[support]

You can think of bridge mode and AP as synonymous for this purpose. In router mode, the router has two sides: LAN and WAN. In bridge mode, WAN is bridged with LAN so that the router can be used as an AP. The router firmware should shutdown DHCP when set to bridge mode.

You can use a router as an AP without switching to bridge mode too (e.g., when the router does not support bridge mode). In this case, you’ll need to connect a LAN port on the router to the upstream router, set a static IP address in the IP address range of the upstream router and disable DHCP yourself.

[support]

I can’t explain that. Maybe you can send a copy of the Newifi backup file to [email protected] so that we can take a look?

[support]

1. The secondary routers do not need VLAN support, if each one is used for one VLAN.
2. No.
3. It’s more preferable to have the secondary routers as access points, because then you can see all network activities from the main router. If you set up the secondary routers as “routers”, then the main router sees all devices connected to the secondary router as one device.

You can achieve what you want to do with this configuration:
1. Set Ethernet port 2 on the pcWRT router to X1 for IoT. Set Ethernet port 3 on the pcWRT to Guest for guest access.
2. If your other routers support bridge mode, set them to bridge mode.
3. Configure WiFi on Router 2 and Router 3 as you normally do.
4. Connect Router 2 to port 2 on the pcWRT. Connect Router 3 to port 3 on the pcWRT.

If you switched routers 2 and 3 to bridge mode, consult the manufacturer’s documentation on how to connect them to an upstream router.

If routers 2 and 3 do not support bridge mode, then you need to assign static IP addresses to them before connecting them to the pcWRT router. Assign IP address 10.159.158.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 to router 2. Assign IP address 10.159.157.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 to router 3. Then connect a LAN port from routers 2 & 3 to port 2 & port 3 on the pcWRT.

[support]

What’s your firmware version on the Newifi? You might want to reset the router and start from fresh to see if it works.

[support]

@bolozinaction The article you mentioned talks about static IP address from your ISP. In general it’s not needed – setting up DDNS is a better solution in most cases.

[support]

@echo Named devices will get static IPs from the router. It is convenient in case you need to use a fixed IP address for a device (e.g., manual configuration of a network printer). We don’t think there’s any downside to doing this. Access Control and logging identifies devices by their MAC addresses.

[support]

You should be able to get above 500Mbps (if your ISP speed is more than that) with the device in the same room as the router, on the 5GHz band. You should exceed 60Mbps even on the 2.4Ghz band and several rooms away from the router.

[support]

The reason we limit the number of WiFi VLANs to 4 (per band) is because some WiFi device drivers can only support a maximum of 4 SSIDs.

VLANs on the pcWRT router are just separate networks that are isolated from each other. Each has their own IP address space. The only exception is “LAN”, which has the ability to start communication to other VLANs (by default, but you can change that if you want).

VLANs are pre-created. What you can do on the router is to associate WiFi SSIDs or assign Ethernet ports to them. For example, if you assign Guest to Ethernet port 1, and create WiFi SSID bemyguest for Guest, then your computer connected to Port 1 and any devices connected to SSID bemyguest are on the same network (VLAN Guest).

By default any device connected to VLANs other than the “LAN” do not have the ability to log in the router. When you visit the router URL, you’ll only see a link to display the device’s IP address and a link for Ad block control.

We’ll need to create some new blog posts to explain things better. Thanks for bringing this up.

[support]

The router does not treat wireless and wired connections differently when routing. So if you have Internet via Ethernet, you should have Internet via WiFi. Can you switch one of your wired device to WiFi and see if Internet cuts off? Also, run “nslookup www.google.com” from a command line to see if it’s a DNS problem.

[support]

The UI will show log up to 24 hours. But the actual time range will be limited by the fixed size buffer used for logs. We’ll see if we can provide a way to you to download the logs.

[support]

All of these will work on the pcWRT router.

[support]

Profiles are basically groupings of devices, you can only put a device in one profile. You can create Calendars to blacklist domains for specific times, except that when you create a calendar, the times you enter are allowed times. More info here: https://www.pcwrt.com/2015/12/how-to-set-internet-access-time-limits-in-pcwrt/

[support]

Here are some guides: https://www.pcwrt.com/support/

Back to your original questions:
1. Tagging: on the Network Settings page, under the VLAN section. There’s a checkbox named “Tagged”. You check the box to “tag” a port. You don’t want to check this box unless you are connecting another router or a VLAN aware switch to the port.

2. DHCP: your computer is configured to use DHCP by default. I.e., it will ask the router to assign it an IP address etc. But sometimes people change the network settings on the computer for it to use a specific IP address (i.e., a static IP address).

3. VLANs: on the router, VLANs are assigned to the LAN ports or WiFi SSIDs. When you connect a computer to a LAN port on the router, the computer will be on the VLAN assigned to that port. When you connect a computer to an SSID, then the computer will be on the VLAN associated to that SSID. Let’s suppose that LAN port 1 is assigned to the “LAN” network and SSID “pcwrt-x1” is associated with the “X1” network. When you connect a computer by Ethernet wire to port 1 AND connect by WiFi to “pcwrt-x1”, then your computer will be on both the “LAN” and “X1” networks (for example only. I don’t see why you would want to connect a computer that way).

[support]

Let’s talk about WiFi first.

You can have up to 4 SSIDs per band for WiFi. The WiFi for the LAN network always exists and cannot be deleted. So you can add up to three SSIDs per band. After that the “+” button is no longer active.

Let’s say you added an SSID “guest-wifi” to the Guest network with WiFi password “youarewelcome”, then when you connect a device to that SSID with the password “youarewelcome”, that device will be on the Guest network (or Guest VLAN).

Is that clear?

[support]

First of all, you should have Internet no matter which VLAN you choose for the Ethernet port. But don’t tag the port though. And make sure that your computer is using DHCP, not static IP address.

For VLAN assignment, the basic idea is to put your most secure devices on LAN. Other devices go to other VLANs.

By default, devices on LAN can talk to each other, can initiate communication with devices on other VLANs, and can log in the router. Devices on other VLANs have access only to the IP address page and the Ad block control page on the router – they can’t see the login page.

So if your desktop PC connected to LAN port 1 is a trusted device then port 1 should be assigned to LAN. If it’s a risky device that provides services to the public Internet, then it should be assigned to another VLAN and be isolated from the rest of your network.

For WiFi, you can create up to 4 SSIDs each band, assigned to different VLANs. It’s a know bug that Cipher always displays “Auto” even when configured as “AES”. This will be fixed in the next update (coming soon).

[Author]

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