Canadian Broadband → Re: More router questions: Rooming house with 15 tenants

Anyway, I do really appreciate the time you guys have taken. It is just one more reason for me to bury my head in a mid-range router distribution (pfsense, monowall, whatever..). I have a very long todo list

pfsense is easy.... For a small fee I could set it up remotely. Most devices will have wireless. I would do 2 access points. (maybe more if they get over loaded, but not likely. The Unifi system is Great for that. Devices can roam from AP to AP and load balance between them.

My experience shows that 99% of landlords will not like the idea of a separate computer running 24/7 because of increased electricity usage. Get something small business all-in-one from a reputable brand and forget it, otherwise get ready to be on that guy's speed dial list

There's nothing wrong with a backup plan, he could always resell the Asus easily if it doesn't work out :P

You'll be on the speed dial list either way. But especially so when something cheap is put into the roll and it will have problems and/or fail. What you're suggesting is the same thing; it is still a separate computer running 24/7.

If I understood it correctly, the person owns the home this is being debated about, so they are the landlord.

With 15 tenants you think the landlord is going to sweat bricks over a tiny smaller than mITX based PC...? How many fridges/stoves must in this place. A pfense box will hardly even register on his bill.

The solution needs to be solid and I echo tdiguy's recommendation on network architecture. What I especially like about this is that it should limited the tenants creating their own networks. I doubt you'll see too many break out another router in a wireless bridge type of setup. A dual WAN router would be creme de-la creme for this type of house but if the existing DSL connection is going to stay then why not have it configured in failover for the occasional blip. Sure beats the hell out of 15 tenants calling you to say the net is out again because Rogers decided to do maintenance in the middle of the day.

What many of the suggestions here are overlooking is the security needed between tenants as well.

Tenant A's equipment should not be able to discover Tenant B's.

Each tenant should have a wired connection to their space, which would be on a separate vlan. Most of the router options here will do this, pfsense tomato etc. If a tenant wants wireless they should setup their own AP/router.

Some wireless devices offer "guest isolation", but I'd be upset if my own devices could not communicate on the same network.

Guest isolation would be a must in this case. A motivated tenant could easily setup their own wireless bridge into their own network.