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Set it up yourself, in about ten minutes

Answer three questions and this page prints the exact settings for your controller: the portal address to paste, the walled garden entries, and the query string mistake that breaks a first attempt. Nothing here takes a credit card.

Reviewed by , Founder, VoqadoWiFi · Written by the VoqadoWiFi team · Updated

The short version
Switch your guest SSID to external portal mode, point it at your VoqadoWiFi address, allow www.voqadowifi.com through the walled garden, and enter your controller credentials in the dashboard so guest devices can be authorised. Those four things are the whole setup on both TP-Link Omada and Ubiquiti UniFi.
Step 1 of 3

What runs your WiFi?

Check the label on an access point, or the name of the app you use to manage the network. If you genuinely do not know, pick the last option and the guide will tell you how to find out.

Network vendor

The full sequence, in order

The guide above fills in the values. This is the shape of the whole thing, so you know what you are agreeing to before you start.

  1. Confirm your hardware is supported
    Identify whether your access points are TP-Link Omada or Ubiquiti UniFi. Those are the only two vendors supported, and anything else needs different hardware or a different platform.
  2. Generate your controller settings
    Answer three questions and the guide prints the exact external portal address, the walled garden entries and the navigation path for your specific controller.
  3. Create the free account
    Sign up with an email address on the Starter plan. No credit card is taken and no call is scheduled.
  4. Add your venue and get the finished portal URL
    Adding a location generates its branded captive portal and the real external portal URL to paste into the controller.
  5. Paste the URL into your controller and connect it
    Set the guest SSID authentication type to external portal, paste the URL, add the walled garden entries, and enter the controller credentials in the dashboard so guest devices can be authorised.
  6. Test with a real phone
    Join the guest network on a phone that has not connected before. The branded portal should load, and submitting the form should put that device online.

What you need before you begin

  • Controller access. An administrator sign in for your Omada or UniFi controller. This is often the step that stalls, so find out who has it first.
  • A guest SSID you can change. Separate from staff and point of sale. If everything is on one network, split it before you start.
  • Your logo. A PNG or SVG. Not required to go live, but guests are more willing to type an email into a page that looks like the venue they are standing in.
  • A phone that has not joined the network before. A device with a remembered connection will not show you the portal, and that alone makes people think setup failed when it worked.

If something does not work

The portal never appears. Check first whether the test device has already been authorised and remembers the network. Forget the network on the phone, or use a different one. If it still does not appear, the walled garden entries are missing, so the device cannot reach the portal domain to load it.

The portal appears but the guest never gets online. The form submitted and the authorisation call failed. Either the controller credentials in the dashboard are wrong, or the portal URL was pasted with a query string of its own that collided with the controller’s parameters.

It works on Android and not on iPhone. Apple’s captive network assistant is a reduced browser. If you have customised the portal with anything exotic, simplify it and retest.

Still stuck after that, the contact form reaches a person. There is no phone queue and no ticket number.

Setup questions

How long does setup actually take?
About ten minutes if you already have controller access and know which guest SSID to change. The slow part is often finding out who has the controller password.
Do I have to give you my controller password?
Eventually yes, inside the dashboard, because authorising a guest device requires an authenticated call to your controller. You never enter it on a public page. Create a dedicated controller account with the minimum role rather than sharing your main administrator login.
Will this interrupt the WiFi my guests are using now?
Changing the portal setting on a guest SSID drops devices currently on that SSID, so they reconnect through the new portal. It does not touch your staff or point of sale network unless those sit on the same SSID, which they should not.
What if my hardware is not Omada or UniFi?
The first screen of the guide tells you so straight away and points at platforms that do support your hardware, rather than collecting your email first. Support is limited to these two vendors on purpose, and there is no date for any other brand.
Is the free plan really free, with no card?
Yes. The Starter plan covers one location and 500 guest logins a month at no cost and takes no payment method. It is not a trial that converts to a paid plan.
Can I set this up without any networking experience?
If you can sign in to your Omada or UniFi controller, yes. There is one setting to change and one address to paste. If you cannot sign in to the controller, you need whoever installed the network, and no platform can route around that.

Setup guides by brand and controller

The wizard above prints your settings. These pages explain each controller in depth, and what to allow before guests sign in.

Keep reading

Full TP-Link Omada walkthroughScreen by screen, including the walled garden and the query string trap.Full Ubiquiti UniFi walkthroughCovers UniFi OS appliances, self hosted servers and the official cloud console.What Social WiFi isThe category explained, including where it goes wrong.Check a specific access point modelBefore you commit ten minutes to it.The free plan in detailWhat 500 logins a month actually covers.

TP-Link, Omada, Ubiquiti and UniFi are trademarks of their respective owners. VoqadoWiFi is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by either company.