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Wireless Personal Networks are the units you manage day-to-day. This page covers the admin lifecycle: create, configure, rotate, remove. For the resident-side experience, see Self-Service portal.

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Creating a single Wireless Personal Network

Use this when you’re adding one unit at a time — a new apartment coming online, a test unit, a one-off.
1

Open the Context

Click Create Wireless Personal Network on the Context overview. The form opens on the Create single tab.
2

Name the WPN

Typically the unit identifier — Apartment 301, Room 4, Suite B. This is the label residents see when they land in the Self-Service portal.
3

Accept or edit the Pre-Shared Key

The form auto-generates a PSK matching the Context’s PSK defaults. You can accept it, paste your own (8–63 characters), or press the regenerate control for a fresh one.
4

Click Create Wireless Personal Network

The platform writes the Meraki Identity PSK on every associated Meraki network and, depending on the Group Policy Strategy, either creates a dedicated Network Access Policy or attaches the PSK to the shared one.

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Batch-creating a building

Onboarding every apartment in a building at once is common for student housing, co-living, and hotels-with-apartments. Switch to the Create multiple tab.
1

Enter a Name prefix

For example Apartment  (with a trailing space) — the platform will append the counter. Output names read “Apartment 101”, “Apartment 102”, etc.
2

Set Start counter at

The first unit number to create.
3

Set Number of networks

How many to create in a contiguous run.
4

Click Batch Create Wireless Personal Networks

The platform generates a unique PSK per WPN using the Context’s PSK defaults, and writes them all to Meraki. Large batches take a while — the Meraki Dashboard API is rate-limited per organization — so expect a pause.
You can mix Create single and Create multiple. Batch-create the regular apartments up front, then add edge cases (the building manager’s suite, the common room) with Create single.

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Viewing a Wireless Personal Network

Click any WPN name on the Context overview to open its detail page.
Wireless Personal Network detail for Apartment 301 showing Group card with 3 Users, 8 Devices, 6 Online counters, Meraki WPN summary card, and tab bar with Connected Devices selected
Six sections:
  • Statistics (top) — Users, Devices, Online counts, plus the Meraki WPN summary (Organization, Template or Network, SSID).
  • Usage (top) — time-series chart of Registered vs Online devices for this WPN specifically.
  • Connected Devices tab — the clients currently joined to this WPN’s PSK, with columns for Status, Type, MAC, Network, Last seen, Description, Connected To, Connection info, IPv4, First seen.
  • Self-Service Users tab — the residents (see Managing Self-Service Users).
  • Group Settings tab — rename, rotate the PSK, remove.
  • How to connect tab — the admin’s view of the connection details (SSID, masked PSK, QR code). Useful when you need to help a resident onboard before they sign into the portal.

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Rotating the Pre-Shared Key

Rotate when a key leaks, when a roommate moves out and the unit doesn’t want them keeping access, or on a periodic schedule.
1

Open the WPN's Group Settings tab

Under the Pre-Shared Key section.
2

Enter or generate a new PSK

8–63 characters.
3

Click Update Pre-Shared Key (PSK)

The platform re-programs the Meraki Identity PSK on every associated Meraki network. Devices currently joined with the old key stay connected until they try to re-associate, at which point they prompt for the new key.
Group Settings tab for Apartment 301 with Group name field set to Apartment 301, Meraki WPN Pre-Shared Key (PSK) section showing the SSID student-wifi and a masked PSK with Update Pre-Shared Key button, and Remove Group section
Residents with the Group Administrator permission can rotate the PSK themselves via the Self-Service portal. In most deployments that’s the right path — admins don’t need to be in the loop for every per-unit rotation.

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Renaming a Wireless Personal Network

The Group name field on Group Settings. Rename as many times as you need. The displayed name updates in the Context overview, in every resident’s Self-Service portal, and in the Meraki dashboard’s Identity PSK name.

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Seeing who’s connected (admin)

The Connected Devices tab on any WPN. The same data is also aggregated at Context level under the Devices tab on the Context overview, with a Group column so you can tell which apartment each device belongs to. Filter by description, MAC, or location (when a Meraki tag includes the Network / SSID location).

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Removing a Wireless Personal Network

When a unit is permanently retired — a resident has moved out and the lease is closed, or a room is being repurposed.
1

Open the WPN's Group Settings tab

Scroll to the Remove Group section.
2

Check the Remove Group box

A confirmation button appears.
3

Confirm

The platform deletes the Meraki Identity PSK, deletes the associated Meraki Network Access Policy (if the Context uses the One policy per group strategy), and removes all Self-Service Users scoped to this WPN. Connected devices are immediately kicked off the SSID.
Removal is not reversible. If you need to pause a unit without destroying it, rotate the PSK to something residents don’t know — devices will disconnect, the unit goes dark — and rotate again to a new key when it’s re-activated.

Managing Self-Service Users

Invite, promote, revoke residents.

Self-Service portal

What residents do themselves.

Troubleshooting

When things don’t behave as expected.