LoneWolf
Senior Member
Hey everyone,
RMerlin, you may be the best equipped technically to answer this question, but for anyone who is doing advanced networking and using the RT-AC87 U or R, I have some questions.
Because I'm Watchguard certified, I recently took an offer to get a very discounted Watchguard firewall. I'm looking into putting this at the head of my network, using managed switches (which I already have), and moving the RT-AC87 to an access point role. With that in mind, I was hoping it might be possible to create SSIDs on the ASUS bound to VLANs, so I could have a public network and a private network bound by VLANs. By doing it this way, I could have VLAN based policies on my firewall that cover traffic management, application control and content filtering on the guest network, etc.
First off, is this even possible? I know it might require the command-line to do, but I'm not squeamish about that, as long as there's some form of CLI reference I can go on or if there's at least some CLI help in the command structure (e.g., the way -? works on Cisco or Dell switches).
Secondly, in access point mode, does the RT-AC87 still function as a switch, or is only one port usable (the LAN connection for wireless)? If it can function as a switch, are there any management commands that can be used from the CLI for the switch, or is it just a basic dumb switch at that point?
It may be that in the long run, the best method is to go with wireless access points, but my budget has to wait for that. Thanks for any help.
RMerlin, you may be the best equipped technically to answer this question, but for anyone who is doing advanced networking and using the RT-AC87 U or R, I have some questions.
Because I'm Watchguard certified, I recently took an offer to get a very discounted Watchguard firewall. I'm looking into putting this at the head of my network, using managed switches (which I already have), and moving the RT-AC87 to an access point role. With that in mind, I was hoping it might be possible to create SSIDs on the ASUS bound to VLANs, so I could have a public network and a private network bound by VLANs. By doing it this way, I could have VLAN based policies on my firewall that cover traffic management, application control and content filtering on the guest network, etc.
First off, is this even possible? I know it might require the command-line to do, but I'm not squeamish about that, as long as there's some form of CLI reference I can go on or if there's at least some CLI help in the command structure (e.g., the way -? works on Cisco or Dell switches).
Secondly, in access point mode, does the RT-AC87 still function as a switch, or is only one port usable (the LAN connection for wireless)? If it can function as a switch, are there any management commands that can be used from the CLI for the switch, or is it just a basic dumb switch at that point?
It may be that in the long run, the best method is to go with wireless access points, but my budget has to wait for that. Thanks for any help.
