Home network: 2 LAN's on one network. Is it possible?

Hectic

Hectic

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Apologies for the not so great title, but I'm not that clued up with network terminology and are not to sure how to accurately explain what I want.
For that reason I'm using the word "branches" to refer more than "sub network" on my home network.
Feel free to help with the correct terminology.
:)

Why I want this:
I have someone staying in a flat. The man unfortunately lost his job.
He is a PS3 gamer and is wired to my network via an Ethernet cable.
I do not expect him to pay anything for the use of the internet, but are concerned about the amount of bandwidth used by him. I though usage would be limited by him only using a PS3, but he surprised me with the amount he can use.
It has come to my attention that his visitors at times use and abuse my internet so I locked all access to my network by mac address and it worked good.

The other side of it is that I regularly repair pc's or friends come over and we play LAN games so I have to add these new address to my white list.
I have now changed routers and it is not so convenient on the new router to add or remove new devices.

So that is the reason for 2 "branches" of the network

How I want it:

I want to have 2 separate branches on my home network.
The one branch must have a fix amount of of IP address and no additional devices must be able to connect. It will be locked to the mac addresses. I can do this with my router.

Then I would like to have a 2nd branch. On this branch devices can connect and the dhcp server will assign ip addresses.

I would like to exclude some or all users of the 1st branch to join the 2nd branch

All devices will have access to the Internet.
One of the pc's act as a "media server", using PS3 media software. All devices on the network must be able to see and access the "media server" pc.

I hope that make any sort of sense for anyone else.
:D
 
I've had to re-read this a few times to try work out exactly what you plan to do,my solution seems to accomodate your request as far as I can decipher it

Your router you'll leave with whitelisting only,his PS3 on the exception list. Then you can install 1 Wireless Router with the WAN port wired into your router which is whitelisted,it can then assign DHCP and provide internet to your guests without needing them to be added to exceptions on your primary

I don't understand how this media server is connected though
 
Does your new Router not have a "Guest" or "Hotspot" option?

That should resolve this problem for you.
 
PsyWulf said:
I've had to re-read this a few times to try work out exactly what you plan to do,my solution seems to accomodate your request as far as I can decipher it

Your router you'll leave with whitelisting only,his PS3 on the exception list. Then you can install 1 Wireless Router with the WAN port wired into your router which is whitelisted,it can then assign DHCP and provide internet to your guests without needing them to be added to exceptions on your primary

I don't understand how this media server is connected though
Click to expand...

Yea man, I was afraid that is not going to make sense.
:(

Thx for your suggestion.
I will look into it a bit later.
 
RoMark said:
Yea man, I was afraid that is not going to make sense.
:(

Thx for your suggestion.
I will look into it a bit later.
Click to expand...

Might be a way to do this with two routers. Then you can have them as two separate managed networks, clients connecting to one router can have a different set of rules to clients connecting to another router.

You can enforce your policies in a physical way. Have one gate way but separate DHCP servers.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Does your new Router not have a "Guest" or "Hotspot" option?

That should resolve this problem for you.
Click to expand...

On is it possible, yes. You can have multiple Layer 3 (IP subnets) sharing the same Layer 2 (MAC addressing) network area. This is the beauty of the TCP/IP layered protocol model:)

The easiest solid way is to use a hotspot type system where you can control users by volume and bandwidth, but then you need a router or device that can do this.

But in your situation there is probably a simpler way to get around this:

Set up 2 x LAN networks, but allow them to use the same network ports and wireless.
Configure QoS on your device to prioritise the one subnet range over the other
Set DHCP for the "guest" network only, thus anyone who connects will be given an IP on the managed range only
Manually configure your devices to use the other IP range.

If your router can't do the QoS or shaping on one of the LAN IP ranges, you can also use another device to act as a proxy to perform the same function. An easy method would be to get a DD-WRT compatible Wireless access point/router or use an old PC to install PF-Sense and do the same thing.

Let me know if you would like more detail on this.
 
@nerfherder
Thx. Is your solution basically the same as what PsyWulf suggested?

@Bern
Yes the router can do QoS.
I have never done it before, but I did sit down over the weekend and had a go at it.
I think it is doing what I want atm. I'm sure it is not fine tuned and that a networking expert would say "WTF?", but it is okay for now.

SauRonZA did sugest the "guest or hotspot' option.
I did have a quick look, but could not find it as menu options.
It could be disguised there as something else. I will check a bit later when I have more time.

