[Tfug] Network partitioning

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Harry,

On 11/4/2013 2:47 PM, Harry McGregor wrote:

>> By "low end routers", do you mean what "normal folk" call a
>> router or a *real* router?
>
> I am talking consumer grade routers, take a look at http://www.dd-wrt.com
>
> Asus makes a rather good line of wireless routers that support dd-wrt,
> and can do port based vlans, and routing.
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320088

OK.

>> E.g., I always thought things like the "wireless routers"
>> (WRT54G) were *switches* with a WLAN and radio interface.
>> (i.e., anything on the switch side could talk to anything else
>> on the switch side, etc.)
>
> The switches actually have to be able to support vlans, since the SOC in
> the router normally only has one ethernet port, so they use tagged vlans
> to get the "internet" port and the "internal" network to the SOC's cpu.

So, they're just not "exposing" this to the user as a configurable
option...

> Also they tend to use Linux 802.1d bridging to bridge the wireless
> controller and the wired network, and you can disable that bridge, and
> disable the radio.
>
> This diagram gives you an idea of how the network is typically configured
>
> http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/images/thumb/6/64/Ddwrtlogicview.jpg/600px-Ddwrtlogicview.jpg
>
> You can define additional vlans using DD-WRT and control the routes on
> them, as if they are interfaces on a linux box.
>
> http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/VLAN_Support
>
> http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Detached_Networks_using_VLAN <---
> this is very close to what you are trying to do.

Great!  I'm not averse to buying and configuring two of them
(put one on a shelf as a cold spare).  Especially if I can just
leave a set of troubleshooting instructions that allow *them*
to get back up and running without putting myself in a
"support" loop!  (not fond of folks tugging on my IRQ...)

Thx!
--don