Meraki Captive Portal Email Capture
Cisco Meraki is excellent networking hardware, and its cloud dashboard makes guest WiFi straightforward to stand up. What it is not is a marketing platform. If your goal is to capture customer emails from your guest WiFi and actually do something useful with them, you will quickly hit the edges of the native splash page. This tutorial-style guide covers exactly where those edges are, and how to get past them with an external captive portal, using the same settings as the CaptiFi Meraki setup guide.
The Meraki route is the simplest of all the controller integrations CaptiFi supports. There are no API keys to generate, no controller credentials to share and no RADIUS server. You change three settings on one SSID in the Meraki Dashboard, and the guest's own browser does the rest.
What Meraki's native splash can and cannot do
Meraki gives you several splash options out of the box: click-through (accept terms and connect), sign-on with a RADIUS or directory backend, billing, and a few others. These are great for access control. They are not built for marketing.
The honest limits of the native splash for email-led marketing:
- It is designed to grant access, not to build and store a marketing email list you can export and campaign to.
- There is no built-in email automation: no welcome emails, no offers, no win-back sequences.
- There is no Google review automation.
- UK GDPR consent capture and retention records are left to you to design.
- Per-customer analytics like visit frequency are not the dashboard's job.
The marketing layer lives somewhere else, which is exactly what an external portal is for.
How the click-through splash flow works
The flow keeps Meraki doing what it is good at and hands the splash experience to a dedicated portal. Everything happens in the guest's browser:
- A guest connects to your Meraki guest SSID.
- Meraki redirects them to your CaptiFi splash page, passing a one-time grant URL along with the redirect.
- The guest sees your branded page, enters their email, and ticks a marketing opt-in.
- CaptiFi records the consent, stores the email, and sends the guest's browser back to Meraki's grant URL. Meraki authorises the session automatically.
- From there, automated welcome emails, review requests and campaigns run on their own.
No server-to-server API calls are involved. CaptiFi never holds a Meraki API key or logs in to your Dashboard, which is why the setup is quick and why there is nothing to rotate or revoke later.
What you need before you start
- Cisco Meraki MR access points online in your Meraki Dashboard.
- Dashboard admin access for the organisation or network.
- A CaptiFi account at my.captifi.io and your site ID. The Meraki Setup Guide inside your dashboard shows a copy-and-paste version of the splash URL with your site ID already filled in, or support can send it.
Step by step in the Meraki Dashboard
Step 1: Set the custom splash URL
- Open the Meraki Dashboard and go to Wireless, Configure, Splash page.
- Select your guest SSID from the dropdown at the top.
- Under Custom splash URL, select "Or provide a URL where users will be redirected".
- Enter
https://app.captifi.io/guest/meraki?site_id=YOUR_SITE_ID, replacingYOUR_SITE_IDwith your CaptiFi site ID. - Click Save.
Step 2: Configure access control
Go to Wireless, Configure, Access control, select the guest SSID again and set the following, then Save.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Security | Open (no encryption) |
| Splash page | Click-through |
| Captive portal strength | Block all access until sign-on is complete |
Step 3: Add the walled garden entries
The walled garden lets guests reach CaptiFi's servers before they authenticate. Without it, the splash page cannot load. Still in Access control, scroll to Advanced splash settings, set Walled garden to enabled, and add these seven entries to Walled garden ranges.
| Entry | Why it is needed |
|---|---|
app.captifi.io | Serves the splash page |
site.app.captifi.io | Splash page assets |
*.captifi.io | Covers every CaptiFi host the page calls |
network-auth.com | Meraki's own authorisation host |
*.network-auth.com | Meraki's own authorisation host |
fonts.googleapis.com | Page fonts |
fonts.gstatic.com | Page fonts |
Do not skip the two network-auth.com entries. They are Meraki's own authorisation hosts, and without them a guest can complete your splash page but Meraki never grants them access. Click Save when all seven are in.
Step 4: Test
- Wait one to two minutes for the configuration to push to your access points.
- Connect a phone to the guest SSID.
- The CaptiFi splash page should appear automatically.
- Complete the form. You should be granted access and redirected.
- Check your CaptiFi dashboard: the guest appears in your guest log.
The Meraki setup guide has the same steps with screenshots. CaptiFi works across the Meraki MR access point range, and because the settings are per SSID you can run the portal on the guest network while staff networks stay untouched.
Session length and splash frequency
With click-through splash, how long a guest stays authorised is controlled by Meraki's splash frequency setting, under Access control, Splash page, Splash frequency. Set it to how often you want returning guests to see the splash page again, for example every day or every week. A shorter frequency means more captures and more chances to show an offer; a longer one means fewer interruptions for regulars. Either way, CaptiFi recognises the returning guest and records the repeat visit.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| Splash page not appearing | Splash page is set to Click-through and the custom splash URL is saved on the correct SSID |
| Blank or broken splash page | All seven walled garden entries are present; fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com are needed for page assets |
| Guest completes the form but is never authorised | Add network-auth.com and *.network-auth.com to the walled garden; the grant redirect goes through Meraki's own domain |
| "Configuration Error" message | The site_id in the splash URL is missing or wrong; copy it again from your CaptiFi dashboard |
| Guest completes the form but has no internet | Captive portal strength is "Block all access until sign-on is complete" and the SSID firewall is not blocking post-auth traffic |
| Works on some APs only | All MR access points are online and broadcasting the guest SSID; configs can take a couple of minutes to push |
| HTTPS sites not triggering the redirect | Visit an HTTP site first, such as http://example.com |
What an external portal adds
| Capability | Meraki native splash | Meraki + CaptiFi |
|---|---|---|
| Branded splash page | Basic | Full drag-and-drop branding |
| Email capture and export | Not for marketing | Yes, with export |
| Automated welcome and offer emails | No | Yes |
| Google review automation | No | Yes |
| UK GDPR consent and audit trail | Manual | Built in |
| Per-customer analytics | No | Yes |
| Credentials shared with the portal | Not applicable | None: no API key, no RADIUS |
| Works with other hardware too | Meraki only | UniFi, Omada, MikroTik and more |
The result: every guest who connects becomes a subscriber, and the follow-ups (welcome email, review request, win-back) run automatically. For the marketing mechanics, see guest email marketing and automating Google reviews.
Keeping it UK GDPR compliant
Because the external portal owns the form, it is also the right place to handle consent properly: a marketing opt-in kept separate from getting onto the WiFi, an unticked box so the guest actively opts in, a linked privacy notice, and a stored record of when and how consent was given. A defined retention period for inactive contacts keeps the list tidy. Our GDPR-compliant guest WiFi guide walks through the five essentials, and the GDPR compliance feature shows how CaptiFi handles them automatically.
If you only want guest capture and CSV export on the kit you already run, Lite is $24.99/mo for one site. Start Lite.
If your hardware is not Meraki, the same external-portal approach works on UniFi, Omada and MikroTik. Otherwise, you can start a 30-day free trial and connect your existing Meraki network in under an hour on your own controller.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the most common questions about this topic.
Can Cisco Meraki capture emails from guest WiFi?
How do I set up an external captive portal on Meraki?
Which Meraki hardware works with an external portal?
Will an external portal slow down my Meraki WiFi?
Does CaptiFi only work with Meraki?
The CaptiFi Editorial Team writes about guest WiFi marketing, captive portals, GDPR-compliant data capture, and local SEO for venue operators. We base our recommendations on real customer outcomes and verified third-party reviews from G2.com.
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