Whine about wifi no more.

The pool is officially open at Baile Cherry. (Baile is the Irish word for home… at least that’s what Google says. However, I am sure some Irishman – or woman is yearning to school me on this.) When we were looking for homes to buy last summer, we knew we needed a pool. Not only are Sophia and Lyra mermaids, but there’s something about the water that grounds (ironic wording, I know) Lyra particularly. She needs to be IN water daily to thrive. (When not in the pool, a bath or hot tub is necessary for Lyra.)

We spend a lot of time outside by the pool.  And invite many friends and neighbors to partake as well. If there are kids of a certain age, they often bring along certain devices that need to connect to the interwebs. And sometimes the adults have them too.

Unfortunately, our home is in a valley with limited cell service no matter what mobile service you use, so much so we need a booster from our mobile provider. We decided the best way to help keep people to connected is to create a guest wifi network. Many wifi routers provide this option but with so many routers out there, I can’t provide you with exact directions. But Kaspersky explains the basics and why such extra networks are a good thing.

So once you’ve created a guest network, the bigger burden is sharing the info with your guests. Think about it:

Guest: What’s your wifi password?

You: Ummm…. Lemme think. I gotta look that up. Hold on a minute. It’s in the office… on a sticky note somewhere. Let me get it.

Forget the fact it’s on a sticky note. (Hint: that’s not a very good way to have a secure password system.) Or the fact you left your guest in order to figure it out. (Marginally rude. Very awkward.) What the burden really is: anytime you have guests you will have to go through the same routine. Every time. Except if you are especially good with memorizing your passwords. But even then you’ll have issues:

Guest: What’s your wifi password?

You: It’s Fid0’sName1999. Capital F-i-d-ZERO-apostrophe-s. Capital N-a…

Guest: Hold on.  Which network is yours?

Why waste all this time on logistics?

You should use it to have more fun with your guests. You know, the reason you are having people over?!?

You need a visible sign you can point people to who ask.  And it saves your guests from feeling like they are imposing if they are forced to ask for it.

I create such signs for different areas of my house, as well as different times of year. So for the pool area in our new home, I designed one which I framed and hung outside on our patio. Then I got the design bug (it happens!) and created a few more for you for pool area – although a couple can certainly be used elsewhere. Take a look.

So how do you use these?

1. Click on the image you like. It will open to the full-size image (8.5″ x 11″)
2. Right click and select ‘Save as’ to download the image to your computer.
3. To customize with your network and password, you can use a paint program on your computer. Simply open the image in the program and add your wording.
4. Print and frame in a certificate frame (that’s 8.5″ x 11″) or trim down the image to an 8″ x 10″ to fit that size frame.
5. Hang it.