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    Home setup network architecture

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • G
      gjaltemba
      last edited by

      I believe that you can enable vlan by ssh in Asus-wrt firmware for rt-68u but not in gui.

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      • C
        Chrismallia
        last edited by

        Asus does not support vlan tag ports  to a ssid, what it can do when in router mode tag ports to  the ssid's  vlan  example guest ssid and ports 2 will be on same vlan, but not in AP mode pass pfsense vlan tags to ssid. Btw you can do it using ssh and scripts  but that is a nightmare that sometimes does not even survive  reboots, Just get a unifi AP and sell the  Asus

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        • D
          Duckmuck
          last edited by

          Thanks for the feedback.

          Yes I' planning to get a 24P layer2/3 smart swtich more about getting the money for it.

          I'm using my ASUS RT AC68U with dd-wrt, I thought it would work to use vlan features for it?
          https://coertvonk.com/technology/networking/dd-wrt-heading-two-networks-asus-rt-ac68u-11717

          I've been looking to invest in an Unifi AP Pro as well, but feels more important to replace the unmanaged switches first.

          Regards, D

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            Serious doubt you need a Layer 3.. Doesn't hurt to have the ability to do that - but even a very large home network need of a downstream router from your edge is unlikely..

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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            • ?
              Guest
              last edited by

              Actual you may try out to connect on each LAN Port a dump switch, so you might be able to set up for each LAN Port another
              subnet (CIDR) with its own IP address range (private) and its own DHCP server too! So you don´t need to set up VLANs, and
              for the entire WiFi network you may only need to install or connect two WiFi routers acting in the so called WiFi AP mode.

              But is you want to set up and work with VLANs you should be buying a Layer2 switch with enough ports matching to the number
              of your devices, and as second it will be fine to get a real WiFi AP that is supporting VLANs and multi-SSIDs too.

              And a small Layer3 switch will be only needed if you have many big files that must be transported likes backups or other
              greater workloads, that must be not really passing each time the pfSense firewall and narrows down the entire throughput
              and agility of your firewall. Together with VLANs and QoS you may better sorted with a small Layer3 switch because you get
              the guaranty that the entire traffic will be routed with "wire speed".

              Good switches will be in my eyes;

              Layer2 (SOHO/SMB)
              Cisco SG200
              Cisco SG220
              Cisco SG250

              Layer3 (SOHO/SMB)
              Cisco SG300
              Cisco SG350
              Cisco SG500
              Cisco SG550
              D-Link DGS1510

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              • G
                gjaltemba
                last edited by

                How to article does not cover setting AC68U trunk port to pfSense opt0.

                I would be up to the challenge to get 'er done with existing hardware. My personal preference would be AsusWrt because it supports hardware acceleration, dd-wrt does not. Sometimes a nightmare situation can become the excuse needed to run out and get a unifi AP and Cisco SG200.

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by

                  "you may better sorted with a small Layer3 switch because you get the guaranty that the entire traffic will be routed with "wire speed""

                  But at the loss of control.. Depending on the hardware he is using for his pfsense - its quite possible he will not notice any loss of bandwidth between local segments due to routing/firewall rules.

                  With design of network to put devices he moves large files between on the same layer 2 you remove any performance hit on the routing/firewall at all.  Comes down to what is desired more control with ease of rules that pfsense allows or faster routing.  Even with my pfsense being in vm on older microserver I still see approx 400mbps between segments.  But then again my storage/plex is on the same L2 as my main workstation - wireless devices are on a different segment along with my wired roku, but they only ever stream stuff from the plex so have not run into any sort of bandwidth issues.

                  Putting multiple vlans on the same physical interface that require intervlan traffic at high speeds is normally where you see the biggest performance hit.  This can be configured around - especially if you have a pfsense box with 4 physical interfaces.

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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                  • C
                    Chrismallia
                    last edited by

                    @gjaltemba:

                    How to article does not cover setting AC68U trunk port to pfSense opt0.

                    I would be up to the challenge to get 'er done with existing hardware. My personal preference would be AsusWrt because it supports hardware acceleration, dd-wrt does not. Sometimes a nightmare situation can become the excuse needed to run out and get a unifi AP and Cisco SG200.

                    hardware acceleration in AP mode???

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                    • G
                      gjaltemba
                      last edited by

                      Yes. Asuswrt running in AP mode. Tools->Network->System information->HW Acceleration shows Enabled (CTF + FA). It is not clear to me what is your question.

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                      • C
                        Chrismallia
                        last edited by

                        Asus hw acceleration is hardware NAT so you do not need that in AP mode and also WTH does he need HW Acceleration for as a dumb AP and not to mention the  good  processor that Asus  has

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                        • G
                          gjaltemba
                          last edited by

                          I get it. Your point is Asuswrt HW acceleration Enabled (CTF + FA) does nothing in AP mode. You only mention HW NAT but what about Flow Acceleration enabled?

                          My model is a BCM4708 800MHz CPU

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                          • C
                            Chrismallia
                            last edited by

                            Aldo it  shows enable it has  no effect in AP mode and the CPU you have is great for Ap mode  8)

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                            • G
                              gjaltemba
                              last edited by

                              Are you going by actual test results when you state that Asuswrt HW Acceleration Enabled (CTF + FA) has no effect in AP mode or just speculating? Well at least you are not saying that it is a liability.

                              Some hardware revisions of AC68U have BCM4709 1GHz CPU

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                              • C
                                Chrismallia
                                last edited by

                                First in AP mode there is not much seance for hw acceleration as all a dumb AP  does is  pass packets  that CPU is fast enough and also Eric (Rmerlin)  said the same thing in a    post on smallnetbuilder

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