WAX220 - Configuring guest networks with multiple APs
I have three WAX220s providing WiFi coverage for my house. I have an isolated (Guest) SSID called (let's say) WapDevices which I use for things like Amazon Echo and FireTV which I don't want to have in the same subnet as my personal devices.
The manual does not as fora as I can see address how to set up multiple WAX220s with the same named guest network. As with my non-guest WiFi network I have assigned this network the same name on all devices to enable roaming between access points.
On the non-guest network the DHCP function is performed by the router. However with the guest network there are fields for setting up the DHCP function on all three WAX220s. How do I set these up?
1. Should the "IP address" field be the host address and be different for all three WAX220s, such as 192.168.200.1, 192.168.200.2 and 192.168.200.3? This makes sense to me but may not be correct. The manual says this is "The IP address for the guest network", rather than the IP address for the access point within the subnet, and it is pre-filled with 192.168.200.1 but if it is the network address I would have expected it instead to be 192.168.200.0, maybe with a "/8" at the end of it.
2. Is the routing of internet traffic and DNS requests handled by the WAX220? There is no way to specify what the addresses are for the gateway and DNS server for the devices connected to the guest network, so I assume this is the case, but again this may not be correct.
3. How does the DHCP service work? Do I need to assign different pools to the three access points, in which case the clients will pick up a new IP address whenever they switch to a new access point as they move around the house, but that will not be very robust.
Alternatively if I assign all three access points the same pool, I assume they won't communicate with each other so clients could be assigned the same IP address by whichever of the three DHCP servers they connect to.
There is no way of turning off the DHCP server function that I can see - if there were it would be possible to only have one of the access points providing the DHCP service and that would sort out the problem.
Maybe it is simply the case that Netgear have not designed this function to work with multiple WAX220s, but that seems rather amateurish if so! I am hoping that it is simply my lack of understanding.
Re: WAX220 - Configuring guest networks with multiple APs
The WAX220 is intended to run as a standalone wireless access point. Essentials WiFi 6 AX4200 Dual Band Multi-Gig Access Point Model WAX220 - as the product name says.
As such, the Guest network does exist as an isolated IP subnet and network within the single individual WAX220 only. All Guest network traffic is NATed many2one to the WAX220 LAN IP address. The Guest network is in no aspect intended to span multiple WAX220.
In brief, this is part of the definition of an Essential Wireless Access Point for a Home Office or a Small Office - as set-up in the . The DHCP assigned addresses for the Guest SSID do never leave the WAX220 or reach the WAX220 LAN direct.
Correct is, you can configure multiple WAX220 into a single network, supporting multiple VLANs. None of the Example Use Cases does show a multi-WAX220 environment for reasons.
The same applies also to the similar WAX214, WAX214v2, WAX218, ...
While multiple WAX220 can be configured into the same network, the security options are limited to WPA2-PSK on a multi-AP deployment. In absence of Netgear Insight, WAP3-SAE can't be deployed spanning multiple access points to allow seamless roaming, too.
1. Should the "IP address" field be the host address and be different for all three WAX220s, such as 192.168.200.1, 192.168.200.2 and 192.168.200.3? This makes sense to me but may not be correct.
No idea why you think this would not be correct. Each access point requires a unique IP address, ideally in the same local subnet for management purposes.
Or are you talking about the WAX220 Guest Network subnetworks which never span outside of the individual WAX220 I've already explained before?
3. How does the DHCP service work? Do I need to assign different pools to the three access points, in which case the clients will pick up a new IP address whenever they switch to a new access point as they move around the house, but that will not be very robust.
The only routing a WAX220 can do is a many2one NAT for each local IP subnet hiding on the WAX220 LAN IP address.
3. How does the DHCP service work? Do I need to assign different pools to the three access points, in which case the clients will pick up a new IP address whenever they switch to a new access point as they move around the house, but that will not be very robust.
Each DHCP IP pools of your Guest Network is handled local on each individual WAX220 only.
It does never leave each if the WAX220 Guest Networks.
Re: WAX220 - Configuring guest networks with multiple APs
I think my post makes it pretty clear that I am talking about the guest network settings! The field is simply called "IP address" but, as I say, the manual does not make it clear what IP address should be put in here - the address that the device has, or the address of the network. These are different things so the name of the field should be more explicit. In my view it should either say "Device IP address" or "Network IP address". The former is obviously correct from what you say.
