Private network inside of public network

Hardware Hub Networking
1

Hi everyone,

I’m currently connected with all devices to a guest network we’re renting from our landlord.
Since this is not optimal for a few reasons, privacy etc. I want to create a private network for just my devices.

The current setup consists of a Fritz!Box (avm) Router/Modem which I have no access to.
Inside my flat I have a Fritz!Repeater 1750e which I hoped would increase performance.

Sadly the only connection possible to the router is via wifi.
I also want to include a NAS into my network in the future, but not as long as I am in the “public” network.

So what I want to achive is basically a box which i can connect via wifi to the network as internet uplink, a switch for LAN-devices and an access point for everything wifi inside a private network.

Thought about building a small pfsense box as uplink device, and using the repeater I already have as access point for now.

Does this make sense? Or any solutions I do not think of? I’m somewhat familiar with Linux so I see the building of a pfsense box as tinkering/learning project. But networking is not my strong suit.

Thanks :slight_smile:

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2

It is a bit of a shame that you can’t get a wired connection to that Fritz!Box… :thinking:

But the easiest option you could do is to get a separate router in your flat and use the wifi connection as your “backhaul” to the web.
By connecting your own devices to that router, you can create a subnetwork for your own use. That’ll allow you to shield the rest of the network away from your own devices. It basically works as though you’d treat the wifi connection as your internet connection. :sweat_smile:

Before meshing was more common, this was a “problem” for the clients I helped who had just put up another router inside their house to “get more wifi”. But in your case, it is exactly what you want!
And you could also connect your NAS to the router as well.

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3

Yes, but since our connection is about 300/30 down/up and I don’t want to connect to any devices but my own I guess it’s fine.

I was thinking about a seperate access point for the private wifi, but i guess a router which can handle the uplink to the internet and private connections could also work? Our flat isn’t that big.

Any suggetions for a capable machine? I don’t have super heavy needs internally either, my backups overall are < 1 TB and weekly backup needs are normally limited to some pictures taken or some documents (occasionally some larger videos or collections I shot with my camera, but still < 10GB which are fine if it takes a few minutes). So anything around .5 - 1 gigabit speed is good. Maybe still rPi territory?

Budget would be around 200€, bit more if needed Germany/EU availability preferred. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Mikrotik and OpenWRT devices work great as wifi CPE

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Thanks, I’ll have a look at them!

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Makes total sense. Unfortunately you’re going to be dealing with double-nat but given you have no access to the public router for setting up port forwards, etc. anyway its likely not a deal breaker.

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Thanks for the heads up, after a bit of reading the main issue seems to be that communication between the two networks does not function properly, since I don’t want that anyways this should not be a problem. :slight_smile:

But I’ll definetly keep that in mind if I run into any issues regarding connections to the internet.

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I agree with @risk that a MikroTik router would certainly be a nice option. They’re not too expensive and give you loads of options to configure as you like. The learning curve might be a bit higher than one of the more popular brands, but they have quite decent documentation to get you started.
I’m looking at getting a MikroTik hAP AC³ for our own home, but I think that would suit your needs quite nicely as well.

They’re availability in Europe is quite good, as they’re a Latvian company :slight_smile:

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9

You can also go with a fritzbox 4060 … less than 200 eur, designed in germany and it definitely supports your use case (albeit only on 2.4Ghz):

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I’d go with the hAP AC³ in that case… While not a wifi 6 device, it at least does support 5Ghz. :thinking:
And generally retails for around €100.

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11

Yes I think that is the more sane option, in my normal overkill option I checked the most expensive one out that fit in my budget :laughing:
I’ll read a bit more about it, but it looks like a good fit, thanks!

Since 2.4Ghz is already pretty crowded around us, I agree with @Aug, but thanks for the input!

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The 4060 is a wifi6 device, ad can do both 2.4 and 5Ghz as an AP, it can do wan uplink through wifi only on 2.4Ghz, like you are probably doing now as 5Ghz through any wall is pretty much useless …
The difference in user interface between the Fritz and the Mikrotik is going to be significant, in favour of the Fritz

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Thanks for the clarification, then I won’t disregard it that fast and read up a bit more & compare.

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I’m thinking Mikrotik sxt sq 5ac … as a router with wifi wan, and a separate dual band wifi ap - ymmv

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