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WNDR4500v2: Wireless isolation doesn't work on guest network
Hi, I have used this Router now for about 9 months and have been very happy with its performance. We have a home business and students regularly visit our home. We have recently had requests fo...
Confirmed the WNDR3700v2 firmware (even when loaded in a WNDR3800) allows for a Guest Network, that does not see the local network. Allow Local Access (unchecked), Wireless Isolation (unchecked). Guests can print to a printer on the Guest Network.
Did you guys try pinging devices?
The settings are correct.
The only way to isolate the devices on the Guest Network is to enable "Wireless Isolation".
If a device is connected to the Guest Network and Wireless Isolation is enabled, computers on the Guest network will not be able to ping nor see each other.
If you're saying that it sees each other and can still ping, then this could be a firmware problem.
Did you try to re-flash the firmware of the router and do a factory reset?
I did some more testing tonight. Pinging is no problem. Heck, I can view webpages, ftp, view windows shares, etc. The only effect that I notice on wireless devices when the isolation is checked is that host names no longer immediately resolve (they eventually do, but it takes some time).....I'm guessing that perhaps the DNS is in the process of rebuilding? Regardless of the status of the DNS, if you have an IP address on the network, you have full access to all ports, at any time, even when "isolation" is enabled.
By the way, I just tested enabling isolation on the regular WIRELESS (not GUEST) network (I thought that perhaps if it worked there and this was a bug only on the guest network, I would simply designate my WIRELESS for guests and use the GUEST network for my internal, secure stuff). Again, no effect. I was able to ping, ftp, view webpages, etc. across wireless clients.
In summary, "Isolation" on either the WIRELESS or GUEST network has absolutely no effect from a security standpoint.
I just updated the firmware last night to the latest version (from V1.0.0.56 to V1.0.0.60, if my memory serves me correctly). I have no information regarding if this bug was present in .56.
As far as doing a voluntary factory reset, I would consider doing that only under extraordinary cirumstances where replication of the bug or environment is difficult/impossible. This bug should be able to be tested with 10 minutes worth of work by Netgear. It's bad enought the website said "sorry, you've had the device for 9 months so its out of support period unless you give us more $."....I'm not going to do extensive troubleshooting and risk my very well-functioning system to do Netgear's job . I think the bug description that myself and others have given here should be enough to warrant an investigation.
Thank you to all the contributors and moderators of this community! I was shocked to see how many responses I've gotten in just the past 24 hours.
Thank you for the detailed response.
Let me forward this to our support team.
I was contacted by the support team and they indicated engineering had made a change to the firmware and asked me to be a Beta tester.
I was sent a large contact to sign away my rights and first born in order to be a Beta tester. I said I would be willing, but would need a test piece of hardware in order to properly test since they also repeadly said it might brick my personal one that is currently in operation. They refused to send me hardware for testing. (Note that I offered to send it back when finished.....I'm not looking for handouts--I'm looking for a way to conduct a Beta test in a safe and effective manner, which is also what I happen to do for a living {but with industrial machinery firmware}).
So obviously this issue got someone's attention, and they seemed to have a proposed fix ready quite quickly.
It would be great to get a status update. If it's "it'll be in the next firmware update, slated for xx".....that's fine, at least we would have a general timeline and expectation of a fix.