Mesh WiFi Access Point
brupala Posted messages 111113 Registration date Status Member Last intervention -
Hello,
The WiFi from my Internet box does not cover my entire home properly.
Since I have RJ45 sockets in every room of the house, I would like to know if it's possible to add a single WiFi access point, connect it to the box via these RJ45 sockets, and make it work in mesh so that devices can connect to either the access point or the box seamlessly, as if there were only one transmitter.
If this is technically possible, do you have any recommendations?
Thank you!
2 answers
Hello,
you can do it the old-fashioned way without mesh if you don't want to invest in a mesh wifi system:
you install a plain wifi access point (preferably wifi 5), at least at the same wifi level as your router, so connected via ethernet to the router, you configure it with the same SSID names (2.4 and 5 GHz) and WPA key as your router, but on sufficiently distant channels to coexist (at least 4 values apart in 2.4 and 20 values apart in 5 GHz),
so in case of signal loss from either one, your device will automatically switch to the other access point without having to re-establish the connection.
And there you go, there it is....
But goodness, those line breaks are such a pain!!
Will the switch really be seamless? For example, if I download a large file, will the download not interrupt for a few seconds or even stop completely?
It should stop for a few seconds, but then resume on its own. It’s better not to start a download while moving; it’s best not to move the device.
In any case, a mesh will cut out a bit too; a change of route never occurs without packet loss in a constant stream.
You can test with a continuous ping using the -t option and with a fairly large size to make a bigger difference, for example:
ping 9.9.9.9 -l 1250 -t
Hello,
With a true mesh, the switch will not only be more transparent, it will also happen sooner, as soon as it is beneficial, instead of waiting for a nearly complete loss of signal.
However, a true mesh implies using only mesh devices for the Wi-Fi, so in your case, that's two mesh devices.
These mesh devices can sometimes replace a fiber box, with different EU countries gradually forcing ISPs to allow this.
Unless the ISP offers a mesh solution compatible with its box.
To form a mesh, devices from the same provider and the same range are required. Currently, there is no compatibility between mesh devices from different ranges.
No, it works very well with one or more L2 switches, :-)
Otherwise, it would be complicated and very limiting.
Moreover, there is definitely a difference in operation if the mesh is in router mode or AP mode, and if there are tagged VLANs to pass in AP mode, the implementations are not necessarily well defined at this level from what I've seen.