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Benefits of running 2 Wi-Fi networks from the same router? What are the downsides? (I don't know if there is a better community for this question) (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I am worried that there is not really a benefit of doing that, just more noise and energy consumption.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (20 children)

Energy consumption is essentially the same, as it's using the same radios.

For what it's worth, I have several SSIDs, each on a separate VLAN:

my main one
Guest. Has internet access but is otherwise isolated - Guest devices can't communicate with other guest devices or with any other VLANs.
IoT Internet: IoT and home automation devices that need internet access. Things like Ecobee thermostat, Google speakers, etc
IoT No Internet: Home automation stuff that does not need internet access. Security cameras, Zigbee PoE dongle (SLZB-06), garage door opener, ESPHome devices, etc

(to remotely access home automation stuff, I use Home Assistant via a Tailscale VPN)

Most of these have both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz enabled, with band steering enabled to (hopefully) convince devices to use 5Ghz when possible.

This is on a TP-Link Omada setup with 2 x EAP670 ceiling-mounted access points. You can create up to 16 SSIDs I think.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (11 children)

Guest devices can't communicate with other guest devices

How do you accomplish this isolation since they're on the same subnet/broadcast domain? Is it a feature of the hardware you're using?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

For Unifi devices you setup a Virtual Network then assign the guests to that. https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000166827-UniFi-Hotspot-Portal-and-Guest-WiFi

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm not seeing anything there that says guests can't see other guests - quite the opposite.

guests connected to your Hotspot Portal will be isolated from all other networks except the one they are assigned to.

Guests on this network are able to access the internet, and communicate with the UniFi gateway to obtain a DHCP lease and resolve names using DNS

I suppose a switch could be configured to prevent traffic going to other ports, which is how I would assume this would have to be done. This functionality would have to exist in the access point, I guess?

Does UniFi have a feature to isolate devices from each other on the same subnet? Seems like it would require some kind of Layer 2 routing?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It does. I have it enabled and tested. "Client Device Isolation." It's enabled per SSID.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

Oh, neat. I'll have to look into it.

Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

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