Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Consumer routers do have this feature, but usually it's software-limited to single additional VLAN and called "guest network". It would be trivial to add an option for dedicated "IOT network".

Even the cheapest $20 routers are actually quite capable in terms of hardware, supporting at least 16 VLANs.



Except that many IOT devices require you to be in the broadcast domain for control and discovery....

e.g. with LIFX wifi light bulbs, you can control them with low latency (and no internet connection) via ip packets; or high latency via LIFX's cloud servers if you're not in the same subnet.


Are they using broadcast packets, or is it multicast and enabling multicast routing on your home network fixes the problem (you might need a mangle rule to bump up the TTL)



Nasty. Maybe able to do it with a dst-nat?


Meanwhile my WiFi-enabled HomeKit devices happily run on a segmented network.


Oh. Well, then, just put all the IoT stuff on the guest network.

Maybe hard on your guests, though :(




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: