Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 16:54 Post subject: VLAN trunk question
I have two routers, a Linksys E2000 and a Netgear WNDR3300. I want to use the E2000 as the main router and the WNDR3300 as an access point connected to the E2000 by wired Ethernet. In this particular room, however, the modem is actually very close to the AP. Under normal configuration I would then need to run two wires across the room to connect the E2000 to the modem and also to connect the LANs of the two devices.
I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to do it with only one cable. I read about VLAN trunks and think that may be what I need. My thought is to connect the modem to the AP WAN port, which should have its own VLAN. Then, configure one of the LAN ports to do VLAN tagging so that I can send both WAN and LAN traffic across one wire to the main router. On the other side I would do something similar, except I don't actually need a WAN port, just a trunk port right? Would this work? And which router MAC address would the modem see?
you probably not had an anwser as its very hard to understand what you have, what you want, and whats happerning right now !!!
so let me try and get this straight;
-you have at the moment one router as your main router, which is the E2000 ? which is wired (accross the room) to the modem, and two devices
-so thats 3 wires across the room ...
so is the goal to have 1 wire no wires across the room ?
surely No Wires would be better ???
which you could set up one of the routers say the e2000 (as its a gigabit router) directly to the modem, which will be the main Acees point
then have the WNDR3300 set up as a wireless repeater, have the WAN port set to the switch, and then you have 5 wired ports to play with (which im presuming this room is either ya front room, madia devices, or a bedroom ??
which would be easier, with out messing around with VLan etc
or just have one wire from main AP, to the netgear, and have it just set as a switch/gateway/repeater ...
again, alot of what i said is PRESUMING what you have, and what you want !!!
but i see that being the easiest option with the least wire !
Sorry, I thought I was being clear. I actually posted a question in General Questions, but wanted to ask specifically about VLANs here. Attached is the diagram I made for that post. Ignore the current configuration. In the diagram the main router is the E2000, the AP is the WNDR3300, the U-Verse RG is the modem.
The AP, modem, and "other devices" are all located on my TV stand while the main router is located on a computer desk across the room. This is necessary because I need to use the gigabit switch to connect that computer to another computer upstairs through a wall jack by the desk.
I don't want to use a wireless link to connect the routers because it will be used for media streaming. Also, going wireless would add some slight latency to the consoles that are connected there.
My thought is that I could replace the two lines connecting the main router and the AP/modem with a VLAN trunk to the AP. A port would be designated part of the WAN VLAN and the modem connected to it. If I understand VLANs correctly then anything on the WAN VLAN on the main router will get to the modem through the VLAN trunk and designated WAN port on the AP, while LAN traffic should operate just as it would if I didn't do any of this VLAN stuff.
Finally use the GUI to enable tagging on the WAN port and put it in VLAN 1 and 2, enable tagging on one of the wndr3300's LAN ports and also put it in VLAN 1 and 2, and move another wndr3300 LAN port into VLAN 2. Then connect the modem to the wndr3300's LAN port that's only in VLAN 2 and it will get carried through the trunk to the e2000 which will still be using VLAN 2 as its WAN interface. _________________ Read the forum announcements thoroughly! Be cautious if you're inexperienced.
Available for paid consulting. (Don't PM about complicated setups otherwise)
Looking for bricks and spare routers to expand my collection. (not interested in G spec models)
Finally use the GUI to enable tagging on the WAN port and put it in VLAN 1 and 2, enable tagging on one of the wndr3300's LAN ports and also put it in VLAN 1 and 2, and move another wndr3300 LAN port into VLAN 2. Then connect the modem to the wndr3300's LAN port that's only in VLAN 2 and it will get carried through the trunk to the e2000 which will still be using VLAN 2 as its WAN interface.
When you say to enable tagging on the WAN port, you're talking about on the main router (E2000) right?
The wndr3300's ports will be filled, so using one LAN port for the trunk and another for the modem loses me a port. My original plan was to use the WAN port on the wndr3300 for the modem, but that was before I realized it couldn't do VLANs due to being a different interface. The "Enabling VLANs on BCM4704" article mentions that you could use software VLAN tagging to make it work, is there a wiki article that explains software VLAN tagging? I couldn't find anything. Alternatively, since it's a separate interface, could I make it a LAN port by adding it to the bridge with the LAN VLAN and wireless?
When you say to enable tagging on the WAN port, you're talking about on the main router (E2000) right?
The wndr3300's ports will be filled, so using one LAN port for the trunk and another for the modem loses me a port. My original plan was to use the WAN port on the wndr3300 for the modem, but that was before I realized it couldn't do VLANs due to being a different interface. The "Enabling VLANs on BCM4704" article mentions that you could use software VLAN tagging to make it work, is there a wiki article that explains software VLAN tagging? I couldn't find anything. Alternatively, since it's a separate interface, could I make it a LAN port by adding it to the bridge with the LAN VLAN and wireless?
Yes, I swear I had typed e2000 but probably erased it while rewording things...
No it doesn't lose you a port. Follow the WAP guide too and assign the WAN port to the LAN which will add it to the br0 bridge. It's important for performance that you let the switch ASIC's handle the VLAN's instead of making software do it. _________________ Read the forum announcements thoroughly! Be cautious if you're inexperienced.
Available for paid consulting. (Don't PM about complicated setups otherwise)
Looking for bricks and spare routers to expand my collection. (not interested in G spec models)
The only snag was that the vlan gui on the wndr3300 wouldn't let me remove vlan0 from the bridge and add vlan1, it kept going back to the default of vlan0 on the bridge. I worked around it by manually assigning vlan1 to the bridge. Now I just have a useless vlan0 attached to the bridge, but it's not hurting anything.