Wifi VLAN tagging through wifi extenders

[rolfi]

This is my currently planned setup:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/11t7j1u

Where I have a switch that manages the VLANs, and after that, my main ASUS wifi router (RT-AC5300) and two ASUS ZenWiFi AX (XT8) wifi extenders. Now, I want to differentiate by SSID which VLAN the devices should reside in. For example, the guest wifi devices should go into another VLAN than the main wifi SSID, or an additional SSID which should go into another VLAN.

This means, I need to replace my main ASUS router, because it cannot associate SSIDs with VLANs. The model I checked out is the ASUS GT-AX6000 (which understands VLANs (https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1049415/)).

I recently learned, that even though the XT8 do not support VLANs (the XT12 do), I can still use them since they are AiMesh wifi extenders, that forward the packets to the router for tagging.

All of that said, my question is:
Should I get the GT-AX11000 Pro or the GT-AX6000 as my new main wifi router?

Thanks!

 

[Piotrek]

None of them.

 

[drinkingbird]

This is my currently planned setup:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/11t7j1u

Where I have a switch that manages the VLANs, and after that, my main ASUS wifi router (RT-AC5300) and two ASUS ZenWiFi AX (XT8) wifi extenders. Now, I want to differentiate by SSID which VLAN the devices should reside in. For example, the guest wifi devices should go into another VLAN than the main wifi SSID, or an additional SSID which should go into another VLAN.

This means, I need to replace my main ASUS router, because it cannot associate SSIDs with VLANs. The model I checked out is the ASUS GT-AX6000 (which understands VLANs (https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1049415/)).

I recently learned, that even though the XT8 do not support VLANs (the XT12 do), I can still use them since they are AiMesh wifi extenders, that forward the packets to the router for tagging.

All of that said, my question is:
Should I get the GT-AX11000 Pro or the GT-AX6000 as my new main wifi router?

Thanks!

I believe VLAN tagging is only in the beta firmware for the new pro routers so far. Even then, it would technically only work if you used your extenders in extender (not AP) mode and joined them to the guest network.

If you set up AiMesh, Guest Wireless 1 will create VLANs and propagate them out to the nodes. You then just define those VLANs (501 and 502, possibly 503 on some models) in your switch.

If you run Merlin you can run a script to set up your own VLAN tagging but it requires some knowledge/experience with scripting.

If you truly want VLAN aware stuff, you need to look at semi-pro stuff like Ubiquiti, Mikrotik, TP Link pro stuff, etc.

 

[coxhaus]

Cisco small business APs like the CWB150AX support multiple VLANs and SSIDs. I use them with VLANs.

 

[rolfi]

Thanks everyone for your responses! Very much appreciated!

I believe VLAN tagging is only in the beta firmware for the new pro routers so far. Even then, it would technically only work if you used your extenders in extender (not AP) mode and joined them to the guest network.

If you set up AiMesh, Guest Wireless 1 will create VLANs and propagate them out to the nodes. You then just define those VLANs (501 and 502, possibly 503 on some models) in your switch.

If you run Merlin you can run a script to set up your own VLAN tagging but it requires some knowledge/experience with scripting.

If you truly want VLAN aware stuff, you need to look at semi-pro stuff like Ubiquiti, Mikrotik, TP Link pro stuff, etc.

That's really interesting! If you could choose brands / models for my setup, what would you choose?
It seems I need to replace the main wifi router anyway. So I can go ahead and replace the XT8's as well.
Any recommendations?

Cisco small business APs like the CWB150AX support multiple VLANs and SSIDs. I use them with VLANs.

Interesting! Do you use them with an Asus wifi router as repeaters? I wonder how that works together...

 

[drinkingbird]

Any recommendations?

Literally made recommendations in my reply.....

 

[rolfi]

Literally made recommendations in my reply.....

Ahhh, sorry! Didn't realize I can take any Mikrotik and/or TP Link Pro model! Thought some of them wouldn't support the VLAN tagging or just would work less well together.

 

[Piotrek]

It seems I need to replace the main wifi router anyway. So I can go ahead and replace the XT8's as well.

You don't need any ASUS/WiFi routers.
Only AP devices with VLAN support.
E.g.: Tp-Link Omada EAP, Ubiquiti UniFi AP, Cisco, Zyxel, Mikrotik etc.

 

[rolfi]

Awesome, thanks folks! I went with the Tp-Link Omada

 

[musubi]

This is my currently planned setup:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/11t7j1u

Where I have a switch that manages the VLANs, and after that, my main ASUS wifi router (RT-AC5300) and two ASUS ZenWiFi AX (XT8) wifi extenders. Now, I want to differentiate by SSID which VLAN the devices should reside in. For example, the guest wifi devices should go into another VLAN than the main wifi SSID, or an additional SSID which should go into another VLAN.

This means, I need to replace my main ASUS router, because it cannot associate SSIDs with VLANs. The model I checked out is the ASUS GT-AX6000 (which understands VLANs (https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1049415/)).

I recently learned, that even though the XT8 do not support VLANs (the XT12 do), I can still use them since they are AiMesh wifi extenders, that forward the packets to the router for tagging.

All of that said, my question is:
Should I get the GT-AX11000 Pro or the GT-AX6000 as my new main wifi router?

Thanks!

I just picked up a pair of XT8s and meshed them. I needed to load the beta load and have successfully mapped the VLAN profiles to associated SSIDs and northbound trunking it into my firewall using AP and not routing mode. It is a little tricky, but does work. It seems stable too. I look forward to when this load is formally baked into a generally deployed firmware.