One router, two wireless networks, one VPN.

Shikkaka

Shikkaka

Shikkaka

Soldato
Joined
10 Jun 2003
Posts
2,881
Location
Nottingham
Hi all,

Basically I'd like one internet connection, two wireless networks broadcast, one of which is connected through a VPN and the other not.

I tested this last night using my laptop with a Virtual AP configured but ideally I don't want to have my laptop on in order to achieve this.

What is the best way to go about this? Are their routers that allow this? Could I use a wireless dongle somehow?

Looking forward to your responses.

Cheers
 
There are a number of ways you could do this that come to mind. A Cisco router would be my preferred method but they're not cheap and somewhat of an art form to configure. Although you can get from online auction sites and help is available as the configuration is all text based.

You need a router that can handle VLANs and either two Wireless Access Points (WAP) or preferably a WAP that can handle more than one. You then have one SSID being broadcast as your guest network (no VPN access) on VLAN 1(native) and one SSID not broadcast (unless you want/need) on VLAN 2. The router has an 802.1q trunk to the WAP and presents different IP addresses to each. So for example it might be 192.168.1.1 on the guest network and 10.0.0.1 on the private network.
You then have your VPN configured to secure traffic from 10.0.0.0/24 to the other end so only traffic fro. Your private network gets tunnelled.

It's almost certainly possible to do this with a Linux firewall like Smoothwall but I've not played with any of those for a decade. Someone more familiar with those might be able to recommend one if you want to go that route.

You may also find that a wireless router running something like DD-WRT or Tomato might be able to do this in one neat box but again, someone who knows those might confirm that.
 
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