Guest wifi network dramas (Smart Modem / Mesh)

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Guest wifi network dramas (Smart Modem / Mesh)

GeekyMcGeekface

22 posts

Geek

#317797 15-Nov-2024 18:11

Hi, I have a skinny smart modem 3 with two Smart Mesh units connected to it via Ethernet backhaul. I have a main network which works fine however I tried to set up a guest network and it is giving me no end of troubles. Devices say they cannot connect to internet. Some will only connect if there is no password, I.e an open network. Some connect but then disconnect when they move away from the SSM3 and into a room with a mesh units connected. None of these issues exist on the main network. The guest network has a different name and password.

I’m lost. I’ve found some evidence online of others with basically the same or extremely similar problems, eg.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=66&topicid=312039

https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/topic/222540

Can anyone help me work through this? I’m certain Skinny customer support will be of no help - I rang to ask what the latest firmware was and they didn’t even understand what firmware was.

Thanks so much

ashtonaut

614 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3309793 16-Nov-2024 23:10

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=66&topicId=303463

I had a similar issue. I gave up on trying to get the guest network extended and switched to Deco, which works, but has its own quirks.

GeekyMcGeekface

22 posts

Geek

#3309806 17-Nov-2024 08:02

Hi, thanks for the reply. Looking at the thread you linked to and the earlier thread which that one links to i now see that this setup is impossible. No wonder it was driving me mad, and my guests. What a huge pain and complete lack of clarity from the ISPs on this limitation.

Swapping out the mesh units is financially unappealing. I had been convinced by others that SSM + SM was the best solution as they all speak the same language, so am obviously a bit disappointed to hear this.

thinking of other solutions, would there perhaps be a way I could disabl/prevent the mesh units from broadcasting the guest network so that it only comes from the SSM itself? Would this possibly fix the issue / is it technically possible to achieve? The guests use the network in an area of the house which is close enough to the SSM that they would receive signal from it if it was the only thing broadcasting the guest network work signal. There is a mesh units in their bedroom but that would need to exist solely to benefit users of the main network which I am ok with, if it meant the network actually worked…

Failing the above suggestion, does anyone have any other bright ideas for making my setup viable with a guest network? Or do I just let all users join the main network and disable the guest network entirely?

Thanks

ashtonaut

614 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3309826 17-Nov-2024 10:12

Yeah I was also annoyed when it didn’t work, but I specifically asked Spark if the setup would work and they said it would (🙄), so I was able to return the smart mesh unit for a refund.

I suspect the controls aren’t fine grained enough to let you disable guest network only on the mesh unit, but have a look in the settings and see?