Problem with guest networks and using a switch

[acastleberry]

Hi all...hoping someone might have seen this issue before or have some ideas. I am struggling with this:

I have 3 Asus ET12 Pro devices set up in AiMesh using wired backhaul. Main router was connected to 2 additional nodes via 1G LAN ports. Everything has worked fine for months.  I recently decided to start upgrading some of my LAN hardware and now have a multi-gig core switch that I am using. When I installed the new switch, I rewired the 2 nodes through the switch to take advantage of 2.5G connectivity to the main router, instead of using the 1G ports on the router.

Everything seemed to work fine, but then I discovered that my guest and IoT wifi networks were no longer roaming clients to the 2 nodes...clients will only connect to the main router. I tested this by joining an iPhone to guest network then trying to bind the connection to a node. It will not work.

I have a feeling it has something to do with how Asus handles VLANs on these devices, so I installed the beta 9.0.0.6.102_4856 software on them that adds better support for VLANs, but I still can't get any guest/IoT clients to connect to a node. Main wifi SSID works fine, it's only these 2 additional SSIDs and only on the nodes.

Any ideas from anyone?

[acastleberry]

I am the original poster.

When you configure IoT and Guest network on the ET12, it does create another VLAN, though you cannot see or manage that VLAN information in 3.x.x.x.x software.  If you are using wireless backhaul (or wired backhaul with nodes directly connected to main router), clients on all SSIDs connect as expected because the main router handles switching between those VLANs.

If you disconnect the nodes from the main router and instead connect to a managed or unmanaged switch, the nodes can no longer connect the IoT and Guest SSIDs because the switch doesn't know about the VLAN information and cannot pass to the main router.  The main wireless SSID will continue to work fine on the mesh nodes because it is in the default VLAN, which both a managed and unmanaged switch will forward to the main router by default.

If you install 9.x.x.x.x software, then you are able to see/manage that VLAN information from the GUI.  You can then use that VLAN information to configure a managed switch to tag and trunk back to the main router.  Only this way will all SSIDs be able to connect to the main router when connecting backhaul via a network switch.

[Valdo]

Hello,

something is wrong with your settings, IoT and Guest networks are not VLANs, they  just must have another SSID. 

[acastleberry]

They are most certainly VLANs...that's why they get an IP in a different subnet than the main SSID.