I am worried that there is not really a benefit of doing that, just more noise and energy consumption.

  • dan@upvote.au
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    7 months ago

    Energy consumption is essentially the same, as it’s using the same radios.

    For what it’s worth, I have several SSIDs, each on a separate VLAN:

    • my main one
    • Guest. Has internet access but is otherwise isolated - Guest devices can’t communicate with other guest devices or with any other VLANs.
    • IoT Internet: IoT and home automation devices that need internet access. Things like Ecobee thermostat, Google speakers, etc
    • IoT No Internet: Home automation stuff that does not need internet access. Security cameras, Zigbee PoE dongle (SLZB-06), garage door opener, ESPHome devices, etc

    (to remotely access home automation stuff, I use Home Assistant via a Tailscale VPN)

    Most of these have both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz enabled, with band steering enabled to (hopefully) convince devices to use 5Ghz when possible.

    This is on a TP-Link Omada setup with 2 x EAP670 ceiling-mounted access points. You can create up to 16 SSIDs I think.

    • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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      7 months ago

      That was an amazing read. Thank you.

      What do you say is the use case for separating guest Wi-Fi with the more “private” stuff on your network?

      As far as I understand… Basically all communications, even inside a network, are encrypted… So I guess you do that to avoid someone trying to exploit some vulnerability?

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Basically all communications, even inside a network, are encrypted

        LOL, oh no.

        Even internet traffic isn’t encrypted by default.

        Sadly TCP/IP isn’t encrypted.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Guest devices can’t communicate with other guest devices

      How do you accomplish this isolation since they’re on the same subnet/broadcast domain? Is it a feature of the hardware you’re using?

      • dan@upvote.au
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        7 months ago

        A lot of access points, even consumer-grade ones, have this option. It’s usually accomplished via predefined firewall rules on the access points themselves.

        Consumer-grade access points usually let you have just one isolated guest network, whereas fancier ones (Omada, Unifi, Ruckus, Aruba, etc) usually let you enable isolation for any SSID (ie the “guest network” is no different from any other SSID)

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Isolated guest networks I get, but isolating guests from other guests on the same subnet/isolated net is what I haven’t seen.