Creating two networks Public/Private with one wifi router

Hi all.
I want to create a wifi network where I can share across all of my private devices.
Then, another wifi network that my guests can access for internet only.
Do I need two routers for this? Or, are there some good routers out there to do that sort of thing?

If you can point me in the direction of some relevant reading, I am happy to follow that. I'm not sure where to begin, and most of my searches seem irrelevant (maybe I just don't know the jargon).

You could use two routers but it's far simpler to just use one of the many modern routers which have a 'guest' network capability, separated from your private network.

A Google search for routers with guest network will show loads of hits so choose recent articles, like Best Router for a Guest Network for example.

Hope this helps...

RickC said:

'guest' network capability...

Brilliant, thank you!

Hi there
Another solution without needing to get another router is to define a Virtual Network and bridge it with a mactap device which is simply your own Network card. Then set up a mini Virtual machine which accepts their logons and out to the Internet.

It's easy enough to do on Linux - but I'm sure some Windows Network Gurus could do the equivalent on Windows.
Then all your "guests / visitors" would go through the VM and the VM will act as a proxy and send out the requests on say a specific address 192.159.1.254.

You by setting the proxy can control also what they can do on the Internet --- might be useful if young (or not so young !!) people are pirating movies , TV, Music,etc from your Internet !!!!

I've no idea on how this works in Windows but I'm sure any Network Guru could manage this -- so you'd have this as an "isolated" network for your visitors. That router probably has a tiny OS with some software in it that does exactly that !!!

OK harder than "buying a device" but it's all free and a decent learning experience !!!.

Why pay 100 EUR / USD etc for something you can do yourself --even if it takes a bit of time to do and experiment with.


Cheers
jimbo