I don't have a DD-WRT compatible device or at least I don't think I have.
I have contacted Uniterm to advise me if I can flash the router with 3rd party software.
I was advised to try Gargoyle to help me with my QoS setup.

Although I have additional pc's on the LAN, I can't dedicate 1 pc for PFsense atm. It is something I might look into the future.

I might contact you if I can't get the setup going.
Thank you.
:)
 
The hospot feature is not that common unfortunately, so if you didn't see it it is probably not there. QoS on most of those routers is fairly easy, you should have a drop menu of protocols/services you can pick from and then assign them a priority (expedited, high, standard, low, scavenger or something in that line). Most of them should also allow you to QoS an IP or IP range - this will let you do the your subnet vs guest subnet prioritisation.

A note, many of them have intelligence built in to identify torrents, I always suggest setting QoS for this to make sure no one can kill your link accidentally by leaving their torrent client on.

Let us know what you end up doing and how well it works for you!
 
Hi There,
Bern's solution is I think your neatest and cleanest and probably the easiest to implement. You indicate that you have gone some way with that over the weekend so it sounds like you are on to a winning solution. You can in many instances put a limit as to how much they can upload as well as assigning the priority. It allows you if you want to to say "you can have 1GB of internet access a month and no more".
I trust that he will devote time to finding employment as opposed to gaming.

Regards

Tim
ps do let us know how he accepts his internet service now.
 
Tim the Techxpert said:
Hi There,
Bern's solution is I think your neatest and cleanest and probably the easiest to implement. You indicate that you have gone some way with that over the weekend so it sounds like you are on to a winning solution. You can in many instances put a limit as to how much they can upload as well as assigning the priority. It allows you if you want to to say "you can have 1GB of internet access a month and no more".
I trust that he will devote time to finding employment as opposed to gaming.

Regards

Tim
ps do let us know how he accepts his internet service now.
Click to expand...

He uses an average of 4Gb a day, but that can easily go up to about 13GB. He tends to stay awake long hours and watch Youtube movies and clips, along with the gaming.
 
Is someone prepared to walk me through this step by step?
It can be done via email, PM or in this thread or even Team Viewer.
I tried to add a 2nd router and I failed.
I used an Ethernet cable and plugged it the WAN port/ LAN port 4 of my current router and plugged the other end into my 2nd router.
That did not give me the correct result. It was just added to the rest of my LAN.

The 2nd router is suppose to give me the 2nd subnet, if that is the correct term. I tried to give the 2nd router an IP of 192.168.2.1, but I don't think it worked.

My main router is on 192.168.1.1 / 255.255.255.0

I've done tons of reading, but I can't seem to get this going.
I see the guys are talking about VLAN and I have a VLAN menu setting. Not sure if that helps.

If somebody is prepared to help, I won't be able to disconnect from the Internet before 14:00 tomorrow as we have some data capturing to do online.
 
Last edited:
RoMark said:
Is someone prepared to walk me through this step by step?
It can be done via email, PM or in this thread or even Team Viewer.
I tried to add a 2nd router and I failed.
I used an Ethernet cable and plugged it the WAN port/ LAN port 4 of my current router and plugged the other end into my 2nd router.
That did not give me the correct result. It was just added to the rest of my LAN.

The 2nd router is suppose to give me the 2nd subnet, if that is the correct term. I tried to give the 2nd router an IP of 192.168.2.1, but I don't think it worked.

My main router is on 192.168.1.1 / 255.255.255.0

I've done tons of reading, but I can't seem to get this going.
I see the guys are talking about VLAN and I have a VLAN menu setting. Not sure if that helps.

If somebody is prepared to help, I won't be able to disconnect from the Internet before 14:00 tomorrow as we have some data capturing to do online.
Click to expand...

Are you using two physical routers?

PM me your email address.
 
Routers , Switches , AP's ( each has it's place ! )

I am always so suprised by so many posts here from people that purchase "consumer" level equipment and then expect it to work miracles ?????

Two routers instead of a managed switch .........
 
b@nD said:
I am always so suprised by so many posts here from people that purchase "consumer" level equipment and then expect it to work miracles ?????

Two routers instead of a managed switch .........
Click to expand...

You can do a lot with consumer level gear. I had a cheapie Mecer router that could so some insane stuff. I;m sad it died as all the new ones I have bought can't do half of what it did.
 
You can do lots with consumer gear.

If you are still battling you can PM me
 
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