[SOLVED] private and guest network extending

[fastcompany2]

ok obviously cant find the answer but there hopefully is more than one way to do this. I would like to have a private network comprised of wired and wireless clients that will share files and printers with a guest network just for wireless clients. what i'm looking for is to have a private wifi on 2.4 and 5g bands that can span across the shop. I will need 2 devices for this as I'm quite certain that there are no wifi devices that can go 300 + feet through steel walls. At the far end where the second device would go I will need to connect 3 wired clients. My guest network just needs to be on the 2.4 band but also span the length of the shop. So the most simple way I could think of would be running 2 wifi routers. primary router setup with an active guest account and make the second router a wired access point. problem is with everything I found when you turn a router into an access point it disables the guest account. So the only thing I can think of is to get really complicated. I would have a router setup as primary and disable basically everything on it to just have it as a pass through. I would leave the IP address at 192.168.0.1. Then connect 2 wifi routers to it LAN of primary and WAN of secondary setting the IP on the secondary routers to 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1 and have DHCP turned on for both of them. and set the gateway set to 192.168.0.1 on both. Then cascade 2 more routers LAN to LAN to the second location to act as my wired access points. so this configuration would consist of 5 routers to hopefully give me a functional but separate private and guest network. I will also have a 16 port switch in there for my private network but I don't believe that really comes into play for what I need to achieve. I have something worked out on cisco packet tracer but I don't think I have enough options with packet tracer to verify it works. That and I'm not a professional.

 

[bill001g]

There really is not a separate network it is more of a firewall rule that only allows the guest machine to have access to the internet. Because it really isn't a separate network it only works on the router that has a direct connection to the internet.

When you have mulitple devices you need a actual guest network. The way this is commonly done is to run vlans to keep the networks separate. All your equipment must support it which means you can't use consumer grade stuff. Some switches support it but most AP and routers do not.

I would look at equipment from ubiquiti. Their equipment is between high end enterprise stuff and consumer stuff.

 

[fastcompany2]

ok well I have to ask for my own knowledge what the advantage would be using that equipment vs following something outlined in this sticky in networking https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/the-ultimate-modem-router-setup-thread.1303081/

The triple router Y configuration seems to be what is needed with cascading to a second router.

I ask this because well it is outlined here on the forums and there is a learning curve for me to use something similar to enterprise equipment. just want to know the pros and cons of either configuration.

 

[fastcompany2]

here is basically just a layout of what I need in the shop network. the end user devices are pretty much accurate minus some employee smart phones. the routers and access points are up in the air but for the sake of just having something on a network map they are all wrt300n's.

 

[bill001g]

It only works to a point. The reason you would run a 3 router configuration like that is to isolate the users on the 2 remote routers. This would work for a guest type of function but if you were to put you main users on those routers they will be isolated from each other. That is the purpose of the design. You can not put users on the main router because that network is exposed to users on both the remote routers. For your needs you must have a common network on both radios that your main users can use.

Now if you really want to use all consumer equipment you could run 2 completely different physical networks. Run 2 routers that are only for the guest and then 2 AP used only for your main users and then put in 2 routers in front of your internet router to separate them.

It tends to be easier to do it the correct way.

Just as a example you should be able to use a $50 edge router from ubiquiti and 2 of their lite ac routers for about $80 each.