How do you set up the Mercury router guest network? melogin.cn opened a customer-only network every two steps, and my NAS at home was never checked by relatives again

Last year for the New Year, my cousin's family stayed at my place for a week, and the first thing they did upon entering was to ask for a WiFi password. I casually gave out the mainnet password, and his child held it. On the third day, he found my NAS album on the living room TV, with all the family's private photos displayed on the big screen. This year, I learned my lesson and started the guest network early on the Mercury router. When guests arrived, they connected to the visitor network, and the mainnet password was never revealed. This article will clearly explain the complete operation of opening the Mercury machine on the guest network, the speed limit settings, and the pitfalls I've encountered.

first clarify what a guest network is. Don't think of it as a second router. Many people think they need to buy another router when they hear about guest network

No. This is the WiFi name broadcast by your Mercury router, sharing the same antenna and broadband as the mainnet, but being assigned to a separate compartment. Guests can connect to it and get online normally, but can't access things on your main network. Why don't

just give the mainnet password directly? Think about what the mainnet password can do: connect to the mainnet, then try opening the 192.168.0.1 backend (if the management password is still the default, that's even worse), and you'll see your NAS, shared hard drive, and printer connected to the network. The WiFi password is like half a home key—easy to give out, hard to take back—changing the password once means a dozen or so devices in the family are reconfigured together. I calculated the cost in the about changing WiFi's name in . The guest network concept is universal across routers. I've written about the general version before, but today I'll just talk about how to deploy it on the Mercury machine.

melogin.cn: Two steps. For dual-frequency machines, just open two

My machine is the Mercury D191G, with the new interface firmware. Connect your phone or computer to the router's WiFi, enter melogin.cn in the browser's address bar, and enter the management password to access the backend. If you can't open a domain, first check out the article I queued about the five situations where melogin.cn can't be opened. If you forgot your login password, check the article on the Mercury initial password. I won't repeat it here.

Step one: Tap 'Advanced Settings' in the top right corner, then go to 'Wireless Settings'. Below the menu is 'Guest Network'. Dual-band machines have two entry points: 2.4G and 5G. Most customers' phones recognize 5G, but some older phones only recognize 2.4G. For convenience, I enabled both.

Step 2: Name and set a password. The name must never be the same as the main network's. I added a _Guest suffix after the main website's name, so customers can tell each other at a glance, and even our own family won't mistakenly connect. You don't have to set a password, but having an open network means anyone downstairs can connect. I set a 10-digit one and only reported it to guests who came on site. Click Save, and a new name will appear in the WiFi list. Just two steps to finish.

have linked a router with the "Mercury WiFi" app, the app can also toggle guest networks on and off, allowing guests arriving early while at the office. Note that the old interface (the left-side row menu) path directly goes to the 'Wireless Settings' to find the guest network. Some older firmware apps don't even have this option, so just stick to the web version.

don't set the same two passwords: the visitor password is given to outsiders every day, and the mainnet management password is your own trump card. Setting them together is essentially giving away the backend as well. I even change the visitor password every time a customer arrives. Anyway, changing it in the app only takes ten seconds. When a customer leaves, I can casually replace it with a new one, and report the new one when the next wave arrives.

speed limit: I provide 100MB for downstream and 20MB for uplink

Visitor Network has a convenient way to limit speeds per channel compared to mainnet: a one-size-fits-all approach. The mainnet speed limit must be listed as a device point. I wrote the operation in the of the Mercury speed limiting article; The visitor network connects all incoming guests to a single account of everyone.

my home has 300 Mbps broadband, I set Visitor Network to 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream. Why is the uplink given 20 trillion? Last year, my cousin's child was livestreaming in the living room. If the upstream was frozen and the stream became a PPT, the guest would crash while livestreaming at your home, and the host would be the one in awkward hands. For regular video streaming, 50MB is enough for news streaming; for clients watching 4K or large files, 100MB is more stable. Here are three levels for reference: the convenient mode has 50MB downlink and 10MB uplink, the balanced type has 100MB and 20MB uplink (my version), and the streamer type has 200MB downlink and 50MB uplink. Don't set speed limits—if a customer's phone automatically enables cloud backup, your broadband upload channel becomes theirs.

isolation boundaries one by one: you can access the internet, but you can't access the backend or access them NAS

The guest network and master network are separated by default. Some older firmware devices have a separate "network isolation" switch, which you can conveniently confirm is enabled. To what extent is this isolation? I connected to Visitor Network on a backup device and tested each one one of them:

the most important to me are the second and third points: I can't access the backend, and even if the guest gets the visitor password, they can't access my configuration; NAS can't be reached, but home photos are safe. The cost is obvious—the customer wants to cast photos from their phone to your home TV but can't, so they have to switch back to the mainnet at the last minute. Privacy and convenience can only be chosen on one end; I choose privacy.

guest devices have a separate list. Whoever immediately sees

Mercury backend has a "Connection Device Management" option in "Frequently Used Settings," where the host network devices and the guest network devices are listed separately. In the guest section, you can see how many devices are currently online, how much speed each device is occupying, and you can even block a specific device by clicking in. During the New Year week, I glanced at the visitor list, and besides my cousin's three phones, there was also an unfamiliar phone—a neighbor's child downstairs who connected to it. The password was simple, so I disabled it and changed the visitor password to 16 digits that day. The approach to checking for unfamiliar devices is exactly the same as checking the main network and checking the internet. I wrote about the one about the internet: Mercury checking the .

have fallen into three pitfalls: forgetting to close the connection, misconfiguring the IoT network, and blaming visitors for signal differences

The first pitfall: forgetting to close the gate. Guest networks don't have a scheduled automatic shutdown feature; the timer switches on and off for the entire WiFi, which is a different matter. I've written about the difference in this article: Mercury WiFi timer switching . Once the guest left, the visitor network stayed open. My current habit is to turn off the backend the night after seeing off guests, or only open it the day before the visit. If you run a shop or guesthouse, which has new visitors every day, running it regularly is actually more convenient—just change your password frequently.

second pitfall: smart device network integration into the visitor network. When devices like robot vacuums or cameras at home are networked, if the phone is directly connected to the guest network, the configured device is attached to the guest network and disconnected from the main network. The app cannot be remotely controlled, and the next day, all devices go "offline" collectively, thinking the router is broken. Before configuring the network, always switch your phone back to the main network. Also, I've encountered the pitfall of IoT devices only recognizing 2.4G network configuration: for smart device network configuration failures.

Third pitfall: Guests complain about poor signal, don't blame the visitor network. The visitor network and mainnet share the same antenna set and the same placement; rooms with two main grid blocks also have two guest networks, so there is no such thing as "weaker visitor signal." The real signal gap is due to router placement issues; move the machine first.

Taking the Lead: Who is worth driving

If your home has a NAS, shared hard drive, or a room full of smart devices, go for it; If you often have guests, run a shop, or run a guesthouse, you just want to give the internet but don't want to give up the 'codebook'—open it. Just a bare router, with fewer than two guests a year, no need to bother with it—just keep an eye on the password when handing it out.

order is also set for you: melogin.cn→ advanced settings→ wireless settings→ guest network→ name with _Guest suffix→ password of at least 10 digits→ speed limit of 100 downstream and 20 up → turn off after the guest leaves. It only took five minutes, and the result was that you no longer had to report the mainnet password to anyone.