Never turn off router?

[System Error Message]

VLANs are simple normally but complicated on routerOS.

 

[stevech]

that makes sense.

But no, I've not had that happen.
Don't good routers today have a GUEST SSID and that is optionally or always routed only to the WAN port of the router? But that wouldn't protect from a visitor who plugs in via Ethernet.

I have VLAN support on my 8 port switch, but I don't use it.

 

[coxhaus]

My guest network has Ethernet ports as well as a wireless SSID. That way I can plug a suspect computer into an Ethernet port and it will not see my other machines nor can it infect my other machines.

 

[TonyH]

It depends on the PSU. Some higher end PSU uses more watts when plugged in since they use active components.

Real high end stuffs have two PSUs, one in stand-by always to take over if one on line dies. I one time had
total network failure for big dept. stores during X-mas. rush. Stand-by PSU was bad and no one tested it in
real time. Imagine all the cash registers cease to operate during holiday peak... I had same thing happened
to hotel chain, no one could check out or in. A chaos. Many checking out guests missed their flights.

 

[coxhaus]

Always try to test redundant power supplies. It is simple, just pull the power cord on the running one. I would not attempt it in the middle of X-MAS rush but one evening usually works. The other thing to do with redundant power supplies is plug each one into a different circuit so if a circuit goes down the other power supply can take over.

 

[stevech]

When I worked at a TV station, we had a big diesel generator for backup. It had automatic starting on power failure and a battery-UPS to bridge the time to cut-over.
We tested the generator once a month.

But when the power failures came, it seemed that the generator failed to start!

 

[azazel1024]

I have to have routing on my VLANs. I have a big color laser which I need to share across VLANs. I don't want to buy another one. I also need access to my server from all VLANs but I don't want everybody to have access. I guess my network needs are more complex than yours. I was not able to setup my networking switch in 15 minutes. It was more complex plus I hit a software bug in the firmware. It took a little while to get it all working. Now that I have it working I could probably set it up in an hour or so.

With the membership as I listed above, it is effectively shared across VLANs. I haven't looked deeply at how most do it, but with TP-Link (I think DLink and TrendNet as well) you can have multiple VLAN membership for each port so anything on that port can access any other ports that have the same VLAN.

It isn't really routed across the VLANs, but you can still setup access so that things are available how you need it. Works for me on zoning access and also prioritizing the VLANs that I want prioritized.

 

[sfx2000]

When I worked at a TV station, we had a big diesel generator for backup. It had automatic starting on power failure and a battery-UPS to bridge the time to cut-over.
We tested the generator once a month.

But when the power failures came, it seemed that the generator failed to start!

Have had that happen twice in my career - once at a location where SW/HW dev and business offices were upstairs, and production lines (with hotsolder baths for SMT) were downstairs and the gen failed ot start, and at my current job where the generator started, but one of three bus lines (2 AC, 1 DC) blew on the UPS, which caused all sorts of havoc..

 

[coxhaus]

With the membership as I listed above, it is effectively shared across VLANs. I haven't looked deeply at how most do it, but with TP-Link (I think DLink and TrendNet as well) you can have multiple VLAN membership for each port so anything on that port can access any other ports that have the same VLAN.

It isn't really routed across the VLANs, but you can still setup access so that things are available how you need it. Works for me on zoning access and also prioritizing the VLANs that I want prioritized.

I kind of gathered the concept when you mentioned multiple VLAN membership. My Cisco SG300 switch grants access to VLANs upon creation. So with VLANs you need to limit access on the switch. To limit guest access I created an access-list called guest to limit the guest VLAN network access. Here is the one line to limit guest access on my switch:

deny ip 192.168.2.0 0.0.0.255 192.168.0.9 0.0.0.248

This stops the guest network from accessing the main network. I then bound the access list to each guest port. I was not able to bind the access list to the guest VLAN so I only had to make one entry. You can bind at the VLAN level on the big Cisco switches. It might be a bug in the GUI software or the way the cheaper switches work. Sometime I need to test at command line to see if binding to the VLAN level works.

 

[azazel1024]

Ah I see. Yeah, I can make the switch a member of one of the VLANs or not, or I can go through the ACL to restrict or allow a port access to the switch. It has been awhile since I looked at the ACLs, but I think I can do IP based ACLs (VLANs are strictly port based).

 

[stevech]

Ah I see. Yeah, I can make the switch a member of one of the VLANs or not, or I can go through the ACL to restrict or allow a port access to the switch. It has been awhile since I looked at the ACLs, but I think I can do IP based ACLs (VLANs are strictly port based).

