Logistics
Logistics and warehouses
Drivers waiting at the ramp, subcontractor crews and round-the-clock shifts. Handheld terminals and printers stay out of the portal; visitors get recorded.
- Drivers sign in by SMS
- Coupon groups for crews
- Handhelds exempt
- Many APs, one box
Full ramp, tangled network
Warehouse Wi-Fi is not just for visitors: handheld terminals, label printers and forklift tablets share the same air. When a driver asks 'is there Wi-Fi?', handing out the operations password is the easiest answer and the most dangerous one.
Waiting at the ramp is long and patience is short. A driver waits for paperwork, leaves two hours later and may not return for a month. A subcontractor loading crew, on the other hand, comes and goes for weeks; asking for the password every morning is nobody's job.
Shifts run 24/7. Asking the security guard for the Wi-Fi password at three in the morning, or calling IT, is not realistic. Sign-in has to run on its own, and records have to be kept regardless of who is on shift.
Law 5651 and warehouses
A warehouse operator that opens internet access to drivers, subcontractors or visiting suppliers is a collective-use provider under Law 5651, expected to keep internal IP assignment records, protect them with a timestamp and retain them for 2 years. Your own staff and operational devices are not guest traffic; the box separates the two worlds by VLAN and records only the guest network. Where subcontractor staff fall depends on your contracts; take legal advice. Either way the box signs them in through a coupon group that identifies who they are.
This page is not legal advice; confirm your obligations with your legal adviser.
Installing in the warehouse
- 1
The box sits in the server cabinet between the core switch and the internet uplink; it is fanless and needs no maintenance in a dusty environment.
- 2
The operations network (handhelds, printers, WMS clients) stays on its own VLAN and never passes through the box; a 'Warehouse-Guest' SSID is created on a separate VLAN.
- 3
Devices that cannot live on the operations VLAN and must use the guest SSID (for example a label printer a supplier brings along) pass without the portal via MAC exemption.
- 4
Several APs cover the large hall and the ramp line; all broadcast the same guest VLAN and the box stays at a single point. Client isolation is enabled on the APs.
- 5
AP placement for the driver waiting area, canteen and ramp front is planned by coverage; the box is independent of the AP brand.
Sign-in method
Sign-in method
- SMS code
- Coupon
- Remembered device
Drivers and one-off suppliers sign in with an SMS code; it arrives in seconds and is enough while they wait for paperwork. For subcontractor crews you generate time-limited coupon groups such as 'Loading-October'; when the contract ends, the group is closed. Drivers who come often are not asked again thanks to device remembering. Recommended plan: the staff template, 20/10 Mbps, 10-hour session, 30-minute idle timeout, 3 devices, no quota, 30-day device remembering. You can add a second plan with a 2-hour session for drivers.
Ready-made plan templates
Speed, session and device count are set per plan on the box, independent of the access point brand. The values below are our own lab recommendations and can be changed in the panel.
- Recommended for this sector
Staff-guest
Offices, factories, office towers, logistics, tutoring centres
- Speed (down / up)
- 20 / 10 Mbps
- Session
- 10 hours
- Idle timeout
- 30 min
- Devices
- 3
- Daily quota
- None
- Remembered device
- 30 days
Registered users or coupon groups; separate groups for suppliers and subcontractors.
Standard
Cafés, restaurants, shops, bakeries, salons, gyms
- Speed (down / up)
- 10 / 5 Mbps
- Session
- 2 hours
- Idle timeout
- 15 min
- Devices
- 2
- Daily quota
- 1 GB
- Remembered device
- Off
Keeps tables turning; a guest who wants more gets a coupon from the till.
Conference
Events, fairs, waiting lounges, cinemas, bank branches
- Speed (down / up)
- 5 / 2 Mbps
- Session
- 4 hours
- Idle timeout
- 10 min
- Devices
- 1
- Daily quota
- 500 MB
- Remembered device
- Off
Low speed and one device for many simultaneous users; capacity 250 concurrent devices.
Extended stay
Hotels, serviced apartments, dormitories, hospitals, residential complexes
- Speed (down / up)
- 15 / 5 Mbps
- Session
- 24 hours
- Idle timeout
- 30 min
- Devices
- 3
- Daily quota
- 5 GB
- Remembered device
- 7 days
No new code every day; in dormitories the remembered window can span the whole term.
What is recorded
- The verified phone number (encrypted, masked) or the coupon code and its group
- Device MAC address and the assigned internal IP
- Session start and end; the shift can be read from the timestamp
- NAT details where applicable
- The daily SHA-256 hash chain and RFC 3161 timestamp
What is not recorded
- Which websites the driver opened
- Navigation or location data
- Operations network traffic (handhelds, WMS)
- Message and call content
Example scenario
Example scenario: a 20,000 m² cold-chain warehouse
- Problem
- The operations Wi-Fi password was given to drivers by word of mouth, on the same network as the handheld terminals. When the subcontracted loading company changed, the password did not. There were no visitor records.
- Solution
- A box was installed in the server cabinet. Handhelds and printers stayed on the operations VLAN; a separate guest SSID was created and the existing 9 APs were added to it. Drivers got SMS codes, the subcontractor got a monthly coupon group. The operations password was changed and given to nobody.
- Outcome
- On the night shift, security no longer hands out passwords; drivers connect to the network on the sign and get a code. When the subcontractor changes, only the coupon group is closed. Signed records stay in the warehouse; the operations network is fully separate from guest traffic.
An illustrative example; no real business is named.
Frequently asked
Will handheld terminals and printers hit the portal every time?
No. In a proper set-up these devices stay on the operations VLAN and never meet the box. If a device has no choice but to join the guest SSID, a MAC exemption is defined; it passes without the portal and is kept out of the guest records.
What do we do when the subcontractor changes?
You close the outgoing company's coupon group; its coupons stop working immediately. You generate and print a new group for the new company. The old group's past sign-ins stay in the archive and are not deleted.
The site is huge. How many boxes do we need?
Coverage is the APs' job; recording is the box's job. You place APs across the hall, they all broadcast the same guest VLAN and feed one box. The Box + Software licence supports 250 concurrent devices; if you run several sites, each gets its own box and they all appear in one list in the customer portal.
What happens to records when the internet drops or fails over to 4.5G?
The box keeps collecting records locally. Days whose timestamp could not be obtained wait in a queue and are stamped when the connection returns; the panel shows them as 'pending days'. Failover itself happens on the modem or router; the box also works behind CGNAT because it initiates its connections outbound.
Can we stop drivers getting online at night?
The box has no time window or scheduled shutdown. Instead you keep session and coupon validity short: a driver plan with a 2-hour session closes by itself, and a subcontractor coupon only works within its defined date range.
A 20-minute demo for your own venue
Let's work out your device count and sign-in method together.
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