Creating a guest network from powerline adapters

[beardofturtles]

Just created a guest network with my Asus DSL-AC88U but its only available from the router not the powerline/wifi adapter I have installed in the annex. Whole point of this was so guests at my airbnb would have a guest network but for some reason the guest SSID only emits from the main router.

All my powerlines have been sync'd up and the wifi SSIDs have been cloned

Any ideas how to fix this short of un-cloning that particular powerline?

In theory if I get all this to work, how do i restrict bandwidth from the guest network? Another reason why i got this router was to stop airbnb guests from sucking all my bandwidth!

EDIT: Just had a thought, would re-cloning the powerline work now that the guest network is part of the network?

 

[JDB]

What you want is not possible with home grade equipment (unless you are very technical and willing to play under the hood, plus would need very specific home routers/access points, which Asus may or may not be part of (you’d likely need the RT version running Merlin and pair it with a DSL modem) and your power line adaptors categorically are not).

You need an enterprise level wireless system to properly manage multi-access point guest network with traffic management. Ubiquiti have some decent entry level options.


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[beardofturtles]

What you want is not possible with home grade equipment (unless you are very technical and willing to play under the hood, plus would need very specific home routers/access points, which Asus may or may not be part of and your power line adaptors categorically are not).

You need an enterprise level wireless system to properly manage multi-access point guest network with traffic management. Ubiquiti have some decent entry level options.

Thanks for the quick reply. Dont want to spend too long on this so I'll try re-cloning that powerline and see what happens. Worst comes to worst, I can just reset that unit and have my guests use the default SSID that came with the unit. Bit disappointed I'm unable to restrict their bandwidth as thats one of the reasons i bought the Asus.

 

[JDB]

Thanks for the quick reply. Dont want to spend too long on this so I'll try re-cloning that powerline and see what happens. Worst comes to worst, I can just reset that unit and have my guests use the default SSID that came with the unit. Bit disappointed I'm unable to restrict their bandwidth as thats one of the reasons i bought the Asus.

Cloning the Guest SSID should work, however, your guest will get full access to your network and not be restricted in any way. You don’t even need to clone it, just disable the guest network on the main router and create a new SSID on the powerline - however as above, you aren’t achieving anything by having a separate SSID as it all ends up in the same LAN regardless.

There isn’t an easy option to solve this really without using the proper gear.


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[JDB]

Long term Asus claim to be adding Guest network to AiMesh. So if they do that, you could replace the powerline Wifi extenders with a second Asus router which will Mesh your Guest network and maintain separation and control. No idea on the timeline or if this will really materialise though.


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[beardofturtles]

Yeah I know what you mean about them having access to my network, always understood I'd have to share. But hoped with the new router I'd be able to use the Bandwidth Limiter.

What about using QoS to set the powerline at lower priority?

 

[JDB]

The powerlines just create a Layer 2 bridge so restricting the powerline itself will have no impact on the devices it is serving.

The only other option, which will allow bandwidth restrictions but NOT restrict access to your LAN, is to put a second router in. Have it’s WAN connect to your LAN. Then restrict its bandwidth on your main router. Because it will be doing NAT (so your guests will have double NAT), the bandwidth restrictions will work.
You’d need to either run an Ethernet cable to the second router, or if your powerlines also have ethernet ports you can use that instead of a cable, or get pure Ethernet powerlines without wireless built in.


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[beardofturtles]

The powerlines just create a Layer 2 bridge so restricting the powerline itself will have no impact on the devices it is serving.

The only other option, which will allow bandwidth restrictions but NOT restrict access to your LAN, is to put a second router in. Have it’s WAN connect to your LAN. Then restrict its bandwidth on your main router. Because it will be doing NAT (so your guests will have double NAT), the bandwidth restrictions will work.
You’d need to either run an Ethernet cable to the second router, or if your powerlines also have ethernet ports you can use that instead of a cable, or get pure Ethernet powerlines without wireless built in.

Im with you, not an ideal situation then but think I'll just reset/unclone the powerline and they can have their own SSID for now. See what you mean about the QoS, think I'd be shooting myself in my foot trying to restrict bandwidth to a specific device. Other issue I think im having is that the RT-AC88u is deceptively different from the DSL version. Despite lots of folks online saying they are the same except for the modem bit.

 

[MarkyPancake]

Long term Asus claim to be adding Guest network to AiMesh.

Just seen AiMesh guest network support is available to test in a 386 beta firmware:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-386-rc2-public-beta-with-full-functions-aimesh-2-0.65235/

 

[beardofturtles]

Just seen AiMesh guest network support is available to test in a 386 beta firmware

an AiMesh requires another router right? Dont think I can afford that at the moment.

 

[JDB]

an AiMesh requires another router right? Dont think I can afford that at the moment.

It does, could always get a used one off ebay. RT-AC68U or 66U_b1 would work.


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[OzarkEdge]

It does, could always get a used one off ebay. RT-AC68U or 66U_b1 would work.


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No hurry... the beta firmware has yet to prove guest WLANs on nodes.

OE

 

[beardofturtles]

Also occurred to me that I'd need to run ethernets to any additional routers for a mesh right?. For my airbnb annex this just isnt feasible.

 

[JDB]

Also occurred to me that I'd need to run ethernets to any additional routers for a mesh right?. For my airbnb annex this just isnt feasible.

Not with AiMesh, it can use wireless backhaul.

Or you can use Ethernet Powerline backhaul.

Which one works better will depend on your thickness of walls vs quality/layout of electricity cables


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