How to Stop Customers Using Your Wi-Fi Without Paying

Here is a scene most Wi-Fi owners know.

A customer's bundle expired at 6pm. At 9pm, they are streaming videos on your network. You find out at the end of the month, when the money doesn't add up.

If you run a small Wi-Fi business in the country, this has probably happened to you. It's frustrating, because the money that is lost is slow and incremental. No one comes in and steals some cash from your till. A few shillings here and there leak away each day, until you start to wonder what's happening with a busy business.The good news is that it is easy to stop. 

Why customers use Wi-Fi without paying

In most cases, it's not intentional. People usually have a good reason for continuing to use your Wi-Fi after their balance has expired:

They forgot to renew their bundle

They shared your Wi-Fi password with a neighbour or a cousin

You were busy, and nobody renewed their plan

Whatever the reason, the fact is that you are paying for bandwidth that nobody is paying you for.

How much does it really cost?

Say you sell a daily bundle for KES 50, and 10 people are using your Wi-Fi for free every day. That's KES 500 a day that you aren't earning. Over a month, that adds up to KES 15,000 you worked for and will never see. On top of that, those 10 people are slowing down your internet for your paying customers. It's a win for everyone who shares your Wi-Fi password, and a loss for you and your other customers. Which is why blocking these customers is not mean-spirited. It's fair.

There are two types of customers. Depending on how your customer buys your service, there are two possible methods to stop them using your Wi-Fi without paying.

Hotspot customers buy a voucher or pay at a login page, and use your Wi-Fi for a set period of time or amount of data. These are your cafe, estate and short-stay customers.

PPPoE customers have a username and password, and usually pay a monthly fee. These are your residential customers.

Each group needs a little different treatment, so let's break it down.

1. Let the bundle expire on its own

For hotspot-based plans, set every package to expire as soon as the time or data runs out. Once the 24 hours are up or the 2GB has been used, the Wi-Fi will be disconnected. No action needed from either side.

A change to this single setting should solve most, if not all, of the cases of customers using Wi-Fi without paying. It's a good starting point.

2. Block expired accounts at login

For PPPoE customers, the account will be blocked as soon as the renewal date has passed. When the router asks "Can user XY come online?", the response will be "No".

The system behind this is called a RADIUS server. It's the bouncer at the door. Every PPPoE customer has their details checked by the bouncer before they are allowed to come online. If their account is blocked, they are denied access.

3. Kick out customers who are still online

One problem with step 2 is that if a customer is still online when their account is due to expire, they will be kicked out when they try to reconnect. If they keep trying to come online, they will keep being denied. However, an account that is already online has no way of knowing that it has expired, and will continue to be online until the end of the session.

A good system will terminate active sessions as soon as the expiry date is reached. This ensures that the customer isn't online for longer than they're paying for. It's especially important if you have lots of customers, because otherwise it's impossible to manually kick everyone out when their session ends.

4. Turn them back on as soon as they pay

It's not enough to stop customers using Wi-Fi when they haven't paid. You also need to make it easy for them to get back online as soon as they do pay.

If a customer pays with M-Pesa, the system should see their payment and reconnect them immediately. No calling you, no taking screenshots of M-Pesa messages, no waiting for you to wake up. An instant reconnect when they've made a payment keeps customers happy.

5. Stop customers sharing your Wi-Fi password

One single voucher can end up in use on tens of devices at once. There are some easy steps to reduce sharing:

Limit vouchers to one device at a time if possible

Make sure prices are sensible

Check your active customers list occasionally

Where Noch Wired comes in

The instructions above are much simpler with a computer programme to do them. Noch Wired takes care of limiting sessions and disconnecting expired customers, and sends automatic payment reminders. Payments can be made via M-Pesa STK push, Paybill or Till numbers.