Community-wide Wi-Fi FAQs

Smartaira associates are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via phone, email, text (SMS), and online form requests.

Phone: (310) 974-8776
Email: support@smartaira.com
Text: (385) 275-8398
Web: https://smartaira.com/help

With typical “retail” Internet Services Providers, your cable modem and Wi-Fi router provide Internet connectivity in your apartment. There will be a little “bleed” of your network signal into the hallway or the apartment next door, where your neighbors are also broadcasting their own Wi-Fi network that bleeds into your apartment. On a property of 200 apartments, there will be 200 individual networks broadcasting. 

With Community-wide Connectivity (or Community-wide Managed Wi-Fi), we have one network that blankets the whole property. In apartments and common areas, there are access points (APs) to connect to the network. In apartments, these access points will also have RJ45 network ports for connecting wired devices that require the full bandwidth of your plan. If the AP is on the ceiling, there will be an active Ethernet wall jack (RJ45) in the living room.

As you walk throughout the community, visit neighbors, or sit at the pool, the wireless network will ensure you remain connected. And your connection remains private even though you left your apartment. 

An Access Point (or Wireless Access Point) is a managed network device that provides wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi) back to a wired local area network (LAN).  

Access points create a wireless local area network (WLAN) that may support various Wi-Fi standards and devices such as Wi-Fi 4 (802.11 N), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 AC), and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 AX).  

Wall-mounted access points are typically about the height of an electrical outlet in the living room. 

The access points can also be mounted on the ceiling of the apartment’s living room.

Different from Public Wi-Fi (i.e., Starbucks) where everyone shares one username and password, Smartaira 360 is a private and secure Wi-Fi network.

Each account (apartment or resident) has its own virtual local area network (VLAN) and personal Wi-Fi credentials that keep your data private. You won’t want to share those credentials with people you don’t trust because you’ll be inviting them onto your “home” network. 

When you leave your apartment, you’ll stay connected to your home Wi-Fi network. You’ll have the same privacy, security, and performance you have in your apartment anywhere in the community.

You can even use and manage the devices on your home network, so you can print a document on a networked printer in your apartment while sitting at the pool. 

You can connect to the Wi-Fi anywhere on the property. Its the same network name (SSID) “Smartaira360” for all resident devices.

Each apartment is sent a personal, private passphrase (password) via email and text at launch or move-in (for new residents). Be careful who you share this password with, as it will connect the user to your home network.

You can reset this passphrase in the Smartaira resident portal (https://portal.smartaira.com)

Connecting Phones & Tablets
1. Use the device's camera to Scan the QR Code that was sent via email/text.

2. Tap the "Join Smartaira360 Network" prompt.

3. Click "Confirm" to join.

Connecting Other Wireless Devices

1. Open the device's Network Settings.

2. Select the "Smartaira360" Wi-Fi network.

3. Click "Connect"

4. Enter your private passphrase sent via email/text.

5. Click "Next"

6. Choose "Yes" or "No" to whether the device is discoverable on your private home network.

If you need assistance, contact Smartaira Support at 310-974-8776.

In your apartment, you’ll have high-performance wired port for connecting devices that need the full bandwidth of your Smartaira plan (up to 1 Gbps).

In apartments with wall-mounted access points, the RJ45 ports are on the bottom of the access point.

In apartments with a ceiling mounted access point, we activate an RJ45 wall plate in the living room for wired Internet access.

If you can’t find the hardwired port in your apartment, then reach out to the Smartaira technical support team. 

Connecting a Wired Device
1. Visit http://signup.smartaira.com on a mobile device to create a Smartaira Portal account.

2. Connect the wired device to an Ethernet port.

3. The https://portal.smartaira.com website should open automatically in the wired device's browser.

4. Log in with the credentials you created in Step 1.

5. The wired device's MAC address will be automatically added to your Smartaira account.

6. Unplug the Ethernet cable and plug it back in.

7. The wired device will automatically connect to the Internet now and in the future.

8. For devices without a browser, manually add the device's MAC address in the Portal under Devices.

If you need assistance, contact Smartaira Support at 310-974-8776.

It’s unlikely. There’s always “network bleed” with Wi-Fi. So, there are Wi-Fi signals entering your apartment from your neighbors’ access points (next door, across the hall, upstairs, or downstairs). It’s the same signal that your access point broadcasts. So, if your access point is unreachable the network will automatically connect you to one of those neighboring access points to keep you online.  

You probably won’t notice that your access point is down, but our Network Operations Center will be automatically notified, and our agents will begin troubleshooting. Most of the time, we can restore service to your access point remotely.  

If you have hardwired devices plugged into the access point, your Internet access will depend on the problem. If it is a hardware issue, you may experience some downtime on those wired devices. We recommend switching those devices to Wi-Fi as we work to resolve the issues. You can contact the technical support team for the resolution status. 

