Setting up Three Wireless Routers

My goal is to have three wireless networks in my house (on three different routers(

CURRENT : Asus Wifi 6 Router with WPA2-AES connected to ARRIS DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem

^I also purchased from Goodwill two cheap routers that I've flashed with the latest versions of Fresh Tomato
Router 2 will be a WEP network
Router 3 will be a WPA1-TKIP network

^I setup routers 2 and 3 to be hidden SSIDs, as well as making the passwords as long and randomized as possible, and set the wireless signal power wattage level to the lowest possible option since these are insecure networks.

I most likely will keep them unplugged when I'm not using them and I will probably set bandwidth to be very low - maybe around 11MBPS - since these networks will only be used by the H/PCs.

Any advice on how to set that up?

Edited by torch 2023-08-30 6:06 PM

I'm not an expert with networks, but making a VLAN that is separate between the connection to your main / everyday use WiFi and WEP / WPA1-TKIP will be a good idea, I think.
So that the networks will stay separate. (added security)

Reference:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/vlan-for-2-separate-networks-sharing-internet/137968/2
https://community.sophos.com/utm-firewall/f/wireless-security/56468/separate-vlans-over-wifi

Edited by stingraze 2023-08-30 6:19 PM

Thank you for your help as always!

I looked into VLAN. Unfortunately, I figured out that my router (primary) doesn't support them.

So this is what I did:
Connected Cable Model to Router 1 WAN
Router 1= 192.168.50.1
Connected LAN1 to WAN on Router 2
Router 2=192.168.1.1
Connected LAN1 on Router 2 to WAN on Router 3
Router 3=192.168.2.1

I know it's obnoxious to connect Router 2/3 together, but my rationale was I didn't want to take up another LAN port on Router 1.
Also I have Router 2 set to only accept two wireless clients at a time / Router 3 to only accept one

Left DHCP on all three networks.

It seems to work, I'll temporarily leave them on for a few days and make sure everything works (+doesn't annoy my mother!)

And once the kinks are out, I'm going to unplug both, and only use when I need them, and unplug when I don't.

Sounds like a good plan.
Yeah, regular home routers usually don't support VLAN. I think if you look into the switches by Netgear, it will provide those functions. For example: Netgear GS108E




-stingraze

Thank you!

Can we go off topic in the thread a little?

What’re your routers of choice?
And that portable one you have, do you ever mess with those third party firmwares like OpenWRT/Tomato/DDWRT, etc ?

I like using WiFi routers from BUFFALO and NEC.

I've had some experiences using Dell's X1008 (switch), but the configurations were kind of hard to use and not well documented. I liked the design of X1008.

I also have experiences using NETGEAR's WiFi router, and the design was really cool (looked a bit like stealth fighters like F-117).
As for firmwares, I've never tried it out.

I've used some Cisco firewalls (Firepower and Meraki Go) in the past but Firepower was beyond my pay-grade (needed a subscription after X days).
I think I need some Cisco certification to know all the configurations for the Firepower etc.

-stingraze

Ignoring the ability to power them down, you can do all of this on one router using WRT or Fresh Tomato I would imagine.

Usually you can setup multiple SSID's and have different VLAN's and security configured on each. If it can do the routing for the VLAN's then your main router doesn't need to support VLAN's at all, otherwise, yes, using VLAN isolation is a problem.

I have a CCNA, so Cisco isn't a problem, but you don't need to go that complex. Any old enterprise layer 3 switch can do it and the routing, or if you have an old PC, laptop and a couple of network cards/USB NIC's you can install pfSense on it and use that to setup VLAN isolation and allow access to the internet.

Yes! Those are cool looking for sure. I'm on a router craze lately apparently. And yeah, I find networking vaguely confusing for me other than what I figure out works for me.


Yeah, I figured out Routers 2 & 3 do support VLANs natively with the third party router firmware. But I'm content that I got my weird setup working.

Do you have any thoughts to add on how I have it setup?

I may do some advanced features like only enable internet during certain times (the firmware lets me customize all of these feartures)

Or I may just get a switch that turns them on on off.

By the way, as always, thank you both for your help.

Is there a good article on how to set up a double NAT correctly?

There was one I had found that worked, but unfortunately, I didn't bookmark it.

I decided the double NAT is easiest for me to use because I can just plug in only as necessary.

But over time, it seems a "drift" occurs, and I can no longer access the internet until I factory reset and try anew.