This is more of a question of is this possible and how would I go about doing it. So I have two Asus routers (Asus RT-AC86U running Asuswrt-Merlin and and Asus RT-AC68U running Tomato) I have not had good luck with the Asus component updating when devices are on it inside of Home Assistant so what I am wanting to do is leave the Asus router the way it is as everything is setup with it but use my Tomato router as the device tracker and as people come and go have it update through it so basically make it the guest router essentially. So I have my main Asus router on one subnet but then put the Tomato router on another subnet. Is there any way to get the Home Assistant docker to connect to both of these subnets at the same time so that I can do this. I am using Unraid dockers for all of this. Whenever I try to get the second network setup it seems to crash my whole network and nothing on it seems to work. My Tomato router is set up toe issue IP addresses over 192.168.2.1 and the Asus router is over 192.168.1.1. Any input would be great.
Why?
This isn’t creating any real security separation
Why do they need to be in separate subnets?
I am not really wanting it for security reasons. I have just had trouble with the Asuswrt component of HA tracking devices. So I was going to use the second router to track the devices instead.
I was thinking if they were on the same subnet that the Asus router would be the one doing the tracking which I have been having issues with. I want to use the Tomato router for this hoping the tracking works better. Maybe I am doing this wrong and if there is a better idea I am open to listening.
Yeah. Just get some Unifi gear
You might consider using routers that support a “mesh network” next time around. There are getting to be more an more mesh options. I personally use (3) Google WiFi routers. One acts as the master, and it owns the local subnet. The other two routers extend the subnet into other parts of my home and yard. Two of my routers interconnect by wire. The third interconnects wirelessly. Additional routers can be added, and the routers all support a guest network along with the primary network.
Mesh networks allow devices to seamlessly move from one router to another and are managed as a single router.
I guess you are fixing your problem at the wrong end. Asuswrt component is based on network discovery. However, recent android and ios try to do agressive power saving. For that reason they turn off your cellphones wifi periodically.
For HA it looks like: home…not_home…home…
From my experience wifi based trackers don’t really work.
What you need for somewhat reliable presence detection is a gps based tracker e.g. owntracks.
You can accomplish the same thing with “prosumer gear”. Mesh not required
For me i run HA on a subnet, mostly due to housekeeping. And if i need to restart the HA router I won’t have angry teens getting angry due to the internet going down. I can keep all my HA stuff and IPs on one router and everything else on the other.
Mostly personal preference.
Instead of multiple routers, you should be using different VLANs and SSIDs
Should?? Nope. Why when what i am using is working just fine.
OK. If it works for you, then have at it.
@deisi I understand what you are saying and I agree that gps is more accurate. I have something setup for devices that I own but the problem is I have family come over and watch the kids during the days sometimes so I don’t want the thermostat the be set to away when someone is at home. Everyone is connected to the wifi so it made it easy to track without having to have them install and setup tracking software on their phone (also these seem to be battery killers on phones when traveling long distances which I don’t tend to like and to ask someone else to do this on their phone didn’t seem right) That is why I went with the wifi version. It seems to find people when they come over fine however it is more of an issue of when they leave the asus component tends to mark them as still home even after they have left for hours/days. I can clear it manually but they seem to come back within a few minutes so it isn’t very accurate. I am leaning towards just going to get some Unifi gear if I can’t figure something else out
Okay I see. How about the nmap tracker? It might work better. https://www.home-assistant.io/components/device_tracker.nmap_tracker/
If you flash your router to Tomato, you can use the SNMP component to track the active MAC addresses on your router for presence detection.
It’s far less laggy/aggressive than the Nmap tracker.
@flamingm0e So what is the best way to do this. Is it to just get some an AP and use my existing router with the WiFi on or off depending how well they seem to work together) or is it better to get the Edge Router or USG device? I am trying to determine how much I need to get to make this all work well.
I use an edgerouter poe and a single access point (Unifi AC-LR) that covers a half acre lot. The USG along with an Access Point will offer a more cohesive integration with the Unifi software, but that’s all up to you.
With the right gear you can have multiple access points all broadcasting the same SSID. You get device tracking and logging of devices.