Some Help Please- Tomato wifi setup-wireless client with virtual network

-D-

-D-

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Ok, so I am trying to setup a 2 layer system.
I know someone here has the answer. This thing is driving me bonkers and making my head hurt:mad:

I have Tomato (Shibby, newest version)
Goal- to connect a virtual wifi connection by using the router in wireless client mode.
Setup- I the router set as a wireless client (not bridge, don't want bridge). This will give the user the ability to see that they are on their network and will have a different ip range. The main IP e.g. 192.168.1.1 BUT I want them to be on 192.168.10.1 with DHCP turned on and I want them to see a different SSID/AP name to connect to e.g. Guest

I did do some reading but I got lost. They got into setting up virtual lans along with the virtual wifi.

I have the router setup as a wireless client and it's working. The problem is you can't tell if you are connected to the actual access point or the "repeater/wifi client".

If you can post some links with screen shots, that would be great.
If you can type it up in the steps to setup I can work with that too.

Thanks
 
Just trying to understand what you're trying to do from a high level perspective... Is this correct:

You're trying to create two separate networks to share one internet connection. One network is a private network and the other is a public (guest) access point?
 
DaveOke said:
Just trying to understand what you're trying to do from a high level perspective... Is this correct:

You're trying to create two separate networks to share one internet connection. One network is a private network and the other is a public (guest) access point?
Click to expand...

Dave,
I have the router setup as a wifi client (not a bridge).
Now let's say that my AP and wifi client router's SSID is Primarywifi.
I want to create a virtual SSID or access point or wifi client to be called guestwifi.
The user will connect and see guestwifi but the real connection will be the primarywifi SSID.
They will get a separate ip address range from the primarywifi and they will know that they are connected to THEIR network guestwifi.

I hope that clears it up.
 
Are you trying to have two SSIDs, one for let's say your use and the other for guests access???
If yes, why bother with two separate routers??? Any dd-wrt supported router can do it with ease... http://www.dd-wrt.ca/wiki/index.php/Multiple_WLANs
I'm not sure that what you are trying to do will work... if you would connect your "guest" router WAN port to your "private" router LAN port wit cable, than you can accomplish what you want as the guest router would work as a stand alone router with the external IP set either manually or from your private router DHCP scope.
Unless the Tomato has some options that allow WLAN to be client and "server" at the same time... then again, I'm not familiar with Tomato firmware :(
 
kmalek said:
Are you trying to have two SSIDs, one for let's say your use and the other for guests access???
If yes, why bother with two separate routers??? Any dd-wrt supported router can do it with ease... http://www.dd-wrt.ca/wiki/index.php/Multiple_WLANs
I'm not sure that what you are trying to do will work... if you would connect your "guest" router WAN port to your "private" router LAN port wit cable, than you can accomplish what you want as the guest router would work as a stand alone router with the external IP set either manually or from your private router DHCP scope.
Unless the Tomato has some options that allow WLAN to be client and "server" at the same time... then again, I'm not familiar with Tomato firmware :(
Click to expand...


I clearly asked for help with Tomato. I also never stated that I had 2 routers.
 
-D- said:
Dave,
I have the router setup as a wifi client (not a bridge).
Now let's say that my AP and wifi client router's SSID is Primarywifi.
I want to create a virtual SSID or access point or wifi client to be called guestwifi.
The user will connect and see guestwifi but the real connection will be the primarywifi SSID.
They will get a separate ip address range from the primarywifi and they will know that they are connected to THEIR network guestwifi.

I hope that clears it up.
Click to expand...

No - still not clear. If I understand correctly, your tomato router:

- Will be acting as a station that will connect to an access point. You will be routing this connection. (i.e. treat it as a WAN)
- Will also be acting as an access point with two SSIDs
- SSID1: Primarywifi, 192.168.1.0/24
- SSID2: Guestwifi, 192.168.10.0/24

You want both networks segregated, DHCP servers running on each interface, client isolation on the guest. Is this correct?
 
-D- said:
Ok, so I am trying to setup a 2 layer system.
I know someone here has the answer. This thing is driving me bonkers and making my head hurt:mad:

I have Tomato (Shibby, newest version)
Goal- to connect a virtual wifi connection by using the router in wireless client mode.
Setup- I the router set as a wireless client (not bridge, don't want bridge). This will give the user the ability to see that they are on their network and will have a different ip range. The main IP e.g. 192.168.1.1 BUT I want them to be on 192.168.10.1 with DHCP turned on and I want them to see a different SSID/AP name to connect to e.g. Guest

I did do some reading but I got lost. They got into setting up virtual lans along with the virtual wifi.

I have the router setup as a wireless client and it's working. The problem is you can't tell if you are connected to the actual access point or the "repeater/wifi client".

If you can post some links with screen shots, that would be great.
If you can type it up in the steps to setup I can work with that too.

Thanks
Click to expand...
did you finish you kitchen yet?

;)
 
DaveOke said:
No - still not clear. If I understand correctly, your tomato router:

- Will be acting as a station that will connect to an access point. You will be routing this connection. (i.e. treat it as a WAN)
- Will also be acting as an access point with two SSIDs
- SSID1: Primarywifi, 192.168.1.0/24
- SSID2: Guestwifi, 192.168.10.0/24

You want both networks segregated, DHCP servers running on each interface, client isolation on the guest. Is this correct?
Click to expand...

My router is connected to an AP but the router is set as Client/repeater (not a client bridge).
What I want is for my client router/repeater to have a virtual wifi/ssid and act as an AP or another client/repeater or even a client bridge.

