So as the title suggests, ive set up an IoT network on my Flint 3, this has devices like a couple of smart plug sockets, various light bulbs, 2 Google Home Hubs, Doorbell, Internal Camera’s, Kettle etc connected to it, everything else like my PC, phones, TV, Amp, laptops etc are all connected to my main network.
So the issue im having is when I ask my google home hub to turn on the TV, she cant do it as shes on the isolated IoT network, where the TV is on the main network, is there anyway around this ?
I get that I could connect the Home hub to the main network instead, but then she’ll stop controlling devices on the IoT network and vise versa.
So far the only waork around ive found for it is to just use the main 2.4ghz network for IoT devicess and completely dissable the IoT feature, but for obvious reasons this isnt as secure.
I don’t use IoT network on GL.iNET but is this not one of its most important features (isolation from main network)? If not wanting this, then why use it in the first place and why not just put everything on the same network?
Smart devices are the easiest way into you network, so to put IoT devices on a seperate network, (especailly if you have a lot of IoT devices like I do), keeps tthem segrigated from you main network, ie if a hacker finds a way into your IoT devices, because they are effectivly on a seperate network its no threat to devices on your main network, like you PC or Smart Phones where you generally keep sensetive information.
Its just a shame there isnt some easy way to link certain devices on the IoT to devices on the main networks, like my Google Nest Max (IoT) to the TV (5ghz), or my Printer on the IoT network to my PC on the main network, I actually just sold my printer and brought a new Dual Band WiFi printer for this very reason, so I could have the printer on the 5ghz which my previous printer wasnt able to do.
Generally speaking, network isolation is the whole point of using an IoT network. An IoT network that can communicate with main network offers no protection from compromised devices.
I have the same issue using a Flint 2 router. I just started, but know that I’ll need to access a couple of my IOT devices from LAN connected devices. Using the LUCI interface, I’ve gone into the Firewall settings and added iot to the lan zone. Initial testing shows that IOT devices can be pinged from LAN devices, but LAN devices can't be pinged from IOT devices. If I'm missing something here, please let me know. I still have a lot of testing to do, as I have several types of devices to migrate from the LAN network to the IOT network, each type with its own set of issues which may prevent them from surviving the move.
Based on your test result, the current behavior is expected. After adding the IoT zone to the LAN zone forwarding rules, LAN devices can access IoT devices, while IoT devices still cannot initiate connections to LAN devices by default.
If you also need IoT devices to access LAN devices, there are two possible ways:
Allow IoT → LAN forwarding.
You can add an additional forwarding rule from the IoT zone to the LAN zone in the firewall settings.
This will allow devices in the IoT network to communicate with devices in the LAN network. Please note that this allows all IoT devices to access the LAN network.
Add firewall rules for specific devices.
If you only need certain IoT devices to access specific LAN devices, you can create individual firewall rules.
For example, if an IoT camera with IP address 192.168.10.20 needs to access a NAS device with IP address 192.168.8.50 in the LAN network, you can create a rule like:
Thank you for your reply, as the provided information will likely be useful at some point in the future. I agree with the others in this thread, that the point of placing devices in a separate zone is to ensure that they can't access devices on the rest of the network. However, there are always exceptions this. Again, many thanks.
