[SOLVED] Looking for secondary router/AP for guest house (w/ guest network feature)

[jmsstuff]

Would love some help choosing a secondary router / access point with a WiFi guest network feature. Here's my situation. I have a "primary" router at my house. I have a guest house approximately 250 feet away. I have run an Ethernet cable from my house to the guest house, so I'm able to make a wired connection between the primary and secondary routers.

For the "secondary" router, I want the wired ports to be on my "primary" router's network (i.e., same IP scheme) so I can access the guest house's video surveillance system. Additionally, I want to set up a WiFi guest network on the "secondary" router for people staying at the guest house. I want the WiFi guest network to be isolated from my primary network.

I bought a TP-Link Archer A7 (AC1750) and configured it as an access point, but when I set up the WiFi guest network, I was dismayed to see that it had the same IP scheme as my primary router, so it wasn't isolated!

Is what I described possible? If so, can you recommend a router / access point that can do what I need (preferably low-cost since it doesn't have to be the fastest kid on the block…)?

Thanks!

 

[kanewolf]

Would love some help choosing a secondary router / access point with a WiFi guest network feature. Here's my situation. I have a "primary" router at my house. I have a guest house approximately 250 feet away. I have run an Ethernet cable from my house to the guest house, so I'm able to make a wired connection between the primary and secondary routers.

For the "secondary" router, I want the wired ports to be on my "primary" router's network (i.e., same IP scheme) so I can access the guest house's video surveillance system. Additionally, I want to set up a WiFi guest network on the "secondary" router for people staying at the guest house. I want the WiFi guest network to be isolated from my primary network.

I bought a TP-Link Archer A7 (AC1750) and configured it as an access point, but when I set up the WiFi guest network, I was dismayed to see that it had the same IP scheme as my primary router, so it wasn't isolated!

Is what I described possible? If so, can you recommend a router / access point that can do what I need (preferably low-cost since it doesn't have to be the fastest kid on the block…)?

Thanks!

Yes it is possible. You just need small business quality hardware. Home routers won't provide what you want. You need an a primary router, a switch and an access point that support VLANs.

 

[jmsstuff]

Thanks for the reply. If I understood your response - conceptually, it would look like this?

Primary Router (@ main house) ---> Switch (@ guest house) ---> Surveillance System (@ guest house, VLAN #1)
---> WiFi Access Point (@ guest house, VLAN #2)

My primary router is an ASUS RT-AC68W (Wireless-AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit Router). I didn't see anything in the manual related to VLANs. Could I use a Managed Switch to create the VLANs instead?

Sorry, networking is not my forte and I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around this.

 

[bill001g]

You need a router that supports vlans. You need 2 networks/subnets. The router needs 2 different lan gateways. In effect 2 routers.

Then you need a function called vlan tagging. This allows a single ethernet cable to carry multiple vlans.

The remote side you might get by with a AP/router that supports vlans and has enough ethernet ports.

So you would have a router----ap kind like you have now but it would virtually appear as 2 ethernet cables connected to 2 different remote devices.

You can use a manged switch to do the vlan tagged connection. You could then plug into the remote switch on different vlans. The problem is the switch on the local end still needs a router than has 2 network interfaces.

You could of course use 3 routers. A main router. 2 sub routers connected to the main router with their lan ports connected to the vlans on the switch.

Now "maybe" you can use your current router but load merlin firmware on it. I know it supports vlan tags and vlans the things I don't remember is if it supports 2 router interfaces. I would hope it does since vlans are real useful without the virtual router interface.

You could load dd-wrt on it and I know that supports it. Merlin tends to be much more stable and easy to use.

You could also buy a second router that can run third party firmware and put it on the remote end. The implementation on these platforms I find confusing but I am used to implementing this on commercial routers.

You could also just buy something like ubiquiti edge router and one of their AP. Must simpler to configure. The edge router does not have wifi so you would need to use your current router as a AP in your house.