I am this went over my head. I've got a tech guy that I'll ask about these. What was the program you used to control your router from your mobile?​

Musicpan
-Setting up a decent firewall so that you can do URL/website and guest/customer 'mgmt"
-URL filtering
-Segment your network

Like I mentioned above I've no idea how to set this up myself but these are some great questions I can ask my techie. Do you have any suggestions on software or programs that have allowed you to do this easily?​

 

[hanytrade]

the program name is (router setting )
mine is for android

 

[PinkRose]

PinkRose
-Does the highschool have free wifi for the students?

I have no idea, however I do have a email prepared to send out to the principle expressing that the business is under new ownership and whatever we can do to support them and the service they provide our community like; allowing seniors in the graphic arts program the ability to hang up artwork for sale (obviously good works of art) in the coffee shop. Posting any flyers for school plays, athletic fundraising, food drives etc. I will definitely add the WiFi question to the email tho.​

-Tap in to the schools WiFi network

The school is to far for my business to tap into their network. There's a parking lot, football field and a four lane street between us. Also I wouldn't like to depend on an outside source for our internet especially with regards to our POS​

-Bundling my residential internet with business account. Increasing later on.

There are three options for internet and phone; DSL, CABLE, and FIBER. DSL is the price we want but their highest speed is less than what I have at my house ($85 a month for 20mb/5mb). Cable is the speed we want ($205 100mb/25mb) but the cost is insane. Fiber is the variable that I don't have the details on yet I'm calling them tomorrow hopefully they can be somewhere in the middle.​

-Change the password everyday

LOVE THIS IDEA, there's a coffee shop that here in salt lake that does this and it's an easy less aggressive way to control who can access the WiFi​

When you said you were across the street from the high school, I pictured you actually being right across the street from the high school. Even if the students could access the school's WiFi from your cafe, you'd still need to have your own WiFi and Internet connection for your business, even if it is slow for now. I'm glad you have other options to explore.

And I'm very glad you have a tech guy who can set things up for you. Just be sure to test all of the security settings when it's all ready to go. I once worked in the cafe of a Bed and Breakfast that offered free WiFi in their cafe as well as in the guests rooms. One day, one of the guests came up to me and asked if we knew that people could see the reservation screens, all of the business documents, etc. on their laptops. He showed me, and it was true. Anyone who was smart enough to do some exploring was able to access all of the information through the WiFi. The dopes who set the system obviously didn't know what they were doing and never tested the security of the network. People had access to everything for about 6 months before the problem was discovered and corrected. That's not a good thing!

Rose

 

[Musicphan]

I would suggest something like the FortiWifi 60 or 90... basically the more bandwidth the more expensive firewall you need. The nice thing about the FortiWifi is it has a built in wireless router and you can expand coverage (probably not needing in most sized coffee shops) with additional access points if needed. The other thing to consider is Cyber Liability insurance... no idea what it cost. If you do get breached and the card brands (Visa/MasterCard) make you do a forensic audit/cleanup your looking at about $10K. Its a growing problem for all businesses and MANY business ignore the problem. 'Cyberliability' Insurance for When Your Business Gets Hacked - Businessweek

 

[Musicphan]

And just a side note / my opinion.... If your not going to take network security seriously don't utilize a POS with internet connection. Use the old school swipe the credit card on the machine technology...