I'm trying to add my Openwrt flashed AC Pro to a mesh network, such that it broadcasts the same vlan that my Ubiquiti Non flashed AP is. I have read through this tutorial here. However, it seems that this configures the Openwrt device to be the primary mesh device and creates an entirely different network mesh. I have also read this dumb ap tutorial here, but it doesn't seem like I can choose the specific network/vlan I want to broadcast. Is there any way to configure the Openwrt device as a secondary mesh device to another network? Or a way to select what network is broadcast?
If you’re talking mesh — as in wireless backhaul — generally you cannot mix and match different vendors/firmware as they frequently have slightly different implementations for the mesh systems. In the case of unifi, it doesn’t play mesh with any non-unifi systems.
Why do you want to use your uap-ac-pro with openwrt when you already have a unifi (stock firmware) system running?
I'm using openwrt since I want to run simple python programs on the AP, and as you know the unifi firmware is not capable of anything like that. That said, most of my network gear is still unifi so it would be easier to configure my openwrt device accordingly to match the unifi devices as close as possible (broadcasting the same vlan), rather than flashing each device and configuring a soley openwrt setup. Even though I know I can't ever manage the openwrt device with unifi, it somewhat resembling a stock unifi ap while able to run python programs is good enough for me.
Sorry for bumping this, but hadn't found any related.
So, if i understand ok, there is no way to mesh between openwrt and others devices, ok?
What should be the best way to extend the network? I tried client WDS but it is also not working with my mesh devices.
Do you absolutely require a wireless link between the OpenWrt and other mesh nodes? Wire is the best way. Otherwise, you generally need to have the same firmware (or at least the same brand devices when using vendor firmware) on all devices because each firmware/vendor has a slightly different implementation of mesh.
Not absolutely, but i have no wire there and is not that easy to get. Even with just a client WDS there is no guarantee it will work between diferent firmwares? No need for mesh in this cenario. Just used WDS so my main DHCP will work.
The Client WDS connects, but is not working. I will take a closer look later. But had already used Client WDS with diferente vendors/firmware with no problem. So i thought WDS would work fine.
I just need to get a better signal for a printer. Not a big load on the "link".
Ubiquiti mesh is actually WDS AP->STA on a separate, hidden SSID. You can discover the SSID and WPA2 PSK by ssh logging into the Unifi node that you intend to connect to and examining the dynamic configuration files.
There are however different ways that vendors do WDS so one WDS may not match another.
The simplest way would be to use another Unifi node and connect the Ethernet port to the printer.
Good to know. I'm using openwrt as client WDS with a Huawei and it's working fine. So i got lucky in this case.
Now, tried the same with a Tenda, and it do not work.