I want them to pick Guestwifi as the SSID which is a virtual wifi network from the client/repeater router that is connected to the main AP and is called Primarywifi (whatever I wrote in the original post:)

Get it now :)

I want a virtual ssid that runs off the client/repeater router.
 
Maybe the terminology "virtual wifi" is throwing people off... or maybe just me because I don't know what that's supposed to mean? But it sounds to me like you want to create a wireless subnet that uses the primary AP as it's Internet connection, is that correct?

For instance, I have a primary router (which is my main access point) that connects to my DSL modem. I also have a second router wired up to the primary router but on it's own subnet and it assigns it's own independent IP ranges to the devices connected to it; it has a separate SSID as well. Are you trying to achieve something like this wirelessly? Sort of like wifi hotspotting on your phone where your phone acts as a wifi repeater-and-router?
 
AF4iK said:
Maybe the terminology "virtual wifi" is throwing people off... or maybe just me because I don't know what that's supposed to mean? But it sounds to me like you want to create a wireless subnet that uses the primary AP as it's Internet connection, is that correct?

For instance, I have a primary router (which is my main access point) that connects to my DSL modem. I also have a second router wired up to the primary router but on it's own subnet and it assigns it's own independent IP ranges to the devices connected to it; it has a separate SSID as well. Are you trying to achieve something like this wirelessly? Sort of like wifi hotspotting on your phone where your phone acts as a wifi repeater-and-router?
Click to expand...

Sure, what you said BUT instead of using 2 routers tomato allows you to use 1 router and create virtual SSID's/wifi networks.
In Tomato you can create a "FAKE" wifi network whose backbone is the REAL router. The fake/virtual has it's own IP range (assign different address ranges) and it's own ssid name and pwd.

Explain more how you did your setup. I have 2 routers that I can do what you did if I can't figure this out.

**** I may have found the answer here.
http://code.google.com/p/tomato-sdhc-vlan/wiki/MultiSSIDHOWTOForE3000

I will test this out tmrw. Granted my 1st wifi/ssid will be set as wireless client instead of access point but it should still work the same.
damn! this is hurting my head but it is making sense now that I see pics :)
 
Last edited:
-D- said:
Sure, what you said BUT instead of using 2 routers tomato allows you to use 1 router and create virtual SSID's/wifi networks.
In Tomato you can create a "FAKE" wifi network whose backbone is the REAL router. The fake/virtual has it's own IP range (assign different address ranges) and it's own ssid name and pwd.

Explain more how you did your setup. I have 2 routers that I can do what you did if I can't figure this out.
Click to expand...

So basically trying to emulate the guest zone that other routers come with? Is your intention to connect the router to your access point via cable or wireless somehow?

For my setup, all you need to do is hook up a second router to your first. Connect a cable to a LAN port on the first router as you would attach a computer. The other end of that cable goes into the WAN port of the second router. Then it's just a matter of configuring the second router the same way you did the first--minus any ISP login stuff you may have had to configure on the primary. Set the second router's internal IP (ie, admin page) to something different such as the 192.168.10.1 you mentioned in your example. Then, change the subnet mask from 255.255.255.0 to something like 255.255.254.0 to segregate it from the rest of the network (disclaimer: I don't know too much about how subnet masks work so take this last bit with a grain of salt). Lastly, give it a unique SSID. That should be all I think.
 
AF4iK said:
So basically trying to emulate the guest zone that other routers come with? Is your intention to connect the router to your access point via cable or wireless somehow?

For my setup, all you need to do is hook up a second router to your first. Connect a cable to a LAN port on the first router as you would attach a computer. The other end of that cable goes into the WAN port of the second router. Then it's just a matter of configuring the second router the same way you did the first--minus any ISP login stuff you may have had to configure on the primary. Set the second router's internal IP (ie, admin page) to something different such as the 192.168.10.1 you mentioned in your example. Then, change the subnet mask from 255.255.255.0 to something like 255.255.254.0 to segregate it from the rest of the network (disclaimer: I don't know too much about how subnet masks work so take this last bit with a grain of salt). Lastly, give it a unique SSID. That should be all I think.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I thought and that idea is on the table. Ideally I would like to use 1 router to do this. This also gives me the ability to be more felxible and as well use the spare router as a backup.

If you run Tomato have a look at the link I posted in my previous post.
 
The easiest way to have a guest network is to put one of your radios on a separate VLAN. The 2nd easiest is to put 1 port on a separate VLAN and plug a WAP into it.
 
I don't think you'll need to get into vlan tagging for this unless your gateway isn't running as an access point.

Assuming your gateway == wifi access point:
1. Create a new firewall zone and call it guest, allow your guest network to forward to the WAN interface only.
2. Create a new network (call it guest). Assign your ip/subnet. Do not fill in any default gateway/dns info. Assign it to your new firewall zone.
3. Set up your guest wireless network, assign the wireless network to the guest network.

Pretty simple stuff....
 
Update- I reviewed something that was overlooked.
I thought that setting the router as a wifi client it made the router a repeater. It does not for WIFI. It allows your hard wire devices (lan cable plugged into the port) to get an IP address and connect to the internet. It does NOT allow the WIFI portion to work in this manner. You can setup different subnet if you use one of the wired ports on the wireless client.

My Fix
plugged in another router that was setup (set as an AP) to the the port on the router setup as a wireless client.
So now my 2nd router (guest) is running it's own subnet and can not see the primary network.
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