Seeking clarity for Guest Network Pro/VLANs

[Seth Harman]

After participating in a few threads regarding Guest Network Pro/VLANs I've discovered I'm still a bit confused as to what Asus is doing. In regards to VLANs here's what Asus says:

1). By creating a Guest network pro, a VLAN will be created as well in VLAN settings.

2). VLAN supported models:

• GT-AX11000 Pro, GT-AXE16000, GT-BE19000, RT-AX88U Pro, RT-AX86U PRO, RT-BE96U, RT-AX57 Go, RT-BE88U, RT-BE86U, GT-AX6000, GT-BE98, GT-BE98 Pro, GT-BE96
• ExpertWiFi : EBG19P, EBM68, EBR63, EBG15, EBA63

They also have this on their site:

Product RT-BE58U, RT-BE92U, TUF-BE3600, TUF-BE6500, ZenWiFi BD4 Outdoor, ZenWiFi BQ16, ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro, ZenWiFi BT10, ZenWiFi BT6, ZenWiFi BT8
[Wireless Router] What is Smart home master?

ASUS Smart Home Master is a revolutionary tool for seamless network segmentation, enhancing both security and flexibility. With the ability to create up to three SSIDs, it simplifies complex subnet configurations, making it effortless to customize your network for children's devices, VPN connections, or IoT protection.

So it would appear they've now renamed the old-style Guest Network system as "Smart Home Master" (or maybe it was always called that and I just didn't notice) and VLANs as "Guest Network Pro"; this would explain why my RT-BE58U AiMesh nodes don't show up on the VLAN page of my RT-AX88U Pro to allow me to set up the physical LAN ports as trunk/access ports as they don't have native Guest Network Pro support.

So here's my question: Can anyone clarify if this is due to limitations of the hardware being used in these various Smart Home Master-compatible models listed above or is it a business decision by Asus to reserve Guest Network Pro/VLANs to their "Pro" routers [Caveat: there's several models that support GNP/VLAN that aren't called 'Pro' in their names]? For example, the RT-BE92U is a newer-model router that's attractive as it has tri-band capability but doesn't show as having GNP/VLAN support, and the WiFi 7 models currently available that do support it are considerably more expensive and from what I've seen several of them don't support tri-band. It seems like an odd mix of what supports GNP/VLANs and what don't.

 

[degrub]

Once you have radios and a CPU, it's basically all software and marketing.

 

[Seth Harman]

Once you have radios and a CPU, it's basically all software and marketing.

Maybe, but is that the case here? I remember awhile ago there were certain Asus routers that had hardware AES-NI so if you were doing VPNs at that time it made sense to buy one of those specific models. Is this another one of those situations where it's a hardware limitation?

 

[bennor]

In simplistic terms, its just marketing in some respects. It might also be that the "smart home master" supported routers have a specific chipset that only supports 3 SSID's for what ever reason. Certain models (WiFi 7 ZenWiFi series and select other WiFi 7 models) will support Smart Home Master. While other WiFi 7 routers and select WiFi 6 routers will support Guest Network Pro. See the following link if you haven't already:

FAQ: Everything you need to know about multiple SSIDs, Smart Home Master, and Guest Network Pro

On a side note. You may want to retitle or clarify your thread to include Smart Home Master since you seem to be asking about Smart Home Master in addition to Guest Network Pro (of which there are several other existing discussions on Guest Network Pro and it's features).

PS: If this doesn't involve Asus-Merlin firmware it might be better to move this discussion to a more appropriate subforum.

 

[Seth Harman]

It might also be that the "smart home master" supported routers have a specific chipset that only supports 3 SSID's for what ever reason. Certain models (WiFi 7 ZenWiFi series and select other WiFi 7 models) will support Smart Home Master. While other WiFi 7 routers and select WiFi 6 routers will support Guest Network Pro.

Thanks but that's what I described in my original post and exactly what I'm trying to get clarity on, is it a hardware limitation or just product positioning by Asus.

PS: If this doesn't involve Asus-Merlin firmware it might be better to move this discussion to a more appropriate subforum.

It's not clear at this point if the capability has to do with the firmware or not. I believe you've participated in some of those previous threads where there's been a lot of confusion about the 3006 firmware and assumptions that the 3006 Merlin firmware support means VLAN support (which appears to be incorrect) so I think it's useful to ask the question here as any answers will be useful specifically to this crowd.

 

[bennor]

It's not clear at this point if the capability has to do with the firmware or not. I believe you've participated in some of those previous threads where there's been a lot of confusion about the 3006 firmware and assumptions that the 3006 Merlin firmware support means VLAN support (which appears to be incorrect) so I think it's useful to ask the question here as any answers will be useful specifically to this crowd.

There is much confusion on Guest Network Pro (and VLAN/SDN), in part due to it not working as people expected. As people use it they are finding certain things are not working. Its a major new feature that Asus hasn't seemed to fully documented publicly so people are feeling their way through it and finding that by and large it feels like Beta due to certain options not working and or working in ways one doesn't expect.

Where are you seeing; "3006 Merlin firmware support means VLAN support (which appears to be incorrect)"? Are you saying Asus-Merlin 3006.102.x firmware doesn't have, or doesn't support, VLAN?

Personally, after spending a lot of time with Guest Network Pro and seeing what works and what doesn't, I have it running fine in my simple/basic use case with two Guest Network Pro profiles with 12 or so WiFi clients attached to them.

 

[Seth Harman]

Where are you seeing; "3006 Merlin firmware support means VLAN support (which appears to be incorrect)"? Are you saying Asus-Merlin 3006.102.x firmware doesn't have, or doesn't support, VLAN?

That's not what I'm saying. It appears the assumption by a lot of people (including me, initially) was having 3006 firmware automatically meant the routers with it have GNP/VLAN capability and that turned out to not be the case. There doesn't seem to be any obvious rationale why a given router supports VLANs and others don't so I'm asking if anyone happens to know if there's a specific reason why one would have it and another would not. The word "Pro" doesn't seem to be deterministic, neither does having WiFi 7 nor 3006-series firmware, so there doesn't seem to be anything reliable at this point to help understand which have it and which don't other than some reference buried in Asus' website general FAQ, and Asus doesn't have the best history of reliably updating their websites.