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Message 1 of 7

Home Hub 3 - Guest network

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Hi all,

Can anyone suggest options for supporting an untrusted WiFi device on my Home Hub 3??

I've previously used a Netgear hub which offered a guest network feature - devices on the guest net had Internet access but no access to my main home WiFi network.

Does the HH3 offer anything like that? Or what other options are there? I basically want to give the untrusted device(s) Internet access but no access to my home network or devices.

If I need a later BT hub, how do I go about sourcing one?

Thanks!

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Message 2 of 7

Re: Home Hub 3 - Guest network

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@roxburd 

None of the BT Home hubs offer that facility, you would have to use a third party router like this one.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/dsl-modem-router/td-w9970/

About £35.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/dsl-modem-router/archer-vr400/v2/

They both offer an isolated guest network.

 

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Message 3 of 7

Re: Home Hub 3 - Guest network

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Thanks Keith,

That's a shame - the HH3 is giving better speed than the Netgear hub I was using (about twice as fast!). I'm not really keen to get into the game of buying a third hub which may also not meet all my requirements.

Are there any other options - like a minimal WiFi hub that can be plugged into (and ideally powered by) one of the HH3 ethernet ports?? That would effectively limit the untrusted devices to Internet only.

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Message 4 of 7

Re: Home Hub 3 - Guest network

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@roxburd wrote:

Thanks Keith,

That's a shame - the HH3 is giving better speed than the Netgear hub I was using (about twice as fast!). I'm not really keen to get into the game of buying a third hub which may also not meet all my requirements.

Are there any other options - like a minimal WiFi hub that can be plugged into (and ideally powered by) one of the HH3 ethernet ports?? That would effectively limit the untrusted devices to Internet only.


You could plug in a wireless access point which would have its own network name, but it would not be isolated from your main network.

Total isolation has to be done within the router itself, so that Internet traffic is separated into both private and public groups.

You would only need that one router to replace the HH3.

I assume you have an ADSL connection.

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Message 5 of 7

Re: Home Hub 3 - Guest network

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Thanks Keith, you clearly know your stuff.

You're quite right - if I plugged a mini-WiFi-hub into one of the HH3's ethernet ports then there is not total network isolation - the untrusted device's connections would transit my home network. But any attack on my home network/devices from that 'guest' net would have to be pretty sophisticated - the untrusted device would not have direct access to my network and its devices. It would have to break the network-level segregation provided by the mini-WiFi-hub before it could even address any of my network elements. I don't think I really need total network isolation, just enough segregation that would make an attack extremely difficult (and obviously defeat malware).

Would the mini-WiFi-hub plugged in to the HH3's ethernet port not achieve that? I only run the guest network very occasionally - it's not up all the time. Perhaps I missed something? Unless I missed something, it seems like a classic security vs convenience dilemma.

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Message 6 of 7

Re: Home Hub 3 - Guest network

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If you just want a separate wireless network for guests, then just plug in a wireless access point into a LAN port on the home hub. You can give it a different SSID and password.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/access-point/tl-wa901n/

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Message 7 of 7

Re: Home Hub 3 - Guest network

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Just to let you know while Guest WiFi does offer isolation be aware that many don’t offer full isolation so if security was a concern you need to check you can’t find a device on a separate network. For that you might need to move into enterprise level gear for full layer protection depending on how much you are concerned about access to your main network.

An example would be you have IoT devices and want to completely isolate them, you would need to insure the firewall rule is applied to that network if the router has the ability to secure that. Most domestic routers guest WiFi stops basic access but not full access, I’ve bypassed every NG router I’ve tried including their latest AX routers but to be fair it’s not meant to be overly protective as understanding Firewalls and layers or monitoring of devices is above a domestic router.

Isolation can be done via an AP too, for example NG EX8000 has settings to allow access to main group via its firmware ie access to the routers login for admin so you need to confirm that via firmware but again it’s not fully isolated.

 

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