We use WPA2 Personal. WPA2 provides the best balance of wireless security, encryption, and compatibility across most devices. WPA2 is based on the full IEEE 802.11i standard including 128-bit AES encryption. 

Using 128-bit AES encryption (part of WPA2), user data is encrypted in flight between the access point and Wi-Fi devices. Smartaira Community-wide Wi-Fi assigns each account (apartment or resident) a unique wireless password (pre-shared key). While the data is in flight, Wi-Fi users cannot read data from other users—even though they are all using the same Wi-Fi network (SSID). After it reaches the access point, each account’s data is separated into its own unique virtual local area network (VLAN) that isolates that user’s device traffic from other users on the wired portion of the network.

Virtual local area networks (VLANs) provide isolation, security, and enhanced usability. On a single physical network, the way network traffic is separated for each account (apartment or resident) is with a VLAN. A VLAN is a virtual network overlay that isolates the traffic for all devices in an account into a separate group. These groups allow the traffic to securely co-exist with traffic from other apartments on the same wired network. VLANs in a multifamily environment improve the resident experience by allowing all devices in an account to communicate with each other. Direct communication between devices allows convenient features like AirPlay, Cast, wireless printing, and more.

A pre-shared key (PSK) is your network password. The Smartaira 360 PSK (PSK-360) keeps your account separate from other users on the network and allows us to provide a great onboarding experience. With PSK-360 devices are connected to the Internet the moment they connect to the Wi-Fi with no captive portal necessary.

There are typically two SSIDs (network names) broadcasted within each Smartaira 360 community. “Smartaira360” is a 5GHz network. For 2.4GHz devices, simply choose the “Smartaira-2.4GHz” network name instead.  You can always call our support team at (310) 974-8776 for assistance.

Yes, but we don’t recommend it.

Each account is its own private network. So, if you share IoT devices like smart TVs, streaming devices, smart assistants, smart thermostats, networked printers, or gaming systems each device will have to be on one network or the other.

So, devices on Network 2 won’t be able to print a document or cast a video directly to a device on Network 1.

Also, any upgrades to an account, like the addition of BiNAT (public IP) or optional speed upgrades are specific to one account or the other and can’t be shared.

By default, when you add your gaming device to your account, your device may receive NAT Type 3 errors when you try to use online gaming services. However, changing to NAT Type 2 removes most of the problems you will encounter with Network Address Translation.

A device with an Open NAT (Type 1) can connect to Open, Moderate, and Strict NAT types; a device with a Moderate NAT (Type 2) can connect to Moderate, and Open NAT types; and a device with a Strict NAT (Type 3) type can only connect to another Strict NAT type.

If your gaming environment requires a Strict NAT, our system has a couple different options. IPv4 addresses are a limited resource, so they are not active by default.

Please contact our technical support team at (310) 974-8776 to discuss your NAT requirements.

We have Public IPv4 addresses available, but you may prefer to use Smartaira 360's dual-stack functionality and choose an Public IPv6 address instead.

The credentials are sent to the primary contact on the lease. If they do not arrive, the Leasing Agent can confirm that the contact information is correctly entered and resend the credentials. You can also contact Smartaira support at (310) 974-8776 — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

No. The Internet and Wi-Fi equipment is permanently installed throughout the community.

There is a password generator in the Resident Portal https://portal.smartaira.com that will create a new password. You will need to set up your account the first time you visit.

No. The Wi-Fi passphrases (passwords) must be unique for each unit, so the passphrases are autogenerated for you. We use an easy-to-remember and secure two-word format by default.

No. Introducing an additional network broadcast to the environment may introduce RF noise and signal conflict. We have optimized our network coverage eliminating the need for personal Wi-Fi routers. Contact support if you have questions.

Yes. Devices may need their hardware MAC address added to your account (Resident Portal).

Visit: https://portal.smartaira.com

Industry-standard customer premise equipment (i.e. access points) have a line speed of 1 Gbps. However, each packet sent over the network has built-in "overhead" (bits used for addressing, error checking, security, etc.). The overhead is about 2.8-5.3% of the packet size, depending on the size of the original file. So, while the network packets are traveling at 1 Gbps, each packet carries about 94% of your data. So, a Speed Test will reflect a maximum data transfer of about 940 Mbps.

Yes. The community-wide Wi-Fi allows you to remain connected. You should not lose connectivity, performance, or privacy while roaming the community.

Smartaira creates a private and secure home network for every apartment.

Each apartment has its own virtual local area network (VLAN) and personal Wi-Fi credentials to keep your data private.

You won’t want to share your personal credentials with people you don’t trust because you’ll be inviting them onto your “home” network.

And they don’t have to be in your apartment to be on your home network. They could be anywhere in the community.

When neighbors visit, they won’t need your network credentials. They will remain connected to their own private home network.

No. We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

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