internet
Creating a Private + Guest WiFi Access Point (DD-WRT)
Recently I was asked to configure a WiFi access point for a small business, who needed to have both a private internal network, and a public guest network.
There are many privacy concerns when having guests share your network. Specifically, it is desirable to:
- Disallow access to any computers on the private network
- Prevent network abuse (such as P2P file sharing)
- Secure the access point itself from tampering or unauthorized access
Of course, all this needs to be done without impacting the desired service: Internet access.
Although I found many guides online for setting up a guest network when the access point was also the primary router, I didn’t find any that worked for the intended network. So, after some trial, error, and research, I managed to get it to work.
Bell Aliant FibreOP with a DD-WRT Router
This has been a long time coming. To summarize, Bell Aliant’s FibreOP Internet service includes a wireless router that has proprietary, limited firmware. It tends to suffer from latency and WiFi issues. So, I sought to replace it with my own wireless router! I ended up first building an overpowered but very functional pfSense Linux Firewall/Router.
Despite my monstrous UPS, I was not happy with the 1 hour run-time. The whole reason for the pfSense router was that FibreOP “hides” its Internet on a VLAN, which means a standard, consumer router will not be able to access the Internet. And from some forum posts I had read, it seemed DD-WRT was also incapable of it.
Finally, today, I pushed through and realized it takes only 4 simple steps to connect a DD-WRT router directly to the FibreOP modem.
Note: Server Downtime
Just a note: the server will be down, likely beginning sometime Saturday afternoon, though possibly either sooner, or later, than that. Once down, it will not be back until AT LEAST Tuesday, Feb 22. Reason: I’m moving, and as such, so is the server. The Internet connection will need to be transferred to the new house, and though we’ve notified them already in advance, well, I will never be one to vouch for quick response time from any of the involved companies…
Thanks in advanced for the patience, and hopefully the connection will be faster at the new place!
Update: it is.