EX3301-T0 Isolating LAN ports from each other

LD0035
LD0035 Posts: 1
in Home Router

Hello,

For security reasons I want to separate a home hosted webserver from the rest of my home network, but none of the settings seem to work for this.

The server sits on a separate LAN port, and Interface grouping creates a different network, but the router keeps routing between them and I cannot find a setting to turn it off. VLAN groups don't work either, neither is it possible to configure the firewall to block traffic between the two networks. Did I miss something or is it impossible to disable this behavior on this router? Router is provided by the ISP.

Any help is appreciated!

All Replies

  • digital_marmot
    digital_marmot Posts: 3
    First Comment Friend Collector

    Hello,

    This is an old thread, but since no one answered and I have a very similar problem with my EX3301-T0, I thought I'd bump it.

    Similarly to LD0035, I have some devices connected to one LAN port and others using the WiFi, and I want to isolate these two groups from each other. I have created a separate interface grouping that only includes the LAN port in question, and devices connected to that LAN port now get allocated IP addresses in a different subnet. So far so good. However, devices in the two subnets can still communicate normally with each other. I thought one purpose of interface groupings was to isolate different devices from each other. In fact, the web-based configurator for the EX3301-T0 specifies that "Devices in different groups cannot communicate with each other directly."

    In addition to having different interface groupings and different subnets, is it necessary to manually configure ACL rules to block any traffic between the two subnets? I have tried configuring such rules but can't get it to work either.

  • tonygibbs16
    tonygibbs16 Posts: 941  Guru Member
    50 Answers 500 Comments Friend Collector Third Anniversary
    edited July 12

    Hello @digital_marmot

    Welcome to the forum.

    From looking at the user guide linked from https://support.zyxel.eu/hc/en-us/articles/5858783065362-User-Guide-AX-DX-PX-3301-T0-Serie-V5-13-5-50 dated 2023 it might be worth looking at VLAN groups, see below extract.

    image.png

    If you set up different VLAN groups as well as the Interface Grouping, and still don't have separation then it will be down to routing tables I think.

    You ask if ACLs would help, and they might BUT… it seems like the EX3301-T0 does not do wildcard masks so you would have to set-up an ACL per source IP address or destination IP address or detected device (see below extract.)

    image.png

    I hope that this is helpful.

    Kind regards,

    Tony

  • digital_marmot
    digital_marmot Posts: 3
    First Comment Friend Collector

    Hello and thank you for the friendly welcome @tonygibbs16 !

    After reading your post, I tried the following setup: I have a separate TP-Link access point connected to LAN1 and a computer directly connected by cable to LAN2. Each of the two LAN ports is configured to be in a separate interface grouping, so that the computer gets an IP address in a different subnet from any device connected to the WiFi provided by the access point. I have also configured the two LAN ports to use different VLAN IDs.

    With this configuration, I am still able to ping devices on the WiFi from my computer, which is not what I wanted.

    I tried using ACLs to restrict the traffic between the two interface groupings, but even when I'm using the exact IP addresses of the devices in question (in fact, the devices are discovered by the EX3301-T0), I cannot get it to work. Could the problem be that the only directions that I can choose from in my ACL rules are "WAN to LAN", "LAN to WAN", "WAN to ROUTER", and "LAN to ROUTER"? Intuitively, I would need to use something like "LAN to LAN" for my use case, but perhaps I'm not understanding this very well.

    You wrote that if I still didn't have separation after configuring interface groupings and VLANs, it would probably be down to routing tables. Could routes somehow be set up so that no traffic is routed between the two subnets? I'm sorry if my question seems ignorant.

    Best regards,

    digital_marmot

  • digital_marmot
    digital_marmot Posts: 3
    First Comment Friend Collector

    PS: I forgot to mention something else that confuses me a bit. Choosing a WAN interface for an interface grouping makes that interface unavailable for any additional interface groupings. This means that I couldn't, for example, configure a separate interface grouping per LAN port, as there are four LAN ports and I only have one WAN connection.

  • tonygibbs16
    tonygibbs16 Posts: 941  Guru Member
    50 Answers 500 Comments Friend Collector Third Anniversary
    edited July 15

    You are welcome @digital_marmot

    Your question is not ignorant in my opinion. Hosts in different VLANs should be able to be separated in general from each other, because each VLAN is a different subnets and the routing between subnets only done by a L3 routing function with a routing table.

    It might be worth seeing if the latest firmware behaves differently…

    * 5.50(ABVY.4.2)C0 is available to download at https://www.zyxel.com/uk/en-gb/support/download?model=ex3301-t0

    * However, there does not appear to be anything in the release notes to say that something has changed…

    However, it might be that the EX3301-T0 will not do what you are looking to do…

    • A firewall or a different model of router might give the isolation that you are seeking.

    Kind regards,

    Tony

  • Peter2
    Peter2 Posts: 118  Ally Member
    5 Answers First Comment Friend Collector Community MVP
    edited July 15
    https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/67686#Comment_67686

    → You can choose default group for the first interface group and eg VDSL for the second and WAN is functioning for both groups .

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