Guest WiFi Glossary: 36 Terms Venue Owners in India Actually Need
Every guest WiFi conversation turns into acronyms within five minutes. This is the reference: each term defined in a sentence or two, what it means for a hotel, cafe or co-working space, and where to read more.
Guest WiFi has its own vocabulary, and most of it arrives as acronyms. This glossary defines each term the way a venue owner needs it: what it is, in one or two sentences, and why it matters for a hotel, cafe, hospital, mall or co-working space in India. Terms are grouped by topic, and each definition stands on its own.
The short answer: the three terms that matter most are the captive portal (the login page guests see before getting internet), the walled garden (the sites allowed before login) and OTP login (verifying a guest by a one-time code sent to their phone). The Indian rules most often mentioned are CERT-In’s 2022 Directions, PM-WANI and the DPDP Act, 2023.
Logging guests in
Captive portal
A captive portal is the login page a WiFi network shows a newly connected device before letting it onto the internet. Until the guest signs in, the device’s traffic is held back (“captive”). Every guest network that asks you to sign in runs one, whether it is a branded page or the router’s default. See What is a captive portal.
Splash page
Another name for the captive portal’s login screen. “Splash page”, “WiFi login page” and “guest login screen” all mean the same thing.
OTP login
Logging a guest in by sending a one-time password (OTP), a short numeric code, to their mobile number by SMS or WhatsApp, or to their email, and asking them to type it back. It ties each session to a verified number instead of a shared password. See WhatsApp OTP vs SMS for guest WiFi login.
Voucher code
A pre-generated access code a venue hands to a guest, printed or read out, that grants internet for a set time or data amount. Useful for guests without an Indian mobile number and for events. See Vouchers as access control.
Walled garden
The list of websites a guest can reach before logging in. Typical entries are a payment page, the venue’s own booking site, and anything the login page itself needs to load. Anything not on the list stays blocked until sign-in.
Captive portal detection
The background check a phone or laptop runs when it joins a network: it loads a known plain-HTTP address (for example captive.apple.com on Apple devices, connectivitycheck.gstatic.com on Android) and opens the login page if the reply has been redirected. When this check is blocked, the login page does not appear. See WiFi login page not showing up.
RFC 8910 and RFC 8908
Two internet standards that let a network tell a device the portal’s address directly when it joins (RFC 8910), and let the device ask a portal API whether it is still captive (RFC 8908). They reduce reliance on the background check above. Support varies by device and network.
Session timeout
The maximum time a guest stays online after one login before being asked to sign in again, for example four hours or 24 hours.
Idle timeout
How long a device can be connected without using the internet before its session ends, so that abandoned sessions free up capacity.
The network underneath
SSID
The Service Set Identifier: the WiFi network name guests see in their list, such as “Hotel_Guest”. One access point can broadcast several SSIDs, for example one for guests and one for staff.
WPA2 and WPA3
The security standards that encrypt WiFi traffic between a device and the access point, and decide who can join the radio network at all. A WiFi password is a WPA2/WPA3 key. It is a separate layer from the captive portal, which decides who gets internet once they have joined.
Guest network separation (VLAN)
Keeping guest devices on a different logical network from the venue’s own systems, such as billing PCs, CCTV and printers, usually with a VLAN (virtual LAN) and firewall rules, so a guest cannot reach them. See Guest network isolation.
Client isolation
A setting that stops guest devices on the same network from reaching each other, so one guest’s laptop cannot see another’s phone.
Access point (AP)
The device that broadcasts the WiFi signal. A router can include one; larger venues add separate access points, usually wired back to the router, for coverage across floors. See How many access points do you need.
Mesh WiFi
A set of access points that connect to each other wirelessly to extend coverage. Easier to install than wired access points, but each wireless hop costs speed.
Band steering
Nudging dual-band devices onto the less crowded 5 GHz band instead of 2.4 GHz, so more guests get usable speed.
Fast roaming (802.11r, 802.11k, 802.11v)
Standards that help a moving device hand over from one access point to the next without dropping its connection. They matter in co-working spaces, hospitals and hotels where people walk around while on calls. See Co-working WiFi and roaming.
DHCP and lease time
DHCP is how the router hands each device an IP address when it joins. The lease time is how long that address stays reserved. In a busy venue, a small address pool with long leases can run out, and new guests then connect with no internet.
