Two wireless LANs?

[Chris Bartlett]

Hi all,

I recently picked up a 2504 wireless controller and two 3702i APs.  It is all for my home, and I will be connecting it all soon.  I simply want to create two wireless networks; one for "production" and one "guest" network, which will allow internet access and nothing more.  I'd like that to be for phones, iPads, game consoles, etc...

I've found that many of those types of devices don't work on the 5GHz band, so I would like to make the production network 5GHz while the guest network would be 2.4GHz.

My first question is...  Can I do this?

My second question is...  If so, how?

And my last question is...  How do I ensure that devices connected to guest have no access to the production network?

Any other questions I should be asking?

Thanks!

[Rasika Nayanajith]

Hi Chris,

Yes, you can do this.

You require managed switch to connect your WLC (as a trunk port) & define all your vlan in your setup. Using ACL you can control guest vlan can only go to internet.

Refer 2504 configuration guide for the features available on that

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/2500-series-wireless-controllers/113034-2500-deploy-guide-00.html

If you have latest code on your 2504 (7.6.120.0 or above) you can use express setup as well

http://www.wjcomms.co.uk/2014/05/04/cisco-2504-wlan-express-setup/

HTH

Rasika

**** Pls rate all useful responses ****

[Chris Bartlett]

Hi again Rasika and George,

Wow, 6 months.  SORRY it has taken me so long to reply.  5 kids, new house, crazy life.  OK, so please let me first say that I am not a strong network guy by any stretch of the means.  ACLs, VLANs, etc...  I have NO idea how to actually do this stuff.

Here's what I have...  A wired network to a Cisco 2960-S switch.  There are about 15 drops in the house, but only about a half dozen wired devices.  Comcast cable modem.  And then the aforementioned Cisco wireless devices.  Currently, the cable modem is the wi-fi and DHCP server.

The 2504 and APs are up and running.  But they remain unconfigured.  Optimally, yes, I would love to have two wi-fi networks as stated in the OP, but to tell you the truth, you'd have to walk me through it step-by-step because otherwise I simply don't have the knowledge.  If you'd be willing to do that, it would certainly be appreciated.  Otherwise, would it be simpler to have only one wi-fi network on the 2.4GHz band?

FYI, the reason I wanted two was because I believe the 5GHz band offers better performance.  However, some of the kids wireless devices won't connect to it.  So if the trade-off for simple is a single 2.4, that'd be fine for me.

It seems to me that the 2504 will have to be configured to still allow the cable modem to be the DHCP server to hand out addresses to both wired and wireless devices.  But I don't know...  Can you guys help me out?  Thanks!

Chris

[George Stefanick]

yup!

1) On the WLC create 2 dynamic interfaces and give them each an IP address. These very interfaces are the gateway between the wired and wireless lan controller. Then you can tie the dynamic interfaces to WLC ports. 

2) On the switch you will want to add these 2 vlans and connect them to the respected ports. 

See the config guide for step by step. Its not really hard. 

You can configure WLANs one for production and one for guest. You can even do your own personal guest page of you like. Check out WebAuth on a cisco WLC. 

As for securing the guest from the production. On the wired side SVI you can put a simple ACL. 

Hope this helps