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Your first day with Kiwire
The shortest correct path from a brand-new organisation to guests online, and what to set up in your first week. Kiwire walks you through the first part itself with the Setup guide; this page explains what each of its steps does, how to get it back if you close it, and where to go once it is finished.
Before you start
You need an organisation in Kiwire and your first administrator login. There are two ways to get them:
- Synchroweb sets it up for you — usually with a paid plan. Synchroweb creates the organisation, gives it a licence and sends you the Tenant ID, username and password.
- You sign up yourself on the Free plan — see Signing up yourself below. You can subscribe to a paid plan later from Admin › Platform › License & Plans — see Licence and add-ons.
You also need:
- Admin access to the Wi-Fi equipment the guests connect to — a MikroTik router, a UniFi console, an Aruba controller and so on — with rights to change its captive-portal, RADIUS and walled-garden settings.
- Its vendor guide open in another tab: Connecting a controller. It tells you which Vendor to pick in Kiwire, the redirect address to set on the equipment, and what to register as the Identity.
- A phone or laptop you can connect to the guest Wi-Fi for the final test.
Sign in with your Tenant ID, username and password. The first time, Kiwire asks you to set up two-factor authentication with an authenticator app, and may ask you to change your password; both come before anything else. See Signing in.
Signing up yourself
- Open the admin sign-in page and click Sign up under the sign-in form ("Don't have an account?"), or Register in the top bar (in the menu on a phone). Both are shown only while self sign-up is open. The page shows what the Free plan includes: one device controller, 500 guest logins a month, 2 Passpoint users and 14 days of report data, with no expiry date. Guests can sign in on your portal as soon as it is set up — see The Free plan.
- Fill in Organization Name. Kiwire suggests a Tenant ID from it as you type and checks straight away whether it is free: Available, or That tenant ID is already taken. with a few free alternatives you can click. You can type your own instead — lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, at least 3 characters. Choose carefully: the Tenant ID can't be changed later, and everyone in your team types it to sign in.
- Fill in Username, Email, Password (at least 8 characters) and Confirm Password, then click Create Account. Setting up the organisation takes a few seconds.
- You are signed in straight away as the organisation's first administrator, with the Admin role. The next page shows your Tenant ID and username with Copy login details — keep them somewhere safe — then Continue to Two-Factor Setup takes you to the two-factor set-up every administrator does on first sign-in.
A self-registered organisation starts with the time zone set to Kuala Lumpur, the currency set to Malaysian ringgit and English as its language. Change the first two under Admin › System › Settings › General before you look at any report (step 1 of the path below).
The Setup guide
Every new administrator sees the Setup guide on their first sign-in, unless Bypass Setup Guide is switched on in their account or Synchroweb has switched the guide off for new administrators of your tenant. It opens with a Welcome to Kiwire! window; click Let's get started.
From then on the guide lives in a round button at the bottom right of every page, showing how many steps you have done and a progress bar. Click it to open the Setup guide panel, which lists every step: finished ones ticked, the current one highlighted with its own button (Start checklist, Go or Start test), and the ones still to come greyed out. When you open the page for the current step, a hint box on that page lists exactly what to click there.
Quick Setup (4 steps)
This is the guide you get by default. It takes about five minutes once the equipment is configured, and gets guests online with one-click sign-in.
| Step | What you do | Ticks itself when |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Register Controller | Start checklist opens Before you add your controller — the settings to make on your equipment (below). Then, on Admin › System › Device Controller, click Create, choose the Vendor, enter the Identity and a Shared Secret Key (use Generate), and save. Enter the same secret on your equipment. | At least one controller is registered. |
| 2. Set Up One-Click Login | On Portals › Captive Portal › Login Methods, add a method and pick One Click Login (marked Recommended while the guide is running). Name it, switch it on, link it to a Profile under Advanced Configuration, and save. Guests are then signed in by their device's MAC address, with no form to fill in. | A One Click Login method is switched on. |
| 3. Activate Your Portal | On Portals › Captive Portal › Page Designer, click New Template, drag the One-Click Page block onto the page, click Set as Default (it then reads Default), save, and Publish. | Any template is published. |
| 4. Test Real Connection | Start test opens a short checklist: connect a phone to the guest Wi-Fi, open a browser (if nothing appears, go to http://1.1.1.1), confirm the device is let straight through, and check on Account › Users that the new account shows as Online. Tick every line, then click Complete Setup. | You click Complete Setup. |
About step 3: the default template is what guests see in any zone that has no journey of its own, so with a brand-new organisation this is enough. If you have already given your zone a journey under Portals › Captive Portal › Zones Mapping, either clear the zone's Journey field ("Leave blank for default") or put your new page in that journey — otherwise step 3 ticks but guests keep seeing the journey's page.
