New to Networking: Help Setting Up My Firewalla Gold SE with VLANs!
Hello everyone! 👋
I just picked up a Firewalla Gold SE (so excited!) and I’m diving into setting up my network, but I have a few questions that I could really use your expertise on. Please bear with me - I’m a total newbie to networking, so I apologize in advance if I’m asking anything super basic.
My goal is to create 4 VLANs for work, personal, IoT, and guest networks, and I want to set things up like this:
Xfinity XB8 (modem mode) → Firewalla Gold SE → AP
Where the AP will broadcast the four networks, and I’ll be able to easily connect devices to the appropriate VLANs. I also want to hook up one device directly via Ethernet.
Here are the burning questions I have, but I’m open to any suggestions or advice you might have:
- Do I need a switch? Or can I just use the Firewalla and the AP for everything?
- What AP should I go with? I bought an Eero Pro 6e, but I don’t think it’ll play nicely with VLANs, so I’m planning to return it. Any recommendations for a solid AP?
- How do I connect my one Ethernet device? Should I plug it directly into the Firewalla or does it need to go somewhere else in the setup?
I really appreciate any help you can offer! Thanks so much in advance, and I’m looking forward to learning more from all of you! 🙏
Happy networking! 😊
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1. You don't need a switch unless you want to run VLAN over it.
2. You need to find APs that understand VLAN or can map SSID to VLAN. (Aruba, ubiquiti, tplink, netgear, are all good)
3. Ethernet devices can connect directly to a firewalla port, or they can go into a switch that talks to the firewalla. This usually depends on how many devices you have.
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Thanks so much for the input! 😊 I’ve decided to go with the Omada EAP773 AP and their OC200 controller.
It feels a bit silly to need the extra hardware of a controller, but I’m excited that the EAP773 is WiFi 7 capable (even though I might be paying a little extra for it). At least I’ll be future-proofed! 😅 I was hoping to find a WiFi 6e AP with greater than 1 gig input (I get 1.4 gig download speeds), but it seems like most of them cap at 1 gig. If anyone knows of a WiFi 6e AP that can handle that without needing a controller, I’d love to hear about it!
So, just to double-check, the setup would be:
Xfinity XB8 (modem mode) → Firewalla Gold SE → OC200 controller + EAP773 AP. That should do the trick, right?Really appreciate the advice!
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Hi. I just bumped into this thread. Your (desired) setup seems kind of similar to mine. I have a Draktek modem, Gold SE, 3 x TPLink Omada switches, 4 x TPLink Omada style APs, and an OC200. Everything works a treat. I don't have any APs plugged into the Gold SE, instead I have a TPLink SG2210MP switch plugged into it and that acts as the core switch, and so the only devices plugged into the Gold are the switch and the modem. TPLink do decent kit and so you shouldn't have any trouble, although if you've never dealt with VLANs before then you might have a headache for a few days!
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Hey! I like that how easy setting up the switch is depends on how familiar you are with VLANs (and the concept of tagged, untagged ports etc). I was a complete newbie to it 2-3 years ago and so the learning curve was steep and painful because there are dozens of resources out there, all explain it in a different way, some miss key points, they almost all over-explain it with bad diagrams, and it all makes VLAN setup (on the switch) sound tricky when in fact it's very very simple to grasp. If I could offer just one tip it's that while you're experimenting and setting things up, try to make sure that you have a switch port that's wide-open (no VLAN settings), else (as I did several times) you might lock yourself out of the switch and force a factory reset - doh
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Haha, thanks for the advice! I just need one access point and an ethernet connection so I decided to hold off setting things up until I can get my hands on a Firewalla AP. Sounds like I may be able to snag one by mid-January. I'll go modem -] Firewalla -] ethernet + AP. That sounds like the most painless and simple way to get everything rocking and rolling without having to fiddle with too much.
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