How to connect RV320 to RV340W

[tonymiller60]

I will say up front that I am not a network engineer - I do application support, but I need to learn more about networking, so I'm trying to configure my 2 routers and need some help.  I already had an RV320, that I want to repurpose in daisy-chain fashion behind my new RV340W.  I read that this type of configuration can offer better protection from internet bad guys.  So I'm just using one of the WAN ports on the RV320 and connected that to one of the RV340W LAN ports.  The RV340W dual WAN ports are connected to my 2 ISP providers and that seems to be working fine.  I have its internal DHCP network set to 10.10.10.0, and the RV320 network is set to 10.10.20.0.  My problem is that a computer on the 10.10.20.0 network can ping a computer on the 10.10.10.0 WiFi network, but not vice versa.  I would like computers on both networks to communicate and share files.  The documentation for each router doesn't give enough information for a novice to know how to do this, so I'm hoping someone out there is willing to help me learn how.

[Seb Rupik]

Hi there,

The issue you are probably encountering is the RV320 is NAT'ing local traffic as it leaves the WAN port, the stream therefore has an entry in the state table and the return traffic can be translated. A host on 10.10.10.0/24 trying to reach 10.10.20.0/24 via the RV320 WAN interface will probably be dropped firstly by ACL and if not that, then certainly by virtue of NAT.

The easy option will be to create a VLAN (ID 1) interface (LAN 1) on the RV320 which has an IP in the 10.10.10.0/24 subnet, lets say 10.10.10.251/24 . Then assign one of the RV320 intefaces as a trunk port, tagging VLAN ID 1. Connect the RV340W via a trunk port to the RV320 LAN 1 port. From the RV340W you should be able to ping 10.10.10.251 IP on th RV320.

Then create a new VLAN (ID 10) with a subnet ID of 10.10.20.0/24 and interface IP of 10.10.20.254/24 . This is what devices directly connected to the RV320 will be connected to.

Then go back to the RV340W and add a static route for 10.10.20.0/24 directing traffic to 10.10.10.251 .

Let us know how you get on.

cheers,

Seb.

[tonymiller60]

Ok, I'll try this - but first I have to get a small switch to add more ports on the RV320 because it's already full.  And to be clear, you're suggesting that I just don't use the WAN ports on the RV320, and instead use one of the LAN ports on each router as a trunk line, correct?

[Seb Rupik]

Yes, using the WAN port as a routed interface in this topology comes with constraints which can be mitigated by connecting the routers via their LAN ports and configuring both a trunk ports but only carrying a single VLAN.

Keep us posted.

cheers,

Seb.