Student accommodation WiFi: a private network for every student, from move-in day
Each student's private area network follows them across the building, with AirPlay and Chromecast kept in their own bubble. US university housing across 40 buildings saw 60% fewer helpdesk tickets at move-in.
- 60% fewer helpdesk tickets at move-in
- ~1 million residents on Purple
- Five-year Murray State deal
Your three networks
Three SSIDs for student accommodation
Identity decides the VLAN inside each network, so one SSID carries many groups.
Network 1
Open
Visitors and prospective students sign in through the captive portal.Network 2
Secure
Building staff on EAP-TLS with your MDM, and leavers revoked from the directory.Network 3
xPSK
A key and private network per student, plus keys for laundry, door controllers and CCTV.
Visibility and reporting
Every resident's authentication, in every building
Accepts and rejects with the reason, by student and device, across every building you run, streamed to your SIEM and ready for the auditor.
- One estate-wide query, no per-building exports.
- Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, Elastic or Datadog over webhook or syslog.
- Occupancy and footfall by site, hour and day, with MAC addresses anonymized.
Proof
Student networks, at scale
- ~1M
- students and residents on Purple community networks
- 60%
- fewer helpdesk tickets at move-in across 40 buildings
- 5 years
- Murray State University's deal for Purple PSK WiFi
Add-on: Purple Shield
Add protective DNS with Purple Shield
Purple Shield bolts onto Access or runs standalone, with a DNS policy per VLAN and by time of day, so each group on your three networks gets the filtering that fits it. Page loads up to 500% faster and 20 to 40% less web traffic. Try it free for 30 days.
FAQ
Common questions
Can students cast to their own TV without seeing everyone else's?
Yes. mDNS reflection keeps AirPlay and Chromecast inside each student's private network.
Do we need new access points in each building?
No. Purple Access is a cloud overlay on the access points your buildings already run: Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba, Ruckus, Juniper Mist, Ubiquiti UniFi, Cambium, Extreme and Fortinet, and mixed estates are supported.
How do students get on at move-in, with no MDM?
They sign in once in the Purple app with their university account, Microsoft, Google or Okta, and their private network is ready on every device. Consoles and smart TVs get their own passcode from the app, on the same private network. US university housing across 40 buildings saw 60% fewer helpdesk tickets at move-in. Their private network follows them across the building.
Map your residence halls
Book a 45-minute design session and leave with the plan for your sites.
- Get your three-SSID plan in 45 minutesTell us what runs on your WiFi today, and a Purple network engineer maps it with you.
- Map your SSIDs onto threeOpen, secure and xPSK, on the access points you already own. You leave with the plan.
- Prove it on one site firstJudge the result on tickets and audit evidence, then roll out.
Your design session
45 minutes. Your estate. A plan you keep.
Led by a Purple network engineer. No slides. You keep the plan.