TL-PA7010P - support VLAN tagging?

[Bill_Stewart]

Good day,

We have DSL (PPPoE) and I have an ASUS RT-AC66UB1 router. The DSL connection enters the property in a location that is not optimal for WiFi performance, so I want to relocate the WiFi router to a more central location using my powerline adapters. I have a VoIP device (Ooma Telo) located near the DSL modem. I am considering the following configuration:

My concern is whether the TP-Link TL-PA7010P powerline adapters will work correctly with the VLAN tagging.

I am currently using unmanaged switches in the above configuration (no VLANs) with an RT-ACRH13 router which works fine, but this configuration (above with unmanaged switches) does NOT work with the RT-AC66UB1. Connecting both the LAN and WAN interfaces the RT-AC66U to the same network segment causes the LAN interface to stop working.

See related post: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-b1-lan-interface-acts-strangely.68339/

Will the above configuration work?

Thanks!

 

[ColinTaylor]

See the reply in post #4 of this thread: https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/topic/213812

Looks promising.

P.S. Don't use VLAN 1 or 2 as they are used internally by Asus and things might get confusing. Stick to something like 10 or 20.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Good day,

We have DSL (PPPoE) and I have an ASUS RT-AC66UB1 router. The DSL connection enters the property in a location that is not optimal for WiFi performance, so I want to relocate the WiFi router to a more central location using my powerline adapters. I have a VoIP device (Ooma Telo) located near the DSL modem. I am considering the following configuration:

View attachment 28401

My concern is whether the TP-Link TL-PA7010P powerline adapters will work correctly with the VLAN tagging.

I am currently using unmanaged switches in the above configuration (no VLANs) with an RT-ACRH13 router which works fine, but this configuration (above with unmanaged switches) does NOT work with the RT-AC66UB1. Connecting both the LAN and WAN interfaces the RT-AC66U to the same network segment causes the LAN interface to stop working.

See related post: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-b1-lan-interface-acts-strangely.68339/

Will the above configuration work?

Thanks!

Could you keep your unmanaged switches, skip the VLANs, and only add a second powerline link so that you have one powerline link from the modem to the router and a second powerline link back from the router to the VoIP switch?

OE

 

[Bill_Stewart]

Could you keep your unmanaged switches, skip the VLANs, and only add a second powerline link so that you have one powerline link from the modem to the router and a second powerline link back from the router to the VoIP switch?

Good idea, but unfortunately there's only one outlet at the router's location.

 

[Bill_Stewart]

See the reply in post #4 of this thread: https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/topic/213812

Looks promising.

P.S. Don't use VLAN 1 or 2 as they are used internally by Asus and things might get confusing. Stick to something like 10 or 20.

Great find, and it confirms my suspicion that powerline adapters work at a layer 2 level (basically same as an unmanaged switch). Thanks!

 

[OzarkEdge]

Good idea, but unfortunately there's only one outlet at the router's location.

Use a power strip. Or is that not acceptable for powerline.

OE

 

[Bill_Stewart]

Use a power strip. Or is that not acceptable for powerline.

Correct; powerline adapters must go directly to the wall recepticle.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Correct; powerline adapters must go directly to the wall recepticle.

If that's ok, then you can probably use any outlet/receptacle expansion that does not include additional circuitry like surge suppression. They are all outlets in parallel.

I'll go read about them tomorrow.

OE

 

[ColinTaylor]

Correct; powerline adapters must go directly to the wall recepticle.

Not quite true. It is very highly recommended because powerstrips introduce unknown variables regarding how they are wired and some have interference or spike suppressors. If you could get a very basic strip of good quality it should be similar to using a dual socket wall outlet. Not ideal, but possible and YMMV.

EDIT: Oops, just noticed OE said the same thing.

 

[degrub]

one can use a "pigtail " power cord with a multi-outlet end. No filters, suppressors, etc and wired in parallel same as an outlet receptacle.

 

[Bill_Stewart]

Even if I were to do so, the three powerline adapters would be on the same network segment, which is actually what I want to avoid.

 

[Bill_Stewart]

For this suggestion to work, I'd actually need two more powerline adapters. This is pricier (not to mention uglier and taking up more space) than getting a pair of managed switches and creating a VLAN. But thanks for the suggestion!

 

[ColinTaylor]

Even if I were to do so, the three powerline adapters would be on the same network segment, which is actually what I want to avoid.

With powerline adapters you can create separate networks that share the same mains wiring. Check in your own adapters documentation but it's usually called the "Network Name" or NMK and defaults to "HomePlugAV". - But you would need two pairs of adapters.

 

[Bill_Stewart]

Right, I'd need two pairs of adapters. Buying two more powerline adapters is more expensive (both cost and space) than a pair of managed switches. Thanks for the idea, though!

 

[Bill_Stewart]

I ended up buying two managed switches and created a VLAN trunk between them to segment the traffic and this solved the problem quite nicely. Thanks for the assistance!