When step 4 is done the panel says Quick setup complete! and offers Launch Advanced Guide if you want to go further.
The controller checklist
Before you add your controller lists five things to set on the Wi-Fi equipment before you register it in Kiwire. Tick each as you do it; Got it, continue takes you to the Device Controller page.
- RADIUS Authentication & Accounting — the RADIUS server address to use, authentication on port 1812, accounting on port 1813, and the shared secret you will generate in Kiwire.
- Captive Portal Redirection — pick your controller type to see the exact redirect address to set on the equipment, and which details it must pass to Kiwire.
- Walled Garden / IP Whitelist — the hosts guests must be able to reach before they log in, so the login page can load.
- NAS ID — note the identifier your equipment sends; it is what you enter as Identity in Kiwire.
- Test — connect a device to the SSID. It should reach a Kiwire page saying Controller Not Registered. That proves the redirect and RADIUS are pointed at Kiwire; registering the controller in step 1 clears it.
Closed the checklist by mistake? Open the Setup guide panel and click Start checklist on the controller step again.
Advanced Setup (10 steps)
The Advanced guide builds the full set-up by hand: Prepare Your Controller, Register Controller, Understand Connectors (optional — read, then click Got it), Set Up Login Method (Default Login is the simplest start), Design Your Portal, Build a Journey, Map Your Zones (set the zone's Journey), Create a Profile, Create a User Account (a test guest), and Test Real Connection (sign in with that test guest). It takes 10–15 minutes and you can stop and carry on later. Start it from Launch Advanced Guide at the end of the Quick Setup, or from My Profile (below).
While the guide is running
- The menu is trimmed to the steps you have reached. Pages for later steps are hidden, and opening one sends you back to the current step with Complete this step first. My Profile, password and two-factor pages are always available. Everything else comes back the moment the last step is done.
- Most steps tick themselves. Kiwire checks your actual set-up, so saving a controller or publishing a page completes the step without you confirming anything. Only the checklist and test steps need a click.
- Minimise (×) closes the panel; the round button stays. Click it to open the panel again.
- Need help? at the bottom of the panel opens Synchroweb support.
Getting the guide back
- After you close the panel: click the round button at the bottom right.
- After you finish it, or to start again: open My Profile from your avatar menu at the top right. The Setup Guide card has Relaunch Basic Guide (the 4-step Quick Setup) and Launch Advanced Guide (the 10 steps). Relaunching starts from step 1, but any step your set-up already satisfies ticks itself straight away; only the checklist and test steps need doing again.
- For another administrator: on Admin › System › Administrators, Edit them. Under Setup Guide you see whether they have not started, are in progress or have completed it; click Relaunch and confirm with Yes, relaunch. They get the Quick Setup guide on their next sign-in. They can also relaunch it themselves from their own My Profile.
Staff who should not see the guide
The guide appears for every new administrator, including front-desk staff who will never configure anything — and while it runs, their menu is trimmed to the setup pages. When you add such an administrator — or later, by editing them — switch on Bypass Setup Guide ("Skip the onboarding checklist for this admin on first login") in their form.
If Synchroweb has switched off Show Setup Guide for new admins for your tenant, new administrators don't get the guide at all. You can still give it to one person with Relaunch on their Edit form, and anyone can start it from My Profile.
The path, step by step
The Setup guide covers the minimum. This is the full order for a real site, each step linked to the guide that covers it in detail. Setting up a site explains why the pieces depend on each other in this order.
