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Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

RocketSquirrel
Luminary

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 my local network" is un-checked and disabled (gray).

 

My Orbi is in AP mode and the guest network it provides works fine except for this one glitch. Is there a way to enable this check box so guests can see each other? I only want to enable it temporarily.

Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 1 of 11

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RocketSquirrel
Luminary

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

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.

 

View solution in original post

Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 8 of 11

All Replies
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

You are correct that in router mode, there are options for what devices connecting to the guest WiFi are able to do.

When the Orbi is placed in Access Point (AP) mode, nearly all 'router features' are disabled:

https://kb.netgear.com/000061277/Which-features-are-disabled-on-my-Orbi-router-when-it-is-set-to-AP-... 

 

The way I interpret this, both the primary network and the guest wifi network are "all one network" as far as the upstream router is concerned.

My take is that devices on the Guest WiFi should be able to connect to the entire network, including other guests.

How are you attempting to verify that connection is (or is not) possible?

 

 

Message 2 of 11
RocketSquirrel
Luminary

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

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.

Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 3 of 11
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

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 

Message 4 of 11
RocketSquirrel
Luminary

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

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.

Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 5 of 11
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

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.

Message 6 of 11
RocketSquirrel
Luminary

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

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.

Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 7 of 11
RocketSquirrel
Luminary

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

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.

 

Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 8 of 11
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"


@RocketSquirrel wrote:

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.


Very strange. My primary network has one Epson printer which has a web interface and two Pi-hole DNS servers which also have web interfaces.  When I have the test Orbi in AP mode and connect a tablet to the Guest WiFi on this test Orbi, I can open the Epson printer web interface and the Pi-hole web interfaces.  I can also 'ping' devices on my primary network which respond to ping. And, I can ping the tablet from the primary network.

 

I connected a second device to the Guest network on this AP Orbi (phone).  It can ping the other device (tablet) on the Guest network. (Neither of these devices hosts a web server, so I cannot test that.)

 

I have no explanation for what would cause your RBR50 to behave differently than mine.

 

My contention remains that in router mode, the Orbi is able to manage the behavior of devices connected to the Guest WiFi network (there is no concept of Guest on the wired network), but in AP mode the Orbi is a "plain access point", just like any brand of access point.  It is totally unaware of any difference between devices connected to the primary network or the guest network.

 

(I also contend that "iThings" are the spawn of the devil and are inherently evil and not to be trusted.)

Message 9 of 11
RocketSquirrel
Luminary

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

@CrimpOn wrote:


It is totally unaware of any difference between devices connected to the primary network or the guest network.

Not totally. The RBR50 in AP mode can see which devices are on the guest network and show them on the Attached Devices page.

 

 

phoneguest.png.

Message 10 of 11
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: How to enable "Allow guests to see each other"

Good catch, thanks.  (I am well on my way to my allotment of five mistakes per day!)

 

I remain puzzled how devices connected to my test Orbi Guest WiFi are able to connect to web pages on the primary network and yours apparently cannot.  I'll have to conduct some more experiments.

Message 11 of 11
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