Orbi Guest Wifi Settings

[TechToyTV]

Anyone know why the option to allow guests access to network is greyed out? I would rather not have guest being able to access my local network (see photo below)

[peteytesting]

hi

is the orbi in router mode or AP mode

as here in router mode the allow guests access to network is selectable , i havnt tried it in ap mode but i dont think guest wifi is selectable in ap mode ether

[TechToyTV]

It's in AP mode since I have FIOS

[peteytesting]

hi

as far as i was led to believe guest wifi shouldnt work at all in ap mode as its the upstream device that would control this , the orbi in ap mode doesnt do vlan or anything else

[TechToyTV]

It does work in AP mode (as seen below)

[peteytesting]

ok , so in ap mode the guest wifi works but its the router that would take care of the isolation eg vlan and in ap mode its not possible to control this on the orbi

[TechToyTV]

That's strange because the Netgear Nighthawk x6 I had been using previously let me control all of that. The FIOS router does not handle any of the wifi

[TechToyTV]

I'm still confused by this asnwer. What would I change on my FIOS router? The Orbi is handling all of the wireless connections

[DarrenM]

Hello TechtoyTV

I replicated the issue you are seeing  and passed this on to the engineers.

DarrenM

[peteytesting]

---

@DarrenM wrote:

Hello TechtoyTV

I replicated the issue you are seeing  and passed this on to the engineers.

DarrenM

---

hi darren

i think you may gfind because of how the orbi works its not possible to vlan off the guest wifi across router and sat when in ap mode

pete

[Flash008]

I am giving Orbi a try again after a few firmware releases and guest mode introduced. Funny, I was excited to see Orbi had guest mode, then I find no method of using it PROPERLY in AP mode. How hard is it to add a simple "advanced feature" called "VLAN".

I do not want to use the Orbi in router mode with DHCP. As I have my own firewall which handles DHCP assignment. But with both guest and non-guest WIFI networks having access to the same local network in AP mode REALLY defeats the purpose of a guest network. So what was your point Netgear?

Netgear only has 2 options:

1. Enable an internal DHCP server that can assign ONLY the guest network bridge, while allowing non-DHCP mode for the non-guest network bridge (Yes, this means you will need your internal DHCP server to be enabled/disabled per wireless network bridge). This allows the continued use of the customer's personal router/firewall. And in some cases this is required for FIOS and other ISPs which must assign the IP to a device for authorization.

2. Enable the abilty to assign 801.11q vLAN tagging to both guest and non-guest WIFI networks. This will allow our personal router/firewall to separate networks and create isolation. I PREFER THIS OPTION AND I AM SURE OTHERS WOULD AGREE.

Please Netgear, YOU HAVE THE BEST WIFI "ALMOST MESH" SETUP ON THE MARKET. You can easily add these basic abilities and secure the TOP SPOT. Other Wireless products already do this, and have for years now...ASUS. DLINK, LINKSYS....

[rhester72]

One thing I didn't pay attention to when I tried it in AP mode once - when you enable guest as AP, are DHCP client requests passed through to the upstream server on the same subnet as the regular WiFi network (i.e. are guests and normally-authenticated clients on the same subnet)?

Rodney

[Flash008]

Yes,

Devices are treated the same using AP mode. Both guest and non-guest devices land on the same subnet giving guest devices full access to your non guest devices with no way to isolate and/or separate.

Hence my comment to Netgear...what was their point. This is not a guest network if guests have access to the non guest devices.

[BeachBum65]

Agreed Flash. While pleased to see the Guest option, I also found that I could not "uncheck" the option that allows guest access to the rest of my network. Hopefully this is rectified soon - surely it is not a big deal to fix this. I never had a problem doing this with other routers.

[BeachBum65]

I should add that I tested while on guest network and verified that I could get to other parts of my network, media server, etc.

[spaceman-spiff]

Hi DarrenM,

I am having the same issue--no way to uncheck "Allow guests to see each other and access my local network" which kind of defeats the whole purpose. Any update from the engineers?

Also +1 for allowing 802.11q VLAN tagging...