DNS
The Domain Name System: the internet’s address book, which turns a name like wyfyguest.com into an IP address. Guest devices need working DNS even before login, or the login page cannot open. DNS is also one way to block categories of websites. See Website blocking on guest WiFi.
MAC address
The hardware address of a device’s network adapter. Networks often recognise a returning device by it, for example to skip the login screen for a known staff phone.
MAC randomisation (private WiFi address)
A privacy feature on modern phones (Private Wi-Fi Address on iPhone, randomised MAC on Android) that shows each network a made-up MAC address instead of the real one, and on some settings changes it over time. It is why a returning guest is sometimes asked to log in again.
RADIUS
Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service: a standard protocol a router or access point uses to ask a central server “may this user or device connect, and with what limits?”. Many cloud captive portal systems use RADIUS between the venue’s equipment and the cloud.
Concurrent users
The number of devices online at the same moment. Some products cap it per plan; the real limit in practice is usually the internet line’s capacity and the access points. See No user cap and bandwidth congestion.
Speed, limits and uptime
Bandwidth limit (rate limit)
A cap on the download and upload speed each guest device gets, such as 5 Mbps, so one heavy user cannot slow everyone else down. See Session and bandwidth limits.
Data limit
A cap on the total data a guest can use in a session or a day, such as 1 GB, after which access stops or slows.
ISP failover
Switching automatically to a second internet line (a backup broadband or 4G/5G connection) when the main one fails, and back when it recovers. It only works if the venue has a second line. See ISP failover and guest WiFi uptime.
QoS and VoIP priority
Quality of Service: rules that give some traffic, such as voice calls (VoIP), priority over bulk downloads, so calls stay clear when the network is busy. See VoIP call priority.
Indian rules and frameworks
CERT-In
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, India’s national agency for cyber security incidents, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Its Directions of 28 April 2022 require covered organisations to report specified incidents within six hours and to keep logs of their ICT systems for a rolling 180 days, within India. Whether and how they apply to a particular venue is a legal question. See Guest WiFi legal compliance in India.
IPDR
Internet Protocol Detail Record: a record of which IP address and port a user was assigned and when, kept by internet service providers so that activity can be traced to a subscriber. It is a telecom-licensee obligation, and is different from a venue’s own login records.
PM-WANI
The Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface, a Department of Telecommunications framework launched in December 2020. It lets small businesses run public WiFi hotspots without a telecom licence or fee, under an interoperable system of PDOs, PDOAs, App Providers and a Central Registry.
PDO (Public Data Office)
In PM-WANI, the shop, cafe or other business that runs a hotspot and sells WiFi access to the public. No licence or registration fee is needed.
PDOA (Public Data Office Aggregator)
In PM-WANI, the registered company that aggregates PDOs: it provides authentication, accounting and the technical setup for many hotspots, and is responsible for user records. Wyfy Guest is not a PDOA.
App Provider
In PM-WANI, the company whose app lets users discover hotspots and sign in to them. App Providers register users and verify their mobile numbers.
DLT registration
Distributed Ledger Technology registration, required by TRAI’s 2018 commercial communication regulations (TCCCPR). Businesses that send SMS in India, including OTPs, must register as senders and register each message template on a DLT platform run by the telecom operators. Unregistered templates are blocked, which is a common cause of WiFi OTPs not arriving.
DPDP Act, 2023
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: India’s law on how organisations collect and process digital personal data, including the phone numbers and emails a guest WiFi login collects. Its Rules were notified in November 2025, with obligations coming into force in phases. It is a law, not a certification: there is no “DPDP certified” scheme. See Guest data masking and privacy.
ISO/IEC 27001
The international standard for information security management systems. An organisation can be certified against it by an accredited certification body. Wyfy Guest is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022.
How these terms map to Wyfy Guest
Wyfy Guest is captive portal and guest WiFi management software for venues in India. In the vocabulary above, it provides the captive portal (with OTP login by SMS, WhatsApp or email, and voucher codes), the walled garden (called Access Rules in the dashboard), per-guest bandwidth and session limits, ISP failover monitoring, and guest network separation, run from one dashboard across every location. It is not an internet service provider and not a PM-WANI PDOA. To see it running on a real router, book a demo.
