Case study
Seven floors of residents complaining about slow, patchy internet. We replaced the connection, rebuilt the Wi-Fi on UniFi and gave every apartment its own private network on one building-wide name.
The situation
A multi-dwelling block was getting a steady stream of complaints from tenants about the internet. Slow at the times people actually wanted to use it, patchy in some rooms and absent in others, and a nuisance every time somebody walked from their flat to the lift.
Underneath the complaints were two different faults that had been reported as one. The connection coming into the building was shared and had never been sized for that many homes using it at once, so it slowed to a crawl every evening. Separately, the Wi-Fi inside the building could not get into the apartments properly, because it was being asked to travel through the walls from the corridors.
That distinction mattered. Fixing only the line would have left tenants with a fast connection they still could not reach from the sofa. Fixing only the Wi-Fi would have shared the same inadequate connection more efficiently. Both had to change.
What we did
The building was refurbished rather than patched. That gave us the chance to design the network properly instead of adding another access point to a system that was never going to work.
The outcome
Tenants now get fast internet inside their own apartment, on a key that belongs to them, and it follows them around the building rather than stopping at the front door of the flat. The complaints that prompted the work stopped being about the internet.
For the landlord the change is less visible but just as useful. The building is one managed system rather than seven floors of separate equipment, so a problem in a single apartment can be looked at without anybody guessing, and a tenant moving out is a key being reissued rather than a job.
The wider lesson is the one in the first section. Slow internet in a shared building is almost never one fault. It is usually a connection that is too small and a Wi-Fi design that cannot reach, and treating those as the same problem is why these complaints tend to go round in circles for years.
Questions
Two separate problems usually get reported as one. The connection into the building was shared and did not have the capacity for that many homes at once, and the Wi-Fi inside could not reach into the apartments properly. Fixing only one of them would have left tenants still complaining, which is why the line and the Wi-Fi were done together.
It lets every apartment have its own Wi-Fi password while the building still broadcasts one network name. Tenants get a key that is theirs, and it can be changed or revoked for one apartment when somebody moves out without touching anybody else or reprinting a building-wide password.
Because modern internal construction is very good at stopping Wi-Fi. Concrete, foil-backed insulation and plasterboard with metal studs all absorb it, so a corridor access point can look strong on a survey and still be weak two rooms into a flat. An access point inside the apartment removes the argument entirely.
No. Each apartment sits on its own VLAN, so devices are isolated from the rest of the building. That is both a privacy point and a security one, and it is the part landlords tend not to realise is missing from a shared password setup.
Yes, and the reasoning is the same: many separate households on one building connection, each needing their own private network and a key of their own. Our guides to UniFi VLAN and PPSK setup and high density Wi-Fi go into the detail.
Their key is revoked and the next tenant is issued a new one. Nothing else in the building changes, and no other resident has to be told a new password.
Tell us about the building and what people are reporting. We will tell you whether it is the line, the Wi-Fi or both, before anybody quotes you for equipment.
