Multiple SSID Network setup

ESPHome
1

I have a network at my house with 2 SSID. One is for IoT devices (those who connect to the internet), and this is where my Home Assistant installation connects to.
I am isolating my own devices on a SSID of NoT (Network of Things) which do not need internet connections, but use WIFI to connect to Homeassistant, and that would be where they get info from the web through integrations. So my ESPHome device with ESP32 does not need to connect to the internet, it only needs to connect to my homeassistant.

The issue is my nodes do not connect to homeassistant. They work when i put them on the same SSID, but when i move it to another, it does not work. Currently, all my SSIDs and VLANs are open, there is no firewall between them or rules. From my desktop which is on yet another SSID (Data), I am able to connect locally to homeassistant which is on IoT.

My quetion is, for ESPHome to work, does it need to be on the same SSID as the homeassistant installation? I know the answer is yes given the test i ran of putting them on the same and it works.
So my question really is: Is there a way to get them to work on different SSIDs?
Thanks,
H-

2

Do you actually run HA over wifi? Or is it hard wired to the router using ethernet?

Are you sure you have your firewall rules set correctly in the router? Maybe there are default firewall rules that block access?

I’m no networking guru but it sounds like your router may be blocking your IoT devices from other devices in the network.

3

This can mean a lot of things. Are both ap’s physically connected on the same network? Do they both share the same dhcp server? Are the ip address ranges the same. ie the first 3 blocks of numbers the same 192.168.0.xxx.

4

yeah, I checked that also. I can access any device on the network from any other SSID or VLAN. Tested it with my phone connected to one and one of the clients to the other, etc. All works.
Also checked the firewall rules, there are none listed.

5

The APs are all connected to the same router (Unifi UDM Pro). Hardwired.
The homeassistant server (hardwired to the router) is on a different VLAN than the ESPHome device. The first 2 blocks are the same, the third is different. But again, I have it for future separation, but now there are no rules between any of the VLANs.
I am sure this is it, because it works when I connect them on the same VLAN (first 3 numbers matching). But is there a way to work around it? Or I need to make sure they are all on the same VLAN?
thanks,
H-

6

That is it. Rob the hook up has a great video.

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