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How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"
I have a guest in my house on the guest network who wants to have 2 of his devices talk to each other. When I go to the Guest Network page of the RBR50 GUI, "Allow guests to see each other and access...
Eureka, I have found it!
Grepping through the /www directory, I found the file WLG_wireless_guest1.htm. I changed the line
if(enable_ap_flag == 1 || fbwifi_enable == '1' || enable_extender_flag == '1') setDisabled(true, form.allow_access);to
if(/* enable_ap_flag == 1 || */ fbwifi_enable == '1' || enable_extender_flag == '1') setDisabled(true, form.allow_access);to comment out the check for AP mode and the check box is now enabled and seems to work.
Thanks for the reply. That article claims the entire guest network is disabled when the RBR50 is in AP mode. This is demonstrably false, as my Orbis provide a perfectly functional guest network which visitors use all the time without issue. Guests cannot see my main network, as intended. I have never had the need to turn on "allow guests to see each other" until now, and it doesn't work because it's disabled.
I didn't personally verify that the guest devices couldn't talk to each other, but my guest, who understands tech, did.
I looked on the debug page and didn't find anything that looked relevant. I can't seem to SSH into the main Orbi. I seem to recall I could do so at one time. I'm running V2.7.3.22 firmware.
I agree that the article is poorly written. My guess is that the intention is although the Guest WiFi radio is operating, there is no separate network for guests. i.e. guests are part of the general network.
I cannot put my primary Orbi into AP mode because it is connected directly to the cable modem (which is only a modem). I will set up a test Orbi this afternoon and perform some experiments. It would be helpful if you could conduct some tests as well. For example, do you have any device that can perform a 'network scan' over WiFi? My Android devices have app such as Fing, Net Analyzer, and Network Tools that will scan the local network.
You are also correct that firmware V2.7.3.22 removed the "Enable Telnet" option from the Orbi debug page. There is a Phython script that will enable telnet here: https://github.com/bkerler/netgear_telnet
Thanks for the telnet-enable script, CrimpOn ! It worked and I appear to have been able to change the setting via
nvram set wlg1_endis_allow_see_and_access=1
nvram set wla1_endis_allow_see_and_access=1
nvram commit
Unfortunately, my visitor has departed, but I'll know how to do this for next time.
One brief note: my guess is that these settings will disappear any time the Orbi router reboots. I have my Orbi on a UPS to prevent minor power hits from having it reboot, but we had a scheduled four hour power outage yesterday and my UPS gave out before it was over, and my Orbi rebooted. Had to run the Python script again. Reload my Attached Devices hack, etc.
I remain mystified by this situation because my experiment was a total sucess.
My primary Orbi RBR50 has 192.168.1.x for the LAN.
I connected another Orbi RBR50 to one of the ethernet ports, set up a Guest network on it, then changed from router to AP mode.
Then connected a PC to one of this Orbi's ports, a smartphone to its primary WiFi SSID, and a tablet to its Guest WiFi SSID.
Runing Network Analyzer I was able to see all devices, on all networks. i.e.
- Connected to the primary Orbi, I see all devices on the primary Orbi and also the devices on the AP Orbi.
- Connected to the AP Orbi primary WiFi, I see all devices.
- Connected to the AP Orbi Guest WiFi, I see all devices.
So, my impression is that your guest made an invalid conclusion (assumption?) and sent you on a wild goose chase. Before "the next time", you might conduct your own experiment. I would like to hear the results.
Running Fing (free edition) with both my iPad & iPhone on the guest network, each of those can see all the devices on the main network, but cannot communicate with any of them. They can't access their web servers or telnet to them or even ping them. And the 2 iDevices can't see each other at all.
So the label of the GUI setting to "allow guests to see each other and access my local network" is pedantically correct. It doesn't say anything about allowing or not allowing guest devices to see the existence of the non-guest devices.
With your devices on the guest network, can they do anything more than "see" devices on the main LAN?
Unfortunately, setting those 2 variables I mentioned earlier seems to only affect the GUI. "Allow guests to see each other and access my local network" is checked but the guest devices still cannot access the main LAN devices.
Now I'm trying to understand endis_wlg_guest_wireless_isolation and endis_wla_guest_wireless_isolation. Those are both 0 which would seem to indicate isolation is off, but maybe they're backwards. (What is "endis" anyway?) Grumble. I wish the GUI checkbox was simply enabled and worked.