Whatever you say, it is quite likely that in many installations there will be multiple WAX220s installed. Many houses or buildings need more than one access point, and indeed you address this in your other post by saying that multiple WAX220 can be configured into the same network (using WPA2-PSK but not WPA3 which I had already discovered for myself. The manual does not say this!).
As a result I don't see why you are surprised that I am asking questions about how to configure the guest networks in this situation. The manual does not address this at all, but it seems to me that if you set up a guest network with the same SSID on multiple WAX220s there is a probability that a device will roam between them as the user moves around the building so you need to know what to do about that.
In this situation there may presumably be IP address conflicts as two devices may both have valid IP addresses for the network they are on (if the guest network settings are the same on each WAX220) and will not know they need to re-acquire a lease from the AP they have roamed to.
Probably the simplest way of fixing this is may be to give the guest network a different name on each of the WAX220s, but it is rather clumsy as if someone staying in the house wants to connect to the guest network they will have to set up multiple connections for their client device to each of these networks, and it will have to roam between the SSIDs as they move around the building. Not very convenient.
An alternative may be to have the same SSID but set up totally different IP settings for each guest network, and maybe this will prompt the client to acquire a new lease (I don't know whether or not this would happen) but again the manual gives no clue about what to do here.
Furthermore what happens when two WAP220s have overlapping reception areas - will the client device successfully hunt backwards and forwards between them or not?
Possibly the way to do it could be to set each WAX220 with a different IP address, and have different DHCP pools for each one - but that will probably not work because if a client device roams to a different AP they will have a non-conflicting IP address, but be trying to get to the internet through an incorrect gateway IP address, so they will seemingly be connected to the WiFi network but be unable to access the internet. So that probably won't work unless they acquire a new lease, in which case it doesn't matter what you set the pool to anyway.
The manual basically does not address any of these issues with how to configure the guest networks where there are mutiple WAX220s and each approach I have come up with has apparent fundamental issues - that is why I am trying to work out what to do for the best.
Whatever you say, it is quite likely that in many installations there will be multiple WAX220s installed. Many houses or buildings need more than one access point, and indeed you address this in your other post by saying that multiple WAX220 can be configured into the same network (using WPA2-PSK but not WPA3 which I had already discovered for myself. The manual does not say this!).
Whatever I say, this is all based on my own experience with my own WAX220, WAX214v2, and WAX214 I acquired to learn about the limitations, of what is feasible. At no point, I was involved in Beta testing.
As a result I don't see why you are surprised that I am asking questions about how to configure the guest networks in this situation. The manual does not address this at all, but it seems to me that if you set up a guest network with the same SSID on multiple WAX220s there is a probability that a device will roam between them as the user moves around the building so you need to know what to do about that.
As I said before: I'm not surprised - just in the lucky situation to understand the limitations of these
In this situation there may presumably be IP address conflicts as two devices may both have valid IP addresses for the network they are on (if the guest network settings are the same on each WAX220) and will not know they need to re-acquire a lease from the AP they have roamed to.
Talking of the guest network, you never have this situation - because each of the guest network is independent, and it does never leave the AP.
Furthermore what happens when two WAP220s have overlapping reception areas - will the client device successfully hunt backwards and forwards between them or not?
The wireless client will deal with this situation.
Possibly the way to do it could be to set each WAX220 with a different IP address, and have different DHCP pools for each one - but that will probably not work because if a client device roams to a different AP they will have a non-conflicting IP address, but be trying to get to the internet through an incorrect gateway IP address, so they will seemingly be connected to the WiFi network but be unable to access the internet. So that probably won't work unless they acquire a new lease, in which case it doesn't matter what you set the pool to anyway.
The DHCP address in place will be no longer valid, the DHCP server won't hand out the same address again, the DHCP process will start from scratch again. Just like operating multiple wireless routers ....
Look, if there would be a simple workaround or configuration, I would have told you so. If you still insist of operating the Guest network and hope this will be one network t some point, I can't help. The wrong product in the wrong configuration. Instead of operating the WAX2xx local Guest network, I strongly suggest to configure a dedicated network, a dedicated VLAN, with a dedicated IP subnet.
