guest wifi access to home network

eske

How would you go about setting up guest access to your wifi

ie for them to get internet access only (ie not be able to see your network files)

I'm running windows 7 professional

I though it'd be a setting within the router options but couldn't see anything obvious

anyone?

cheers eske

jpl888

It depends what kind of router you have. It may be that it doesn't have any features like that and the only way to do it would be disable file sharing on your own machine to make sure they can't get in, or at least use a decent password on all you shares.

wolfric

I don't think there's any easy way to do this as the poster above stated: it's down to the router.

One method would be to buy another router or access point, set them up on dhcp on a seperate subnet. This will keep off most people. If you have a good one with something like ddwrt or openwrt on it you might be able to set up firewall rules that would prevent computers connecting to the rest of the network.

I know this doesn't quite fully transfer across and i apologise if this come across as harsh. but i heard some good advice a while ago. Never lend a friend money. If you can afford it, just give it to them. It'll save friendships. It's tough but i wouldn't lend a neighbour internet. If they're really stuck for money, get them a mobile broadband usb dongle with some already topped up.

eske

@jpl888 man you're all over the board this evening helping people )

so it is the router that you'd expect to setup that kind of functionality

it's a cisco linksys wag320n - it was kinda pricey so I'd have expected it to be able to handle guest accounts

eske

@wolfric didn't come across as harsh at all -

I know exactly what you mean

Snowbat

It's possible on a WRT54G using third party firmware.

However, the WAG320N official firmware doesn't support VLANs and an attempt to get OpenWrt on it ran into difficulty.

eske

thanks for the replies guys - looks like I'm hosed

jpl888

It's a long shot but you could have a look at the "internet access policy" section on the router and see if there's a way you could use that.

The Internet Access Policy screen allows you to define
policies that are used to block or allow specific kinds
of Internet usage and traffic, such as Internet access,
designated applications, websites, and inbound traffic
during specific days and times, and for a specified list of
devices in your network.

jpl888

eske wrote: »

@jpl888 man you're all over the board this evening helping people )

so it is the router that you'd expect to setup that kind of functionality

it's a cisco linksys wag320n - it was kinda pricey so I'd have expected it to be able to handle guest accounts

Don't be impressed it's only shameless self promotion to get people looking at my site, raise it in Google and maybe get a customer or 2 from the board if I impress enough.

jpl888

BTW if you are the impetuous type you could setup a spare machine as a 80211g/n wireless router and do whatever you needed with it.

It would be a long and interesting road for you but you would learn a lot.

I wrote an article the other day on setting up the wireless part:-

http://www.johnlewis.ie/2010/08/06/ubuntu-as-a-wireless-80211n-access-point-router/