Whether in an apartment building, condominium, or tiny house community, tenants are increasingly regarding high-speed, reliable Internet access as a baseline amenity. Providing an elevated online experience is vital to outpace competitors and attract and retain good tenants. Many regard the Internet as a necessary, if cumbersome, business expense. But where others saw a profit drain, the engineers at RG Nets saw an opportunity. With the RG Nets’ rXg networking gateway, your MDU can significantly decrease networking overhead, manpower, and footprint while improving Internet performance and security – all while creating new profit opportunities. Here, we will look at some of the ways in which the rXg enhances tenant and management’s networked experience by following Sam as he moves into a new apartment building.

Walkthrough

After months of looking, Sam is moving into his new apartment building. It's an older building that was recently bought & renovated by a new management company in town he has heard good things about. As he works from home, one of Sam’s biggest priorities in apartment-hunting was access to reliable high-speed Internet. Once the moving men leave, Sam flips through the introductory pamphlet provided by his property managers. He is instructed to connect to the building Wi-Fi.

Sam selects the open building network from the list of Wi-Fi connections. He is immediately taken to a Custom Captive Portal, branded with the company’s logo and colors. Sam is prompted to enter Personally Identifying Information (PII), including the account number on his lease, his contact information, and his full name. He is then prompted to create a username and password. With this login, he is able to access his Tenant Portal. Not only can he manage rent payments and maintenance requests here – thanks to the rXg’s Property Management Portal and Integrated Billing – he can also select which Internet package he would like to subscribe to, with the option to shift at any time.

The apartment building is taking advantage of the rXg’s Neutral Host Access feature. They are able to offer tenants the option to choose between which of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who service the building they would like to receive Internet from. This not only allows the building to get the most out of multiple uplinks, it also provides the tenant with the opportunity to customize their internet experience. Property management has worked with the ISPs to offer several appealing Internet packages at different speed and price tiers that Sam can pay the property management company for directly. After some thought, Sam chooses a mid-tier package, happy that he can change it at any time if his usage needs change or he dislikes the service. Shortly thereafter, his apartment network comes online.

Sam can use the password he created to login to his apartment Wi-Fi, and has several customization options available to him through his Portal. He can set a guest password for visitors, create his own basic Captive Portal, change permissions on their network access, and easily configure a VPN connection as needed.

When Sam goes to explore the building, he notices that his phone automatically and seamlessly connects to the public spaces’ Wi-Fi. Guest access to networks is fully configurable on the administrator’s end – in this building, if Sam were to have a guest over, they could connect to his apartment’s Wi-Fi with the guest password he configured, but would need to provide PII (their name and the apartment # they are visiting) to connect to Wi-Fi in the shared spaces. This is just one of the many configuration options that allows network administrators to fully customize the network for their location’s specific needs and maintain complete cognizance over their end user base.

He receives a notification on his device that there is a New Residents Mixer tomorrow in the common area, with the option to add the event to his calendar. This is the rXg’s Events feature in action, which allows network administrators and staff to create Event notifications that can be triggered by a variety of instigators, from the date to a user’s activity. Important building updates, activities, amenity usage reminders, and even coupons can all be distributed via Events.

In the evening, Sam and hundreds of other tenants are all streaming shows and playing video games. He’s impressed to notice no drop in quality or interruption of service, as he was used to the Internet slowing down significantly at his old building. The rXg’s SD‑WAN and revolutionary Fair Share Equalization features ensure that the rXg intelligently distributes bandwidth and network resources as needed, preventing any one user from unnecessarily slowing or interrupting services. While these features are seamless enough that network administrators only have to plug in the rXg to see improved performance, they are as customizable as any other feature. In this case, network administrators have configured the rXg to prioritize video traffic during peak streaming hours to further improve end-user experience.

With so many end users, and so much data traveling over the network, security is a must. Easily configurable VPNs are available for people who require a more private connection for personal or business reasons. Content Filtering ensures that end users cannot carry out illegal or illicit activity on the building’s network, and dozens of other features in the rXg’s Security suite ensure that all data is protected. Network administrators can easily configure the network to collect whatever data about end-user activity and usage is required for business or security reasons.

Property managers are able to take full advantage of their network thanks to the rXg’s Integrated Billing. Being able to be the direct provider of Internet services for tenants, offer tiered pricing packages, business or high-speed addons all generate new opportunities to not only attract good tenants but generate more profit. In addition, the rXg’s Property Management Portal means that percentages of rent and fee income no longer have to be sacrificed to third party programs and services. If any third party programs, such as Security systems, are in use, the rXg’s hardware and software Third Party Integration means all programs and services can be managed directly through the rXg’s dashboard. No longer juggle multiple logins, multiple interfaces, or deal with the headache or security gaps that emerge. Instead, with the rXg’s Multiple PSK system, each employee’s login grants them access to whichever rXg dashboard pages are relevant to their role, as well as any necessary networked resources.

When asked about his new living situation by friends the following week, Sam can’t help but speak about how nice the Internet setup has been. Working from home has never been easier, and the convenience offered by being able to manage both his tenancy and Internet packages in one place surpasses previous apartments’ quality of living. Intrigued, two of his friends currently apartment hunting submit applications for future openings.

In Summary

This document overviews how many of the rXg’s features benefit Multi-Dwelling Unit environments. For a more in-depth look at each feature, and to learn about additional rXg features to fit your unique business needs and workflow, visit rgnets.com or click through to individual RG Nets Feature Briefs.

From install to ongoing management, RG Nets has taken every opportunity to provide value, customizability, ease of use, and profit sources to their customers and clients. The RG Nets’ rXg fits so well into every environment that it currently runs everything from individual home networks all the way to two of the top airports and one of the top three stadiums in the United States.

Its price-for-value cannot be beat, growing with your business while retaining its affordability. The rXg’s integration with third-party hardware and software makes installation a breeze, no matter what mix of hardware and software currently utilized on site. Settings, once configured, can be easily cloned for quick deployment across chains, multi-site locations, and backups.

Whether an independent landlord or a multi-national chain, reach out to an RG Nets representative today to learn how the rXg can turn your network from a pitfall to profit, improving customer experience the whole way.