Hi,

I have a 2820vn with the latest firmware 3.3.7_232201 dated Oct 27 2011.

On my LAN I have an SBS 2003 server connected with a single NIC, this server is connected to a 8 port hub which in turn is connected to the gigabit LAN port (Port 1) on the 2820vn router.

Everything works fine but I want to create a Guest Wi-fi SSID that visitors can connect to with a password I supply them, alleviating the need for me to give out the password for my own Wi-fi SSID. I don't want the visitors to have access to any of the PC's or Server on the LAN, I only want them to have internet access.

The problem is that SBS 2003 has to be the DHCP server in this configuration and therefore DHCP on the router needs to be switched-off. If DHCP is switched on in the router, the DHCP service on the server falls over - presumably because both services are trying to send the same gateway address.

The IP address of the SBS server is 192.168.16.2 and the router gateway to the internet is 192.168.16.1

I have setup two SSID's on the 2820vn one GUEST and one PRODUCTION both with WPA security but with different keys. The GUEST SSID is enabled.

However it would appear that if I tick the ISOLATE MEMBER (Which apparently prevents wireless clients connected to the same SSID from accessing eachother) option on the GUEST SSID - this does not prevent clients from accessing the SBS server or indeed any other PC's on my 192.168.16.xxx LAN.

I read that I should use VLAN's and it is possible to put PORT1 (the port the hub and server are connected to) on VLAN0 and tick the box for SSID1, then put the remaining ports (2,3,4) and SSID2 on VLAN1 - which should provide segregation.

However, if I do this. Wireless Clients who connect to SSID can no longer see the SBS server (whose DHCP service is running) and therefore no address is supplied to the client PC and it cannot connect to the network. I do not see an option within the 2820vn LAN -> DHCP setup to assign the DHCP service to a VLAN so I am stumped as to how to get this working!

Has anyone managed this? - If so I would be grateful of any advice or better still step by step instructions to get this working. I can't believe such a feature rich sub £200.00 router can't do this when many cheaper alternatives seem to provide this as standard.

Can't believe I am the only one with this issue - PLEASE HELP!!

Regards,

Alan.

While you can do this with the 2830, you can't with the 2820 as you need two subnets, each with their own DHCP server. This also applies to the 'cheaper' routers you refer to.

To make this work with the 2820 you will need a separate wireless access point (WAP) or router, which you Ethernet-connect to a LAN port of the 2820 separated into its own VLAN on the 2820 (isolating the VLAN to internet access only). You make this other device its own DHCP server.

If you use a WAP, it can use the same subnet as the 2820 (but it is sensible then to allocate non-overlapping DHCP scopes to each). If you use a router it needs an RJ45 WAN port, you give it a separate LAN subnet, and specify a fixed IP address for the WAN side from the 2820's subnet (but outside of the 2820's DHCP scope).

The WAP/router's DNS server can be either the (fixed) IP address of the 2820, or your ISP's DNS servers or OpenDNS, for instance.

I have just installed a 2830n in an SBS environment and would like to do exactly this. You suggest that it should be possible with this model but I can't see how to configure it without an additional WAP.

Ideally, I'd like the 4 LAN ports and SSID1 to see each other and a separate SSID2 - with it's own DHCP server - to only have outbound access to the internet.

Current firmware is 3.3.6.1_232201

Any suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks

You need to setup 2 SSID's and assign them to Vlan's, Vlan 0 for main traffic with no DHCP,Vlan 1 with DHCP for the guest Network, takes a bit of configuring and you'll probably have to factory reset the unit a few times but it does work, make sure you back it up once done as i had a user hard reset one once setup and i was not amused

In regards to vagabond's post (ie, configuring a 2830 router):

You can select which subnet the VLAN belongs to from the appropriate drop down menu on the VLAN configuration page. In this case you would select VLAN 1 to be a part of LAN2. VLAN1 would only contain SSID 2.

You would then configure the DHCP/Subnet options from the LAN2 Details page found under the LAN General Setup section on the 2830.



In regards to denspad's pos (ie, configuring a 2820 router):

The only way to get a 2820 to work is by adding a completely separate DHCP server to the second VLAN and having DHCP turned off on the router. This second DHCP server can be anything, another SBS or a WAP with DHCP, a layer 3 switch, router, etc... the simple fact of the matter for the 2820 is that either ALL VLAN's use the same DHCP service on the router, or you have separate local DHCP devices running on each VLAN.

Hope that clears things up

Thanks to both of you. I'll give this a try next time I'm at customer's premises.