Different Bandwith Throttlng for Two Separate Groups

We have several Balance 30s deployed over several years. But I have never accessed any of the portal, group, or bandwidth throttling features. Looking to get some advice on how to achieve the solution I’m seeking.

Solution: One Balance 30. Private property. Owners and guests. Owners should get full bandwidth, and guests should be throttled. No data caps needed. I see that a portal can be activated, and that user groups can be created. HOWEVER, in examining the Balance 30 feature set (7.11 although we can go to 8.x) it appears that the ability to apply throttling to a specific group of users is IP based (single addresses or a range).

This is not an ideal solution, as the devices used by the owners varies over time, so such an approach would involve a layer of management. It would be preferable to key to a user group based on criteria such as a differing set of credentials to login to the network/appliance. One set of creds for the owners and another set of creds for the guests. Is this doable?

thanx
jim

No help?

Question too stupid?

Question too hard?

RTFM? (I did)

no such thing as a stupid question.

Generally you want to segregate the owner and guests in one way or another.
Typically i would do this with multiple VLANS and multiple ssids associated 1:1 with the vlans.

If you don’t, you are left with hard coding rules based on subnets of the allocated LAN segment. So DHCP at the lower end and static IPs assigned at the higher end then rules based on those groups of IPs.

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How are the guests connecting? If they are connecting through any of the Peplink wifi access points, you can set up a guest SSID which has bandwidth limits. The owners could then use a different SSID or wired connection. As noted you can do this in the router but then you have to manage devices there as well. This is much easier to manage in the access points.

Peplink APs also have an option called Guest Protect which blocks them from accessing other devices on the LAN, such as the owner’s computers, printers, etc.

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Thank you Martin and Don. I see now how this may be done. Your replies verify that this is not best done on the peplink, given the current incarnation of the firmware seems limited to managing traffic by IPs and subnets, and as you say Don, thus more management.

Here is my topology: Balance 30 acting as edge/border router. The clients are hitting either of two Ubiquiti access points (Airmax). In between is a Netgear router. So the APs plug into the Netgear and the Netgear plugs into a WAN port on the Peplink.

So here’s my question: I have never worked with VLANs but the Airmax OS is VLAN capable. 1) I assume that if I set up two SSIDs on the Ubiquiti’s, each tied to their own VLAN, that the peplink will be able to discern traffic between the two VLANs?

And 2) The Peplink could route the traffic from each VLAN to a different group (one group throttled, one not)?

Is this a workable config? I don’t know that the Airmax OS will throttle speed, so this plan would have the peplink doing the throttling, yet no additional management required due to the VLANs and the twin SSIDs.

Netgear router plugs into the LAN of the Balance 30 surely? If not you might need to draw that.
Whats the purpose of the netgear router? Is that in NAT or IP forwarding mode?

The netgear might get in the way of that, but if VLAN tagged traffic arrives on the LAN of the balance and you have the associated VLANs set up on the Balance also then yes it can route by source address.

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Ha. Yeah. I meant LAN.

This was an existing system that I was called in on. Come to think of it the APs may plug directly into the router. I’m working from memory. The Netgear actually acts as a 3rd AP.

Either way I’ve got the gist of it now. I’m going to mock this up on the bench with my spare Balance 30. Then deploy to client when squared away. thanx!

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I think you are spending a lot of time and effort trying to make multiple brands of equipment work together. I’d just go buy a few Peplink AP, use the SSID bandwidth options, and be assured the results will work. The Balance 30 has a basic AP controller built right into the router so you can set it all up in one place.

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