VLANs on RT-BE96U

[margentieri152]

I recently purchased an RT-BE96U and I'm getting it all set up. I have a lot of smart home devices, and for a long time, I've been meaning to separate them off my main network and put them all on a dedicated IoT network. Upgrading my router seemed like a great time to do this.

So, after setting up my "main" network (which is running on the default 192.168.50.x subnet), I used the Guest Network Pro function and I set up a secondary IoT network on a different subnet, 192.168.52.x. This IoT network is assigned to VLAN ID 52.

With regard to WIRELESS clients, I have no issue up to this point, I can connect themto the IoT SSID and all works as expected. My issue comes into play with my wired clients, as I need some of my wired clients on the IoT network as well. So I went into LAN settings to configure the VLAN for the LAN ports my wired clients are connected to in order to route them onto the IoT network. For each of the LAN ports connected to a device I wanted on my IoT network, I set the Mode to Access and the SDN (VLAN) Profile to my IoT network. I also confirmed under VLAN Profile that my IoT network is assigned to the correct VLAN ID.

With all this, I would expect these wired clients to be routed to the IoT 192.168.52.x subnet, but instead they are appearing on the main 192.168.50.x subnet, which is preventing some of my IoT clients from communicating with each other.

Do I have a misunderstanding of how the VLAN functionality is supposed to work? Is there anything I am doing wrong? At the end of the day, all I want is for the wired clients that I have specified to appear on the correct network (in this case, the IoT network).

Also, not sure if it is relevant, but when I go to the Network page and select my networks, then click on clients, ALL networks show 0 wired clients. But when I go to Network Map on the main screen, all the wired clients correctly appear there showing them on the main 192.168.50.x network

 

[junior120872]

I'm seeing the same issue as you were with the IoT vlans. I did have some success with Guest vlans and port configuration though. To solve my problem on the IoT vlan, I just dual homed my homebridge machine with a wifi adapter so I didn't continue troubleshooting. I'm not sure if port configuration is being prevented for IoT's or not. May be worth a shot into ASUS support and wait 6 months for an answer.

 

[margentieri152]

I'm seeing the same issue as you were with the IoT vlans. I did have some success with Guest vlans and port configuration though. To solve my problem on the IoT vlan, I just dual homed my homebridge machine with a wifi adapter so I didn't continue troubleshooting. I'm not sure if port configuration is being prevented for IoT's or not. May be worth a shot into ASUS support and wait 6 months for an answer.

Ah, not what I was hoping to hear haha. Am I at least correct in my setup and what I am hoping to achieve? This is my first foray into VLANs, so I also want to make sure I haven't made some rookie mistake.

What kind of success did you have with your Guest network? I made a guest network too, but I didn't want it to be "scheduled or one time access", so I had to make a "Customized Network" to serve as my guest network.

I actually did call Asus tech support the other day. No surprise, the first line of support was zero help. They escalated the ticket and I'm supposed to hear back "within 48 business hours" so we'll see...

 

[junior120872]

I made a customized Guest network in addition with my IoT one. I was able to attach guests to that as well as assign them to the ports and pull an ip address from the VLAN port assigned. I was also able to move my IoT devices to the customized network as well and get the correct IP addresses. I was experiencing additional issues with Mismatched aiMesh issues between asusWRT 4 and 5, so instead of continued troubleshooting, I went back to scratch with a full asusWRT 5 setup having to settle for a beta version for my ET12 nodes as to pass all VLANS to all my mesh nodes. Once that was done, I abandoned having two IoT networks (one being a Customized Network) and an additional guest network and just dual home the one machine that needed to be on both the main network and the IoT one. I believe you are correct. Your SSID names are longer than the viewable, but I'm assuming when you drop them down they show the IoT networks and not the isolated one. Do neither of them work? I'm assuming the isolated one is a customized one?

 

[margentieri152]

Your SSID names are longer than the viewable, but I'm assuming when you drop them down they show the IoT networks and not the isolated one. Do neither of them work? I'm assuming the isolated one is a customized one?

Yes, I checked the drop down and the correct network is selected. Haha that confused me at first as well, since the visible SSID is the same as my main network that doesn't even have a VLAN

Indeed the Isolated one is the customized network I'm using as my guest network.

Idk why I never tried setting that network as the assigned VLAN for my wired clients (I guess because that's not what I was trying to achieve? Good troubleshooting step though), but that actually worked! Those wired clients actually show up on the Isolated network! So there's something screwy with Asus' implementation of their IoT network.... at least I can just make a customized network for my IoT devices now that should HOPEFULLY work.... time to do some more testing. Thanks for your help!

 

[margentieri152]

Testing complete. Everything works as expected when setting up the IoT network using a Customized Network. Trying to use the default IoT network option implemented by Asus breaks VLANs. I deleted that network, recreated it as a customized network, and now all works as expected. Thanks again @junior120872 !

 

[junior120872]

Testing complete. Everything works as expected when setting up the IoT network using a Customized Network. Trying to use the default IoT network option implemented by Asus breaks VLANs. I deleted that network, recreated it as a customized network, and now all works as expected. Thanks again @junior120872 !

Great! I'm glad it worked out. I figured it was either a bug on the IoT or maybe Asus didn't account for wired devices on the IoT network. That doesn't really make sense in the event someone uses a wired hub. I believe most home auto systems have both, but for me, why go wireless when you can wire. . Who knows? If it's a bug, hopefully they'll fix it and I can move back to ethernet in a future rev. Hopefully they get back to you in a reasonable amount of time. Good luck!

 

[margentieri152]

Completely agree going wired when that's an option. If you want to move back to ethernet, just do what I did. Delete your Asus defined IoT network, then just recreate that network as a customized network. If you preserve the SSID and password, you won't even need to reconnect anything
Then just assign your VLANs for your wired clients

 

[junior120872]

I may set some time on project work in the future when I'm home alone. My family gets a tad disgruntled when they get kicked offline for an extended period.

 

[margentieri152]

Hahaha I completely feel that. My roommate was losing his mind the other day when I was getting this new router installed and troubleshooting all these VLAN issues I was having