tl;dr: Any recommendations for a noob looking for a home network with wireless backhaul and multiple vlans?
I’m considering replacing my current Google WiFi system with something a bit more complex. My Google WiFi system has been mostly great - I never have to reboot them, or worry about connectivity, setup is easy, and managing basic stuff (mostly port forwarding and dhcp reservations) is straightforward. However, my primary gripe with Google WiFi is the lack of multiple vlans. There is a “guest” network, but devices on that network can’t talk to each other, and I want a network for IOT devices.
Multiple VLANs
My goal with a new system is to have one vlan for all of my trusted devices, another vlan for IOT devices that need to talk to each other, but have lower trust, and ideally a third vlan for lowest trust devices that only need internet. My home is mostly run off of Home Assistant, and I try to buy local-only devices where reasonable, but sometimes for cost or availability, WiFi devices end up being the best (or only) option.
I will also need to be able to allow limited cross-talk between the VLANs, so my Home Assistant device can locally communicate with phones, and computers on the trusted network, and IOT devices on the limited trust network
Bonus question: Should I put home assistant on the limited trust VLAN and allow local access between trusted network devices, or should I put home assistant on the trusted VLAN and allow access between it and IOT devices on the limited trust VLAN?
Wireless backhaul
The house isn’t huge (about 2200 sqft), but I want to cover the back yard, and upstairs, garage, etc so I need more than one AP for good coverage. There is no attic in part of the house, and it’s 2 story on a slab, and I don’t have need for blazing fast or low latency connection everywhere, so running ethernet everywhere isn’t cost-effective or time-effective.
I’ve been there. I ended up buying an ASUS-RTAX53U, flashed it with OpenWRT, since it supports VLANs. You have full control over your device. For switches I’m using zyxel 8 port managed ones. Having 4 ssids, Im satisfied, and can be done pretty cheap. If you want to get started check OneMarcFifty’s tutorials.
Ah I played with DD-WRT probably 15 years ago. I haven’t thought about that. Have you found it to be stable on the RTAX53U? I really want something I can set up once and forget about.
Unifi APs can do wireless backhaul and the system has good VLAN support. I would assume Omada is the same but I don’t know it well enough. I’d suggest a central U6-LR, wired if you can, and one or two of the UAP-AC-Mesh (which despite the name has no special meshing features) for infill.
If you have the original Google WiFi pucks, I have recently flashed them with OpenWrt and it has been great.
Took a bit of time to fully set them up properly, got locked out and had to reset them multiple times. But am super happy with what I have now. Running multiple VLANs, a real firewall and the WiFi seems much better.