Offline Wlan Network - IoT Devices - secure?

dhhdjbd

I am wondering, if someone might know this please,

if i get like a wlan router, without any internet connection,
to create a local network,
will this network be reasonably secure? as in against threats from the internet/ remote?

The use case is that i put iot devices (home) into this network and occassional, which communicate,
and occasionally connect myself, with my normal phone and the apps that the manifacturer provided, to this network and these devices

I dont really can think of a flaw for this approach right now, but maybe i missed something? thank you

n3t_admin

dhhdjbd so if I am understanding this correctly, you just use a router that isn't connected via cable to any other networking device? Then you could consider it airgapped, in which case it should be reasonably secure.
Of course you won't entirely defeat every threat - especially those in range. But I assume that is less of a threat.
Although this is very unlikely, there could be a flaw that could be exploited from a different device (from example your phone), but the chances are incredibly slim, bordering impossible.

If the router is connected to other networking devices, the story becomes a lot more complicated.

thmf

dhhdjbd if i get like a wlan router

In this case you're as safe as your wireless hardware and its software part (OS, drivers, etc). On both sides, the router/WAP, and the IoT devices.
I don't have a reliable source for this claim to provide, but I would be surprised if IoT field would be responsible enough to regularly fix vulnerabilities with updates, as for example GrapheneOS does, so I'd be extra careful there.
If possible, consider lowering WiFi antenna signal strength to cover just enough area to cover the devices, but no more. Otherwise wired solution is your best friend.

dhhdjbd

n3t_admin so if I am understanding this correctly, you just use a router that isn't connected via cable to any other networking device? Then you could consider it airgapped, in which case it should be reasonably secure.

yes this is what i mean
Thank you very much

And no the only other networking device would be the phone, and if this is "infected" this itself would be already a much bigger issue, so the rest wont matter then anymore haha

i heard often that vlan's are used for this, but it sounded complicated to setup correctly,
so i am glad that getting a secound offline router is the fool proof option i hoped for it to be

GrouchyGrape

dhhdjbd VLANs are typically what would be used to accomplish this, but there are many ways to accomplish your goal. If you're interested enough in it, I recommend learning the basics of networking. You'd be surprised how useful it can become when setting up/troubleshooting any networks.

n3t_admin

dhhdjbd i heard often that vlan's are used for this, but it sounded complicated to setup correctly,

The problem with VLANs is that your hardware also has to support it. And I mean the whole chain, from your router, over to your switches and all the way to the AP. This can actually get expensive pretty fast. The setup isn't actually very complicated. You create a VLAN on your router, set firewall rules to isolate it, reconfigure DHCP and you're done basically.