How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P

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How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P
How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P
2019-08-30 19:30:41
Model: TL-WPA8630P KIT  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 2.0.3 Build 20171018 Rel.36564

Our home network consists of a TP-Link Archer C7 ("router") and a recently added TL-WPA8630P powerline Wi-Fi extender ("extender").

 

On the router, we use the "Guest Wi-Fi" feature which works very well. Guest clients can access the internet, but cannot see the other devices connected to the router.

 

Yesterday I configured the extender via WPS ("Wi-Fi copy") and the main networks (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) were correctly replicated to the extender, but not the guest Wi-Fi. So I switched on the guest network of the extender manually.

 

Everything works, but I noticed that clients connected to the extender's guest network can see and access the devices connected to the router's main network. For example, I can ssh into a Raspberry Pi connected to the router from an Android phone connected to the extender's guest network. This of course defeats the purpose of a guest network.

 

How can I configure router and extender properly so that the extender's guest Wi-Fi gets isolated properly from our main network?

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Re:How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P
2019-08-30 20:04:35

@AndreasR 

 

If you log into the powerline adapter with your web browser, go to the guest network settings, and make sure to disable the ability to talk to local devices. You coudl find out the powerlines IP address by looking in the DHCP client list in the Archer C7.

 

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#2
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Re:Re:How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P
2019-08-30 21:05:29

Hello Tony,

 

thanks for your quick answer. On my extender, these settings are already configured as follows:

 

"Allow guests to see each other" - unchecked

"Do not allow guests to manage..." - checked

"Automatic disable after ..." - unchecked

 

With these settings, I can still access devices connected to the router from devices connected to the extender's guest network. There is no option "Allow guests to access my local network" which I could simply uncheck. This option does indeed exist in the configuration settings of the router, but it is absent in the configuration of the extender.

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#3
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Re:How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P
2019-08-30 21:30:40

@AndreasR 

 

I got some additional information.

 

The guest network on the powerline will not keep traffic from your local network since the powerline is working off of the LAN of the C7. The powerline is not able to "route" traffic as it is not a router, but more or less a AP. So with the guest features it is more of a feature to have another network to connect to which is why the option to not allow access to local devices is not there where it is for the C7.

 

So in the end it is not possible to limit local access if connecting to a powerline adapters wireless network.

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#4
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Re:Re:How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P
2019-09-01 11:44:45

I see. Thank you for the clarification. 

 

Perhaps you should make this clear in the documentation as well. Currently, the guest network is described as a security feature:

 

Chapter 3.9

 

"I want to: Create a network for my guests, providing internet access for them

 while at the same time limit the network authorities for guests to ensure network

 security and privacy."

 

I think this is somewhat misleading. People may think their network is shielded from their guests, which is not the case.

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Re:How to extend an existing guest Wi-Fi with powerline adapter TL-WPA8630P
2019-09-03 21:28:55

@AndreasR 

 

Your feedback can certainly be forwarded.

 

Thank you.

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