Your first WiFi zone, from start to finish

1. What you need before you start

None of this has to be bought from WiNet. Just check that these five things are in place before you begin, otherwise you will stall halfway through.

• A MikroTik router running RouterOS. It is the only piece of hardware you truly need: it broadcasts the WiFi and enforces the bundles.
• An Internet connection that already works at the zone: fibre, a local provider's box, or a 4G link with a big enough plan. WiNet resells your access, it does not replace it.
• A valid email address you can open right away: a verification code will be sent to it.
• A mobile money number in your name — MTN MoMo or Orange Money in Cameroon, M-Pesa in Kenya, Airtel in Uganda, Wave in Senegal, a bank account in South Africa — to receive your payouts. See the methods available in each country.
• Power that is as steady as you can get. A small backup battery for the router keeps you from losing an evening of sales at every outage.

Allow about an hour for the whole thing if the hardware is already on site. The software side takes a few minutes; it is the physical mounting and the quality of your Internet link that make the difference.

2. Create your account

Open the Manager app at app.winetapp.org. It works in the browser on your phone and on your computer; the installable Android app is not published on Google Play yet, and the iPhone version is being prepared.

Two ways to create your account:

• With an email address and a password. Enter your email, choose a password, then type in the 6-digit code you receive by email. That code confirms the address is yours: without it, the account is not activated.
• With your Google account. One tap and you are in — no extra password to remember.

There is no sign-in by phone number: your Mobile Money number is there to receive money, never to identify you. If the code does not arrive, check your spam folder, then ask for a new one.

3. Add your first zone

A zone is a place: your shop, a junction, a hotel, a classroom. It has a name, its own bundles, its own portal and its own balance.

In the app, create the zone and give it a name your customers will recognise — the neighbourhood or the venue rather than an internal code. That name appears on the portal when they buy, and it is also what you will see in your zone list once you run several.

At this point the zone exists but it is empty: no router, no bundle. That is normal, we are getting there.

4. Enrol the router

Enrolment is the moment your MikroTik becomes a WiNet router. From the zone page, start adding a router and follow the steps: WiNet opens a secure tunnel to the device, then configures it automatically — WiFi network, captive portal, management of the access you sell, monitoring.

You have no configuration line to type. What you do have to guarantee is that the router has power and real Internet access while this runs. The full hardware procedure — cabling, reset, antenna placement — is set out in the MikroTik installation guide.

Once everything is in place, the zone switches to “Online” in the app. That is the sign the router is talking to WiNet and can start selling.

5. Create your bundles

A bundle is a duration (and possibly a data volume) sold at a price. You decide everything, including the units: volume is entered in MB or GB, duration in hours or days, and speed is always set in Mbit/s. You pick the unit that speaks to your customers, and the bundle appears everywhere exactly as you entered it — for example “2 GB · 3 days · 5 Mbit/s”. Three tips from the field:

• Two or three bundles, not eight. A customer who hesitates in front of a long list walks away. A short cheap entry option, a “day” bundle, and maybe a “week” bundle cover almost every need.
• Round prices. Stick to amounts that are easy to handle at the counter, with no cents and no decimals, in the currency of your zone: 500 or 2,500 FCFA in Cameroon, 500 or 2,000 naira in Nigeria, 50 or 200 shillings in Kenya. These are examples only: your prices are yours.
• Look at what people charge around you. An acceptable price for an hour online is not the same in a residential area, on a campus or in a hotel. Start where your neighbours are, watch for a week, then adjust.

Your bundles can be changed at any time. Removing a bundle from the portal does not cut off the access already sold: customers already connected finish their time as normal.

6. Customise the portal

The captive portal is the page that opens on its own when a customer connects to your WiFi. It is your shopfront and your till at the same time. The BASIC template, which is free, already lets you set the essentials:

• the name shown at the top of the page;
• your logo;
• the main colour;
• an advertising image, for your own business or for an advertiser;
• a WhatsApp number, so the customer can reach you if something goes wrong.

Other templates (BUSINESS, CAMPUS, CAFE_HOTEL, EVENT) go further on layout. They are free, like everything else: nothing to unlock, nothing to pay.

Keep the page plain: the portal is deliberately very light so it loads even on an old phone and a slow network.

7. Test a sale

Never let a first customer find a problem for you. Make the sale yourself, in real conditions:

• connect your phone to the zone's WiFi;
• let the portal open and pick the cheapest bundle;
• pay by Mobile Money: a confirmation request arrives on your phone (push payment), approve it with your PIN;
• check that the connection opens, then that the sale shows up in the app and that the zone balance has moved.

If it all runs through, your zone is ready for the public. If not, the troubleshooting section of the MikroTik guide covers the most common cases.

8. Cash out your earnings

Every sale credits the zone balance, once the WiNet commission has been taken. That balance is yours: you decide when to transfer it.

In the app, open the zone, request a payout, enter the amount and the receiving Mobile Money number, then confirm. The transfer goes to your number. WiNet adds no fee on the payout; only the operator's own charges may apply.

Remember the principle: you never make a payment inside the app, and no feature is reserved for a paid account. If you buy hardware from another manager or hire a technician for a job, you settle directly with them: WiNet takes nothing along the way and is not part of the transaction.

9. What comes next

Once your first zone is running smoothly, three things are worth a look:

• Several zones on one account. Add a second router in another neighbourhood: each zone keeps its own bundles, portal and balance, but everything is run from the same app.
• Notifications. They tell you about the events that matter — a sale, a zone dropping offline — without you opening the app every ten minutes.
• Statistics. The dashboard shows your sales by zone and over time. That is where you see which bundle really works, which hours fill your till, and whether your prices need changing.

To go further: install a MikroTik step by step, the frequently asked questions, everything about the WiFi portal or the pricing details. Have a question that is not answered here? Write to us at [email protected].