I have been using a RUTX11 in a residential setting for quite some time now and really appreciate the stability & failover capability. I just added a TAP200 AP to my setup to improve the signal coverage in a given area.
I followed the wiki documentation to set up a mesh network between between the RUTX11 & TAP200, and have successfully gotten that working. However, I was hoping to also have the TAP200 extend my guest WiFi SSID, which I had created using the wiki procedure, but it doesn’t seem to be possible, at least not without sacrificing the segregation of the two networks.
The SSIDs on the TAP200 can only take a VLAN ID as argument to provide network segregation. And meanwhile, the guest WiFi configuration works using a separate LAN and firewall zone, for which a VLAN ID can’t be assigned, making the configuration seemingly impossible, at least with the webUI.
Would it be possible to check with the relevant team whether there is a way to extend two separate LANs using the TAP200? And if not, to suggest it as feedback for future firmware improvements.
Could you please clarify your goal a bit further? Do you intend to have two access points on the TAP200 (one extending the main mesh network and another extending the guest WiFi network)?
Additionally, could you share screenshots of your Guest LAN interface settings, including the Physical Settings tab?
I’m hoping to use a single TAP200 unit to extend both SSIDs; the main and the guest.
Do you want a screenshot of the guest config on the RUTX11 or TAP200? For the RUTX11, my config corresponds to exactly what is documented in your wiki page for the guest WiFi. And on the TAP200, I removed the guest “mesh” interface for the time being because it doesn’t appear to be possible to extend it separately from the main SSID (which is why I’m asking for help); the TAP200 webUI lets you add multiple mesh SSIDs (for the backhaul) but doesn’t let you assign one to a specific AP-mode SSID.
Yes, on tap devices currently it is impossible to separate mesh backbones and all of them are bridged (due to problems with wired vlans if they are not). It is expected to manage separate networks via multiple VLANs on same mesh - not via multiple meshes. Although currently this kind of setup is quite hard on router side.
Router side:
Setup guest network as before
Mesh setup:
Create new lan interface with proto: none just for mesh.
Via wireless page assign it to mesh.
Go to lan page
Edit mesh interface
go to physical settings tab
Disable Bridge interface (depending on version it might be already disabled). This is mainly for performance (if this is not done then device name will be something like br-lan1)
Wait a sec until wireless configures itself and in the same lan configuration page check status for what device it got (should be something like wlan1-2)
In main lan configuration:
go to physical settings tab
in Interface field add {mesh device}.1 (e.g., wlan1-2.1) as a custom option. Mesh device is from 1.7.
In GuestLan configuration:
go to physical settings tab
enable Bridge interface if it is not already
in Interface field add {mesh device}.{vlan id} (e.g., wlan1-2.3) as a custom option. VLAN id does not matter but should be same between rut and tap devices
TAP side:
Just create guest ssid and specify VLAN id in this e.g. 3. Unlike on router side everything else is handled automatically.
Sorry to inform that it is a hard config on the router side. I Hope it is not too hard to follow and it works first try
Thank you for taking the time to write this!! I’ll be trying out. But just regarding step 1 with the new LAN, what IP configuration do I set? I have my main LAN on 192.168.1.x and the guest on 192.168.2.x, so I’d like to make sure that the DHCP keeps handing out these ranges range on the AP side.
Also, if there’s no plan to change how network segregation is handled on the TAP devices, I think it would be logical if you updated your guest WiFi wiki procedure to use VLANs instead. As an end user, you’d expect a procedure from the manufacturer to work consistently across their product lines
Understood. I did the configuration just now and it works perfectly, ty!
I might add a second AP in the future, albeit wired to the router. Is there an adjustment that can be made on the RUTX11 to make the VLANs pass through the device ETH ports as well?
Yes eth ports needs to be configured to access guest network via vlan. On router side:
Go to Network > VLAN > port based. Add new vlan with same ID. Select wanted port as “tagged”.
Go to GuestLan configuration and in physical settings tab add eth0.{vlan id} (this option will be shown in dropdown)
On AP side If new device is TAP then no additional configuration is needed as it automatically configures eth after setting VLAN ID on SSID
Note: When you add second wired device do not add it as mesh node (or remove first) as it will cause network loop (at this moment there is no supported solution for this)