Does an IP based ACL make sense for DHCP?

 

[azazel1024]

It could. It allows you, within reason, to play with DHCP to hand out guest IP addresses to certain clients and a different range to regular clients and then restrict privileges on the wired network through IP based ACLs. I know my switch will do MAC based and port base ACLs, but I feel like it can do IP as well. I'll see about checking tonight when I am at home.

 

[TonyH]

When I worked at a TV station, we had a big diesel generator for backup. It had automatic starting on power failure and a battery-UPS to bridge the time to cut-over.
We tested the generator once a month.

But when the power failures came, it seemed that the generator failed to start!

Murphy's law is alive and well, LOL!

 

[Rhialto]

24/7 as long as we are home. If we take a family vacation I shut it off till we come home.

Did that this year and surprise after 10 days when I turned it ona again I found out my WRT610N had lost all its configuration. Is there a battery backup in there or it's only a capacitor which is able to hold data for a few mins only?

Next time I'll see if I can save config... I use DHCP table to add client one by one so I had to add all devices over again, including family members I keep adding when they visit for the 1st time after that event.

This thing is 2008 and still works great but sometimes I'm tempted to look at upgrading it but keep telling that nothing really better will happen with the new one, I mean all devices are in range, speed is fine, etc.

 

[stevech]

Most routers' admin screens enable you to backup the config to a file on your computer, and vice-versa.

Settings are normally saved in the router in non-volatile memory, like flash or EEPROM.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Did that this year and surprise after 10 days when I turned it ona again I found out my WRT610N had lost all its configuration. Is there a battery backup in there or it's only a capacitor which is able to hold data for a few mins only?

Next time I'll see if I can save config... I use DHCP table to add client one by one so I had to add all devices over again, including family members I keep adding when they visit for the 1st time after that event.

This thing is 2008 and still works great but sometimes I'm tempted to look at upgrading it but keep telling that nothing really better will happen with the new one, I mean all devices are in range, speed is fine, etc.

I have left routers in my garage for a year or 2 and plug them back in and they all still have the same config data. Time for a new router I say. What router are you using now?

 

[sfx2000]

Did that this year and surprise after 10 days when I turned it ona again I found out my WRT610N had lost all its configuration. Is there a battery backup in there or it's only a capacitor which is able to hold data for a few mins only?

I used to have the same model (Version 1) - was a very nice high end router back in the day - and I had the same problem with it losing settings if powered down (loss of power due to outage, etc) - got to the point where I would just backup/restore the settings file...

It should be writing the settings to NVRam/flash... there's no battery or supercap to maintain settings - check out the mainboard of that router here..

 

[Rhialto]

I have left routers in my garage for a year or 2 and plug them back in and they all still have the same config data. Time for a new router I say. What router are you using now?

WRT610N

 

[Rhialto]

I used to have the same model (Version 1) - was a very nice high end router back in the day - and I had the same problem with it losing settings if powered down (loss of power due to outage, etc) - got to the point where I would just backup/restore the settings file...

So from the WRT610N you now have? What improvement you saw? Maybe better range and speed?

Like I wrote, I currently don't have range and speed problem so why spend 100$? Sure getting a new electronic toy is always fun for the firsts days but then? I try to resist and not buy. What we need in our house next is a NAS... been reading about those for 3 years already, someday I will have to make the move and buy!

 

[sfx2000]

So from the WRT610N you now have? What improvement you saw? Maybe better range and speed?

Like I wrote, I currently don't have range and speed problem so why spend 100$? Sure getting a new electronic toy is always fun for the firsts days but then? I try to resist and not buy. What we need in our house next is a NAS... been reading about those for 3 years already, someday I will have to make the move and buy!

Well, for me, my needs started to crowd the capabilities of the WRT610N - mostly due to the number of clients attaching to it, both on the wire and wireless, and at my place, the 5GHz performance was always a challenge - esp with mixed mode A/N clients.

As I poured more clients onto my network, the WAN-LAN performance - while good in 2008, wasn't so good in 2010/2011 timeframe - so it was time to upgrade - 3 years is a good run for a high-end device at the time..

I still have it, it's sitting on the shelf these days - mostly for legacy testing...

FWIW - the OEM power supply, it was "soft" and failed earlier, but upgraded to a 2A power supply and it's fine - I'd be hesitant to put it back into use for a Production Router/AP due to unpatched security issues, Linksys EOL'ed in back in 2010...

Keeping in mind that the WRT610N was a $200 investment back in 2008 - I would suggest the WRT1900ac, or perhaps the EA8500 - both very capable devices with different strengths if you want to stay within the Linksys brand...