Hi All,
I have searched the net, but I am not really sure how to even ask this question(!)  I am NOT a network engineer!

I currently have a mish-mash of three WiFi routers in my house that comprise the "mesh" and one main (actual) router (that provides a WiFi connection as well).  All "mesh" routers are hard-wired (through their non-WAN ports) to a switch and ultimately an openwrt router that handles the DHCP, DNS, etc.  They all share the same access point name and credentials so you can walk around and seamlessly connect to the different wifi connections.  All wired connections and hardware are Gig-E.

Here is my hardware:
main router:
Linksys E4200v2/EA4500 (openwrt kernel version 4.4.14)

Three "mesh" routers running their stock firmware:
2x Netgear G54 WGR614v10
1x TP-Link 450N Wireless N

My problems are:
1) The routers are slow and need to be upgraded (I hope to get used ones from ebay)
2) I would like to have a guest network to partition my IoT devices from my more sensitive data and servers as well as provide a network for people visiting.

My questions are:
1) What routers would you recommend.
2) Can you point me in the right direction to implement the configuration?

thanks in advance!

(Last edited by jordanthompson on 2 Apr 2018, 01:44)

*bump*

That sort of setup would be better described as a network of APs.  "Mesh" describes a way to distribute the LAN using wireless instead of wired connections between the AP devices.   Meshing is the latest big thing in commercial home equipment since it allows a very simple zero setup "plug and play" installation.  But wired connections are still best other than having to install cables.

In general you set up the APs as "dumb" wireless to wired converters and have the main router do all routing and firewalling.  This can include having two networks and firewalls in parallel, one for trusted users and one for IOTs and guests.

Distributing multiple networks is easy with wired connections since you can use the Ethernet VLAN standard.  Both ends of the link must be VLAN-capable, which almost any device running OpenWrt is.

(Last edited by mk24 on 8 Apr 2018, 13:52)

That's pretty much the way I have it configured today without multiple VLAN's (I guess I need to do some learning on this.)

I think that I'll need each router to support multiple SSID's to support guest log in on the IoT network.

Any recommendations for decent (fast) WiFi routers I can get used that will run openwrt?

(Last edited by jordanthompson on 8 Apr 2018, 23:31)

I still have not figured out how to configure the additional routers to support multiple access points. Can anyone please point me in the right direction?