Prosumer - what to buy - how difficult to setup?

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Boatguy

• August 03, 2026 00:31

4,000 sf house on two floors. 1.2Gb cable internet service. I've been using an Orbi 6 Pro that supports VLANs, but it is EOL. I want:

1) House network for phones, computers, printers, Apple TV, music server, etc.

2) IOT network for IOT! Devices get access to the internet, but not the House network. Ideally devices on the House network can directly contact and interact with IOT devices without going through the cloud, but IOT devices can't initiate contact to the House network.

3) Guest network. Isolated from everything with internet access.

What do I buy and how is it wired up? I do have one ethernet cable between floors.

I'm a reasonably knowledgeable s/w guy with a working knowledge of networks, but not a network administrator.  I don't want to spend hours defining rules for flows between ports because I'm sure I won't get it right.

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  Firewalla

  • August 03, 2026 00:43

  What you want is to build a segmented network. What you need is (I assume you have a big network), is Firewalla unit (Gold SE, Gold Plus, Gold Pro) and also the same number of AP7's as your old Orbi;

  To configure firewalla correctly, you will have some type of security experience. I assume you are, since, you already segmenting networks. 

  See if you understand this https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408644783123-Network-Segmentation

  And also this https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/36325500638739-A-Secure-and-Better-Network-with-Firewalla-Part-4-Zero-Trust-Network-Architecture

  Since everything is integrated, it shouldn't take much time to implement what you want. 

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  Boatguy

  • August 06, 2026 03:08

  I read the segmentation document. My understanding is that all the segmentation is in the switch, the APs are not smart enough to process VLAN tags. Each VLAN needs its own set of APs.

   

  Is that correct?

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  Firewalla

  • August 06, 2026 04:33

  There are two types of segmentation.

  1. VLAN, this is part on the switch and AP7. (Firewalla AP7 can easily do VLAN)

  2. VqLAN, different technology, but works only with AP7 and firewalla switch

  You can have one set of AP, and each AP has different VLAN's on them. 

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