MDU Wi-Fi onboarding: let residents sign up, pay, and connect on their own

In an apartment building, every new resident usually means the same routine: a ticket, a call to confirm the plan, a password written on a sticky note, and sometimes a technician visit. With hundreds of units and steady tenant turnover, that routine never really ends.

Self-service onboarding takes your team out of that loop. Each apartment gets a printed card with a QR code. The resident scans it, picks a plan, pays, and connects to the building’s Wi-Fi with a private password. Under the hood it runs on mPSK: one SSID for the whole building, with a unique key for every resident.

What does self-service onboarding look like in an MDU?

There are three moving parts. You prepare the units in Splynx and print a card for each one. The card stays in the apartment. When a resident moves in, they scan it and go through a short sign-up on their phone.

Splynx works as the RADIUS server for the building’s access points. As soon as the resident finishes the sign-up, their password is live on the shared SSID, tied to their plan and billing status. Once your access points use Splynx as their RADIUS server, adding a resident needs no changes on them.

The resident’s side: from scan to connected

The QR code already carries the unit, so the resident never has to type an apartment number or pick a building from a list. The sign-up page carries your logo and shows a progress bar through four steps.

Here is what the resident sees, screen by screen:

1. Welcome. The first screen shows the unit name from the card, for example “Apartment 12”, so the resident can confirm they scanned the right one. If it’s not their unit, a “This is not my unit” link shows your phone number and email instead of letting them sign up for a neighbor’s apartment.
2. Choose a plan. The resident sees the plans you offer for this building as cards with the price and the download and upload speeds. You can offer one plan or several, including a free one.
3. Personal information. Name, email, phone, and a service start date. The start date matters: the amount due is prorated from it, and it updates on the spot when the resident picks another day. A resident who moves in mid-period pays only for the part of the period that is left.
4. Wi-Fi password. The resident can set their own password or leave the field empty to get a secure generated one. Before going further, Splynx checks that nobody else on the network already uses that password. If the unit includes guest access, there is a second field for the guest password, which can’t match the primary one.
5. Checkout. A summary of the plan, the unit, and the amount due. Paid plans go to a card payment through Stripe. When the amount due is zero, the button changes to “Activate” and the resident is connected right away, with no payment step.
6. Connected. The final screen shows the network name, the password with a copy button, and a QR code that joins the network when scanned. A welcome email with the credentials and a link to the customer portal follows.

Built so nobody pays twice or signs up in the wrong unit

Self-service only works if residents never end up stuck and calling you anyway. The flow handles the cases that usually create tickets:

• Wrong card. The unit name sits on the first screen, and the “This is not my unit” link sends the resident to your contacts instead of a wrong sign-up.
• Full unit. You set how many active residents one unit can have (two by default). When the limit is reached, the page says so clearly instead of creating an extra account.
• Double clicks. The checkout button locks after the first click, so a slow connection can’t create two customers or two charges.
• Failed payment. The resident gets a clear message and can try again.
• Payment went through, setup didn’t. The page tells the resident not to pay again and to contact you, so nobody gets charged twice.

The ISP’s side: prepare a whole building in one batch

On your side, the work happens before anyone moves in. In the MPSK onboarding section, you create a generation: a batch of units for one building or floor. You set a naming pattern such as “Apartment {next}”, choose the SSID and the plans residents can pick from, and give a VLAN range. Splynx creates the units and assigns each one its own VLAN.

If the building already has unit names and VLANs in a spreadsheet, you can import them from a CSV or XLSX file instead. And if one extra apartment appears later, you add it to the existing generation without running a new batch.

Then you print. Splynx renders one A5 card per unit, with the unit name, the network name, and the QR code. You can print the whole batch at once and adjust the card template, as well as the welcome email, to match your brand.

All units stay visible in one table. Each one shows its plans, VLANs, and status: Pending until someone signs up, Claimed after that, with occupancy such as 1/2. You can see at a glance how much of a building is already connected.

The full setup, including the import file format, is in our documentation.

Why does every apartment get its own VLAN?

The add-on is built for buildings where every unit needs its own Wi-Fi credentials and its own VLAN. Splynx assigns each unit a VLAN ID from the range you set and stores it with the resident’s service, so your network can keep every apartment in its own segment. The building still has one network name, while every resident connects with their own key. We covered how mPSK and per-key VLANs work at the RADIUS level in our guide to mPSK.

Guest access follows the same logic. If you enable a guest plan for the building, each resident gets a second password on the same SSID, with its own guest VLAN ID. Visitors get online without the resident ever having to share their main password.

What happens when residents move out?

Tenant turnover is where manual onboarding hurts most, and where self-service pays off. When a customer created through onboarding becomes inactive, their slot in the unit frees up. The card stays on the wall, and the next resident scans the same QR code to sign up.

If a resident’s service is blocked in Splynx, for example for non-payment, their Wi-Fi password stops working, while everyone else in the building stays online. There is no shared password to change and no devices to reconnect.

Free amenity Wi-Fi, paid plans, or both

Because plans and prices are yours to set per building, the same flow fits different deals with property owners:

• Amenity Wi-Fi. The owner includes internet in the rent. Residents pick a free plan, tap “Activate”, and connect. You still get a customer record for every resident.
• Retail plans. Residents choose and pay for their own plan, and you bill them directly.
• Free base, paid upgrade. A basic free plan for everyone, with faster paid plans on the same screen for those who want them.

Plans don’t have to be monthly, either. A weekly plan works for short stays in serviced apartments, hotels, or student housing between semesters.

Getting started

You need Multiple PSK enabled with at least one SSID, the Stripe add-on, email sending set up for welcome emails, and the plans you want to offer residents. Then install the MPSK onboarding add-on from Config → Integrations → Add-ons, create your first generation, and print the cards. The step-by-step guide covers every field.

Frequently asked questions

Do residents need to install an app?

No. The QR code opens a page in the phone’s browser. The whole sign-up, payment, and connection happen there.

Can several people in one apartment sign up?

Yes. You decide how many active residents one unit can have. The default is two, and you can change it in the add-on settings.

Can I use my own branding?

Yes. The sign-up page shows your logo, and both the printed card and the welcome email use templates you can edit.

What if a resident scans the wrong card?

The first screen shows the unit name from the card. If it’s not theirs, the “This is not my unit” link shows your phone number and email, so they can contact you before signing up.