Separating wifi clients from cable clients on the same network

[Ventilaator]

There's a network set up at an office with an access point for wifi.
What would be the best solution to separate wifi clients from office, so that both have access to the internet, but the ones connected through wifi will not be able to see/access the rest of the network's computers shared folders/printers etc?

-Vent

 

[alizee]

The easy answer is a router that supports it. I know the airport extreme/time capsule supports what's called a guest network, and I think there's a linksys or two that support this as well (maybe some other brands, too, but I haven't done that much research).

The more tech savvy answer is a router/switch combination that supports VLANs. The wireless AP would be on one VLAN and the wired network would be on another. A more expensive alternative is to buy three routers, one to connect to the internet and provide internet to the other routers, one router for the wireless, and one for the wired network. It may not be that much more expensive than a managed switch, but I think three separate routers would be more of a headache.

 

[aylafan]

You can try this method.

1. Hide a folder from appearing on the network.

For each folder I share, I right click it/click Properties/go to sharing tab/click in the "Share this folder" area and add $ to the end of the folder name. For example: Downloads should be named Downloads$

It'll hide the folder from showing up on the network and you will be able to access if you type the fullnetworkpath/Downloads$

Just don't tell people the full network path and they won't even know that the shared folder exists or is shared on the network.

2. Then assign permissions to certain users and groups for your shared folders, to make sure the shared folders are not freely accessible.

 

[Jimmah]

Network Segregation

http://www.ezlan.net/shield.html

Easy and cost effective.

 

[Ventilaator]

Thanks, network segregation is exactly what I was looking for!

 

[her209]

If you have a switch that can do VLAN, then put the port that the AP is connected on a different VLAN.

 

[theevilsharpie]

If you have a switch that can do VLAN, then put the port that the AP is connected on a different VLAN.

This. Pretty much any business-class access point will have the ability to publish multiple SSIDs that go to difference VLANs.