I have a home network that is total overkill. I know that and I like it 😁
As my network grows, I’ve been testing out new things. Lately I’ve been trying to isolate my guest WiFi from my main network.
If I had 💰 to replace some equipment, it would pretty easy. But I don’t, so I’m left muddling my way through a multi-vendor hodgepodge of a network.
I’ll do a more complete write-up of my home setup some other time, but the gist of it is this:
- pfSense firewall
- Brocade switch
- Netgear POE switch
- UniFi APs x2
- Netgear POE switch
- Brocade switch
Currently, my UniFi AP ACs serve 2 networks–my main WiFi and my guest WiFi. Currently those 2 networks are not separated at all. Everything is flat. Which has served my needs well. But now I have some IoT devices, and my network is growing–more phones, tablets, etc. As such, I want to start separating things some. Nothing too crazy, but I’m thinking 1 VLAN for IoT stuff, 1 for the guest WiFi, and 1 for everything else, to start.
Sounds like it shouldn’t be too difficult, right? That’s what I thought. But I haven’t been able to make VLANs work on my network despite many hours of trying and failing.
Both my switches are managed. Both of them along with my firewall and APs are all capable of VLANs. But the implementations from the various vendors are just different enough to be infuriating.
I know there is a way to make it all play nicely together, I just haven’t found it yet. Recently I read up on using the CLI for the Brocade to setup VLANs–I’ve only used the webUI so far. Hopefully that will help.
This all feels kinda whiny and I don’t want to be that guy who just complains about all the things, so here is something entertaining to leave you with until next time:
Remember, if something hasn’t gone wrong yet, you’re not trying hard enough.
-Nate