How to Create a VLAN - A Beginner's Guide // OpenWrt Router (Up to 19.x)

Updated video for VLANs in OpenWrt 21.02!

Welcome back to Dev Odyssey Home Networking! In this episode I break down VLANs with a example, and demonstrate how to set up your own VLANs using OpenWrt on my Netgear R6080. VLANs have many benefits, notably, creating multiple networks that let you control which networks your devices connect to, and therefore securing them by separating out personal devices, guest devices, and risky smart devices. Once you know how to create VLANs, you can make your own virtual networks for all the devices in your home network.

This video was recorded using the following versions of OpenWrt and LuCI:

OpenWrt SNAPSHOT r15838-d2d32dcd5f (19.x)
LuCI master 21.124.24916-0faf9a4

00:00 Intro
00:20 What are VLANs
00:36 VLANs Explained
02:51 VLAN Advantages
03:22 VLAN Requirements
03:43 Creating a VLAN
08:00 Connecting to VLAN using Ethernet
08:38 Connecting to VLAN over WiFi
09:27 Outro

Video Outline

VLANs - Virtual Local Area Network (LAN)

VLANs are virtually / logically separated, not physically like regular LANs

VLANs are defined by the 802.1q protocol.

VLAN Diagram

VLAN Advantages

1. Create multiple virtual networks
2. Create special purpose networks for guest users, smart devices, video surveillance and media streaming servers like Plex

VLAN Requirements

1. Physical Interface (Ethernet or WiFi)
2. VLAN ID (1 - 4094)
3. Name
4. Priority (0 by default, meaning Best Effort)

OpenWrt VLAN Demonstration - create a VLAN, and connect to the VLAN over Ethernet port and WiFi

Other Dev Odyssey Network Videos:

Home Networking Playlist

Network Security Playlist

Music Attribution

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Icon Attribution

#VLAN #OpenWrt #Router

[lieksmudkipz]

You easily have the best guide for teaching someone. Clear and to the point. You only make needed deviations to quickly explain an additional point.

[wilsonomonz]

This is nice, great explanation and practical solution👍 I have been searching the whole youtube without finding a solution. All they do is to talk and talk and even confuse people more 😂😂😂😂

[vhmuc]

Your explanation of some wording, untagged, (virtual) tagged(physical), max4094, etc, is great, and thanks.

[landrykilpatrick]

Awesome video! I am a visual learner and this really helped for my online college class.

[romainpelissier]

Just a word to say thanks for this tutorial! it helps me a lot because it is something that I wanted to test for a very long time and never found an easy way, step-by-step tutorial to acheive this vlan config. So thanks again! :)

[zrwng]

Well done. I use vlans for all of the above, Our wireless, security cameras and IoT are all on vlans as well as our home offices. All of that is separate from the main home network.

[pichonPoP]

Thank you for sharing this. Really like this video. I hope that you covered more about vland and switch tagged and untagged things.

[flymtmm]

bro I am a total noob to this.. but your tutorials are amazing.... wow subbed & liked

[nikolaishields]

For those in the comments wondering why they don't have the device section, I don't believe the author is using the stable release of openwrt but a release candidate at time of posting.
19.XX builds of openwrt do not appear have this menu layout.

[allenperera]

Very nice video, simple and straight to the point, compared to other youtubers.

[IAMT]

I love the fact that I can use my cheap TP-Link router with OpenWRT to create VLANs.

Without paying tons of money on professional switches, I can do this and achieve higher security. I will try this tomorrow. Thank you so much for this video, I was looking for a tutorial like this for a while. You definitely got a new subscriber!

Question: Setting up this way, can I have both the default WiFi network and the VLAN WiFi one via the same single router antenna so I don't have to add another router for a this? Also does this untag the physical LAN port 1, or do I need to manually add this too so I can also have access to the new VLAN via ethernet instead of WiFi only?

[josecorreia]

Hi, thanks for yours great videos.
How to setup all Vlans in one port in order to connect into a mannaged switch?

[xMyPlaylistx]

Hi, I'm using OpenWrt 21. after adding vlan on device, there's no option to "bridge interface" 5:14.

[emmanueljaramba]

Hi, thanks for this very good video. My setup is like this, my primary router cannot take open source firmware but is is faster, I want to practise vlan segmenting using my tplink router which now has openwrt-23.05 and has a static ip address on my network currently with a static ip address and dhcp turned off, how do I go about that

[Ryan-okxr]

I have IT experience a-plenty but haven't had the privilege of actually setting a VLAN up from scratch. Was considering buying a cheap 'usb only' printer and plopping it onto an old router. Wanted to secure it on a VLAN so it can't hurt any home devices but my wife and guests can easily connect to the printer and print whatever. I also am incredibly paranoid when it comes to smart things like tvs. Weak, android computers that I can only hope are updating themselves with patches

[ramosel]

Great tutorial, but how do you accomplish the steps in section 5 that start at 3:43 of the video in the new version 21 when you don't have the option of bridging interfaces when you create the new interface for VLAN3?

[plixplux]

Hey, thanks for a great video.

Still a bit unsure about the relationship between physical ports and tagged vs untagged, but I'm sure I'll come around it soon.

What I don't get though is why when configuring DHCP you opted not to give a default route?

[gmcenroe]

Aren't most routers only using layer 2 switching so they are vulnerable to attacks? I have heard that it is better to use a switch that has layer 3, even an older used CISCO switch would be more secure and still manageable to set up a VLAN. What do you think about this?

[algolove]

I think its now time for you to create vlan guide on 23.05 version

[marklyn]

I am in the process of purchasing a Sodola 28 port switch that has VLAN capability. I'd like to segregate all of my surveillance cameras (15 cameras) into a VLAN, all of my Tivo's (4) into another VLAN. My idea is to isolate those devices to their own VLAN group as to minimize unnecessary traffic across my entire LAN. Am I on the right track? Thanks for the video!