Hello,
I am trying to find a way to turn on or off some SSIDs based on connectivity conditions - is this possible?
Here’s my use case -
I’m considering creating a couple of SSIDs so that some devices can connect to one SSID but only when there is connectivity over the Starlink connection or one of my cellular data connections.
That would let me have those devices only use those “unlimited” connections and while others use a more limited or metered connection.
I suspect I could also do this using VLANs for some devices (I’m already using outbound policies to manage this) but for some devices “it’s more complicated”.
For instance, for an iPhone with an unlimited data plan, I’d love to connect the device to the vehicle’s network for local device access (think cameras or file server), while still using the unlimited data cellular plan for all internet data needs on the iPhone using one SSID (I’ve figured out how to do this) but connect to the faster internet data connection when Starlink is connected, using a separate SSID.
I think I could easily do this IF I could turn on one SSID and another off, depending on the connectivity state, much like I can with outbound policies.
Is this something that’s possible with my BR1? With any Pepwave router? I would even be willing to go muck about, with care, in the command line 
Just thinking aloud here regarding your iPhone example: if you had an SSID with an associated outbound policy that forced traffic from that SSID to a specific WAN connection or dropped it, would the iPhone not be smart enough to recognise when the SSID to which it was trying to connect had no internet connectivity and then not route internet traffic to it? So sometimes the phone would use the SSID (when the WAN connection was online) and it would be fine, then sometimes that SSID would simply have no internet connectivity and the iPhone would decide, “alright then, not going to use WiFi right now, will just use LTE/5G.” Or am I missing something obvious?
That’s an interesting approach and you are right, the iPhone does this natively - wifi is not … and then asks me if I want to continue trying or use cellular.
I’ve never ignored the prompt or checked to see what happens if I ask it to use cellular and wifi connectivity returns.
I’ll run some tests to see if that would work.
I realise it’s not a solution to your question, just a thought in case your clients may be aware enough to know when to route traffic to an SSID and when not to do so. I’m afraid I don’t know of a way to exactly what you want—as far as I know, the only options to toggle SSIDs on or off programmatically are by time of day.
That’s kind of where I’m going - if it can be done using time based conditions, then I‘m hoping that it could be done, even if it requires a script/crown/etc. to do so based on other states, other than time.
It could even be a feature request
Thanks for chiming in.
If you’re in the command line on a Peplink you’ll be very bored. Nothing there.
Easiest way to do this is with outbound policies.
Create one for the devices you want to restrict to Starlink first then the single cellular connection. Identify them by VLAN / SSID specifically. Set this:
Save, Put the rule at the top, apply. Add rules underneath for all other traffic, or just the traffic from the other SSID / VLAN with how you want them to use the available links.
