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Supported equipment

TP-Link Omada

EAP access points and Omada gateways managed by an Omada controller — hardware, software or cloud. Everything is configured on the controller.

What you get

What this equipment can do

Three things decide what a venue actually gets. The first two are the same everywhere in this list. The third is where equipment differs, and it is the reason each page says so plainly.

Your own sign-in page

Your logo, your colours, your welcome message, in the guest's own language — and every way in you have switched on, from room number and surname to a tap on Google.

Plans that are enforced

Speed, time limit and how many devices each guest may bring, applied by the equipment itself rather than being a promise on a page.

Checkout: tested during setup

The vendor does not document whether this equipment accepts the instruction to end a session, so we test it with a real phone during setup. Where the phone drops, checkout ends the session; where it does not, access ends at the time limit.

How the equipment talks to us: This equipment cannot encrypt those questions on its own, so we set up a private link between the site and us and they travel inside it. It dials out; nothing needs opening up on your broadband.

Sold as small-venue equipment, supported here in full. Some guest Wi-Fi platforms run only on enterprise access points and turn this make away. Here it gets the same sign-in page and the same enforced plans as everything else on the list, the room-and-surname login for a hotel that runs it, and whether checkout ends a session immediately depends on the controller, which we test during setup.

Before your installer starts

What has to be true first

None of this is work we do for you — it is the state the equipment needs to be in before the short part begins. A step that fails for something on this list is a wasted visit, which is why it is here rather than buried in a manual.

Not sure whether your site meets it? Send us a photo of the equipment and we will tell you.

Checklist

  • Omada controller v5.14 or later for the checkout setting to exist at all — the sign-in page itself works from v5.0.15, but forced logout does not appear until v5.14.
  • Knowing where the controller runs. The controller — not the access point — is what asks us about a guest, so it is the controller that needs to reach us.
  • The private link up and passing traffic first.
Worth knowing

The things that catch people out

Every make has its own quirks. These are the ones that matter on TP-Link Omada — not because they are problems, but because knowing them in advance turns a site visit into a short one.

Checkout cut-off is new here, and worth testing. Recent Omada controllers gained a setting that can end a session already in progress, which older versions never had. It is worth testing with a real phone during setup rather than assuming it from the version number alone: sign in, end the session from the console, and confirm it drops. Where the phone does not drop, access ends at the session timeout instead.
Above two access points, a controller is less work than not having one. The software controller runs on almost anything, including a small cloud server, and it means the settings live in one place instead of being repeated on every access point and drifting apart.
The setup

How it goes on the day

Roughly half an hour on a straightforward site, most of it waiting for equipment to restart. Your console writes out every value for your property in advance — there is nothing to work out and nothing to invent.

1

Add the equipment in your console

You register the router, controller or access point in your Resort Manager Hotspot console. It generates everything the following steps need — the address of your sign-in page, the credentials, the settings — already filled in with your property's own values. Nobody copies a setting out of a manual and nobody types a password twice.

2

Let guests reach the sign-in page

A guest who has not signed in yet has no internet, so the equipment is given a short list of addresses that stay open regardless — the sign-in page among them. Your console writes that list out in the exact form this equipment expects.

3

Bring up the private link

This equipment has no encryption of its own for these questions, so a private link is brought up between the site and us and they travel inside it. It dials out from the site, so again nothing has to be opened up on your broadband.

4

Point the guest network at your sign-in page

The guest Wi-Fi is set to open, with your branded page in place of the equipment's own. Usage recording is switched on at the same time — that is both your reporting and, in the countries that require it, the connection log you are obliged to keep.

5

Prove it with a real phone

Join the network on a phone, sign in, and watch the session appear in your console with the right plan against it. That is the point at which anything is actually proved.

Other equipment

Comparing makes?

Most sites come down to a choice between two or three of these. The pages below cover the ones closest to TP-Link Omada.

Also from TP-Link

TP-Link EAP (standalone)

Connects the same way

Equipment that reaches us by the same route, so the same things have to be true at the property: EnGenius Cloud · Grandstream GWN · LANCOM Public Spot · Netgear WAC (standalone)

All 40 supported makes →

Have this equipment already?

Then there is nothing to buy. Tell us what you have and we will confirm the details for your site — or set the whole thing up for you, which is a service we offer.