How to setup multiple guest wifi?

[vinayayash]

Hi, I live in a house with 3 floors and bad wifi signal reception across floors. The three floors are wired.
My internet connection is through a VDSL router on the first floor.

I would like to set up in each floor a guest wifi and a family wifi, so all in all 3 of each.
How can I do that?

The issue I have is that since there is a central VDSL router to handle WAN traffic, other routers that I connect and set up guest wifi on them can't block the guests from accessing the internal network (wired and wifi) which is connected to the VDSL router as the traffic goes to the VDSL router that doesn't know about those being guests. So how can I do that after all?

I"m not a networking expert so I hope I explained myself well. Any assistance will be welcomed.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Hi, I live in a house with 3 floors and bad wifi signal reception across floors. The three floors are wired.
My internet connection is through a VDSL router on the first floor.

I would like to set up in each floor a guest wifi and a family wifi, so all in all 3 of each.
How can I do that?

The issue I have is that since there is a central VDSL router to handle WAN traffic, other routers that I connect and set up guest wifi on them can't block the guests from accessing the internal network (wired and wifi) which is connected to the VDSL router as the traffic goes to the VDSL router that doesn't know about those being guests. So how can I do that after all?

I"m not a networking expert so I hope I explained myself well. Any assistance will be welcomed.

One solution is to double NAT one or more routers behind your VDSL router. Use the VDSL router for insecure connections such as guests and IoT devices. On the routers that are double NATed behind the VDSL router you can set up additional guest SSIDs blocking Intranet access as well as your regular SSIDs.

Devices connected to the double NATed router(s) will be able see/connect with devices on the VDSL router however devices on the VDSL router won't be able to connect to devices on the double NATed routers.

 

[vinayayash]

Thanks, A few questions trying to understand this setup -

1. The main difference between this and what I've tried so far is that the VDSL router would serve the guest network. Is that so guest network will be created by, first, the double nat router preventing guest wifi access to the intranet wifi it serves and, second, that the NAT would prevent guest wifi access on one router to access intranet wifi access on another router?
2. Where would my wired devices be connected to? The wires going through the house are all connected to a central switch.
3. And then would wifi devices connected to different intranet wifi be able to access each other?
4. Would there be separate DHCP by each of the routers?
5. Will each router be on a different subnet (that's the only way I found to configure my current routers when they are behind the VDSL router)?

 

[CaptainSTX]

1. I don't know if your VDSL router has the option to setup guest networks. My suggestion if it doesn't is just use one or both SSIDs on it as guest networks. If you want, you can use the same guest SSID and password on the other guest networks on the second router just use different radio channels.

2. If you want to isolate your wired devices from the guest networks they need to be connected to your second router double NATed behind the first router.

3. If on the second router devices using the guest network would not be abe to access other devices connected to that router if you selected to not allow intranet access. They however might be able to access devices connected on the VDSL router. Devices connected to the other non guest SSIDs and wired connections would be able to access each other on the second router.

4. Yes

5. Yes

 

[vinayayash]

1. Because I don't have WIFI access across floors I'll need to have three "secondary" (NATed) routers serving WIFI. If each of them supports guest WIFI (and obviously intranet wifi) would devices connected to a non-guest wifi on one floor be able to communicate with non-gues wifi devices on another floor (that are connected to another router)? If they do, then how does it work? As traffic arrives from the secondary router #1 to the VDSL router but then my understanding is that the VDSL router can't reach back to the other secondary router, or can it? And how does it know to distinguish traffic coming from a secondary router guest wifi vs the intranet wifi so to know not to allow traffic from one secondary router guest wifi to reach the intranet wifi on another secondary router?

2. Because of some devices I have on the intranet (like printer/scanner) I need all intranet devices to be on the same subnet, is that doable?

 

[vinayayash]

Will MESH systems (Google WIFI for example) support what I'm trying to achieve?

 

[CaptainSTX]

1. Because I don't have WIFI access across floors I'll need to have three "secondary" (NATed) routers serving WIFI. If each of them supports guest WIFI (and obviously intranet wifi) would devices connected to a non-guest wifi on one floor be able to communicate with non-gues wifi devices on another floor (that are connected to another router)? If they do, then how does it work? As traffic arrives from the secondary router #1 to the VDSL router but then my understanding is that the VDSL router can't reach back to the other secondary router, or can it? And how does it know to distinguish traffic coming from a secondary router guest wifi vs the intranet wifi so to know not to allow traffic from one secondary router guest wifi to reach the intranet wifi on another secondary router?

2. Because of some devices I have on the intranet (like printer/scanner) I need all intranet devices to be on the same subnet, is that doable?

If a printer is the only resource that you want to share across networks consider using a utility such as Epson Print or google print. Users then e-mail the print job to the printer from anywhere in the worl with an Intranet connection. Downside is it is a little slower and every print job prints a cover sheet along with the document to be printed.