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Forum Discussion
Wifi 6 router general question about SSID count
Hello,
I have many smart home devices that run on only the 2.4ghz band. I also know it is prudent to keep smart home devices off the same network as your home office. I am looking for a device that can support 4 different SSID (6 would be even better for guests) as listed below. I am struggling to find a device that netgear makes that would support this, the only wifi 6 router that I have found so far that can do this is the Amplifi Alien. I would prefer netgear however for their netgear armor... reccomendations?
Ideal SSID layout:
2.4ghz hidden ssid for smart home devices
5ghz hidden ssid for gaming and casting
2.4/5ghz unified ssid for general use
*2.4/5ghz unified ssid for guest use* (not required)
5 Replies
russellstark wrote:
I also know it is prudent to keep smart home devices off the same network as your home office.
Really? Might be an urban myth.
You might like to start with asking how to maintain a secure home office rather than starting with your idea on how to achieve it.
For example, Netgear flogs subscriptions to Armor for people worried about security.
What features does NETGEAR Armor offer? | Answer | NETGEAR Support
NETGEAR Armor | Product | Support | NETGEAR
Which products support NETGEAR Armor? | Answer | NETGEAR Support
I suspect that you can't find anything because the specification doesn't make sense.
- -The question is if netgear makes a device with these specifications, like the amplifi alien. My network is secured on my wifi, but the problem lies in that many smart home devices have alternate ways of hacking besides wifi (bluetooth, ability to become a temporary access point) If access is gained to the smart device there is a small chance the device could be used to access other network resources.
-The reason for wanting to split the smart home devices is based on the reccomendation of the FBI in this article
https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/portland/news/press-releases/tech-tuesday-internet-of-things-iot
I am just asking as brands make devices with this ability and would like to know if netgear makes a device with this ability.
russellstark wrote:
-The question is if netgear makes a device with these specifications, like the amplifi alien. My network is secured on my wifi, but the problem lies in that many smart home devices have alternate ways of hacking besides wifi (bluetooth, ability to become a temporary access point) If access is gained to the smart device there is a small chance the device could be used to access other network resources.
-The reason for wanting to split the smart home devices is based on the reccomendation of the FBI in this article
https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/portland/news/press-releases/tech-tuesday-internet-of-things-iot
I am just asking as brands make devices with this ability and would like to know if netgear makes a device with this ability.So separate SSID won't necessarily do the trick, you would need to segment each SSID as a separate VLAN.
You're looking at enterprise-class routing if you want an all-in-one device to handle that.
One way to accomplish this is get a separate router for each device with it's own subnet, and configure your firewalls to not pass traffic between them.
That would be rediculously expensive and wasteful though.
There IS a way to accomplish this really cheap. Turn on Guest WiFi, and connect all the devices to the Guest WiFi SSID.
Then DISABLE the option to Allow guests to see each other and access my local network.
That would completely Isolate each device. You won't be able to access the devices on your local LAN, however...
AND..if you enable the ability to communicate with devices on the local LAN, then that would invalidate the bullet from the FBI article you posted.....
In principal that recommendation is good...but it may not be practical for a lot of IoT devices..
Hope this gives you some options and helps...
OP, don't waste your money on the Amplifi Alien router - its utter rubbish for the money. My Netgear RAX200 provides far superior wifi 5 and wifi 6 coverage/range versus the Alien, having tried both. Get the tri-band Netgear RAX200, it can easily copy with 50+ wifi clients from my own experience.