| # | Step | Where | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Organisation details — name, logo, website; then General: Time Zone (every report and schedule uses it), Default Currency, Date Format, Data Transfer Reporting Metric | Admin › System › Settings › Organisation and General cards | Settings, card by card |
| 2 | Configure the equipment and add the controller | Your equipment's admin console, then Admin › System › Device Controller | Set up a controller, step by step |
| 3 | Zones — group traffic by SSID, VLAN, NAS ID or IP, with a priority and an optional user limit | Portals › Captive Portal › Zones Mapping | Controllers and zones |
| 4 | Profile — speed, data, session time, devices per account | Account › Profiles | Profiles, bandwidth and quotas |
| 5 | Login methods — vouchers, SMS, social, room and surname… (SMS, WhatsApp, email and social each need their connector under Grow › Connectors first) | Portals › Captive Portal › Login Methods | Login methods |
| 6 | Design the page and build the journey, publish both, then set the zone's Journey | Portals › Captive Portal › Page Designer and Journey | The portal designer and journeys |
| 7 | Test without the equipment — pick a controller and zone and sign in as a guest would | Portals › Troubleshoot › Portal Simulation | Portal Simulation |
| 8 | Test on the real Wi-Fi — watch what the equipment sends while a phone connects | Portals › Troubleshoot › Controller Test | Before you leave site |
| 9 | Go live — check every zone has the right journey and that a catch-all zone isn't swallowing the others; turn on the SSID for guests | Portals › Captive Portal › Zones Mapping | Controllers and zones |
| 10 | Watch the first guests arrive — the live tiles update as guests connect | Dashboard, and Insight › Reporting › Login › Active Session | The dashboard |
Two things that catch people on step 7: Portal Simulation does real sign-ins, so SMS or WhatsApp codes really are sent and test sessions appear in your reports; and a previous simulated sign-in lets the next one skip the login page — use Reset Simulation before trying again.
Your first week
Once guests are online, these are worth doing in the first few days.
Look at the dashboard and reports
- Dashboard — Live connected and the bandwidth figures are live. Sessions today and failed logins today are added up once an hour, so they lag behind by up to an hour; that is normal. See The dashboard.
- Insight › Reporting — the Login reports show who connected and why logins failed; Account shows sign-ups and voucher use. Every report has an Export to CSV. See Reports and the report glossary.
- Insight › Reporting › Scheduled Reports — have the reports your manager wants emailed every week or month.
- Insight › Reporting › AI Reporting — ask questions like "how many guests logged in last weekend?" in plain language. See The AI reporting assistant.
Check Alerts
Insight › Monitoring › Alerts runs every 30 minutes for every site and tells you, with a bell notification, when guests are being turned away, a controller has gone quiet, SMS codes are failing or voucher stock is running low. Open Settings on that page and switch off the checks for things you don't use (campaigns, vouchers), so the alerts you do get matter. See Alerts.
Switch on KAIA
KAIA is Kiwire's assistant: it checks your site every 6, 12 or 24 hours, explains what it finds in plain language, suggests improvements and, when you ask, proposes a change for you to apply with one click. It is off until you turn it on:
- Go to Admin › System › Settings and open the A.I Model card.
- In the KAIA — Kiwire AI Assistance section, switch on Enable KAIA for this tenant and choose how often it checks.
- Save, then open KAIA in the menu, just below Dashboard.
If the section says KAIA is not included for this tenant, ask Synchroweb to add it. See KAIA.
Add your team
- Admin › System › Roles — Kiwire comes with Admin, Manager and Viewer. Create your own role if, for example, the front desk should only create vouchers and see who is online.
- Admin › System › Administrators — add each person with their own login and a role. Switch on Bypass Setup Guide for anyone who won't be setting up the network.
- Each new administrator sets up two-factor authentication on their first sign-in. See Signing in.
- If staff don't need to see guests' full names, emails and phone numbers, switch on Mask personal data under Admin › System › Settings › Consent & Privacy. See Hiding guests' personal details from staff.
Every change an administrator makes is recorded in Admin › System › Audit Trail.
Check your licence
Admin › Platform › License & Plans shows your plan, expiry date and the modules included. Note the expiry: when a licence lapses, guests can no longer log in, although you can still sign in to the admin. The number of controllers you can register is also set by the licence. See Licence and add-ons.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | Where to look |
|---|---|
| The phone never shows the login page | The redirect address or walled garden on the equipment — Walled garden and redirect |
| A Kiwire page saying the controller is not registered | The Identity in Kiwire doesn't match what the equipment sends — Controller identity and Virtual NAS |
| The login page appears, but signing in never finishes | The shared secret or RADIUS settings — Connecting a controller |
| The old page still shows after you changed it | The template or journey isn't published, or the zone points at a different journey — Publishing and going live |
| A menu item you need is missing | The Setup guide is still running, or your role or licence doesn't include it — Why your menu differs |
| One guest can't log in | Portals › Troubleshoot › Diagnostic Account shows exactly which check stops them — Diagnostic Account |
More answers: Frequently asked questions.
Who can do it
The Setup guide is for administrators of your organisation; each step needs the permission for its page (for example view-devices and create-devices for controllers). Switching Bypass Setup Guide on when you create an administrator needs create-admins; switching it on or off for an existing administrator, or Relaunch for someone else, needs edit-admins, and only works on an administrator whose role doesn't hold permissions yours lacks. The full list is in Permissions by licence module.