I recently bought a bundle of 2 mx4200 and now am trying to setup batman-adv on it. I have 1 of them act as the router and the other act as a dummy ap. I followed the video called "DIY MESH WiFi with batman-adv and OpenWrt" on youtube, and made some progress, but now am stuck at getting connection on the dummy ap. I created bat0 and batmesh like the video, but I the dummy ap doesnt seem to connect to the router if i disconnect the cable connecting the 2 lan ports together. im not sure how to proceed, as I found the video quite confusing. I watched it many times, but still dont understand what I did wrong. am I supposed to create bat0 and batmesh on both of the routers? Please advise
With only two participating APs, WDS/ 4addr is a more sensible choice - easier to set up, faster.
Is thst expandable? Im planning on replacing the router downstairs when theres a good deal on routers. The downstairs router would connect via ethernet to the upstairs router.
I tried following the guide using luci, and still couldnt get the repeater ap to connect to the upstream ap wirelessly. Is ethernet supposed to work on the repeater ap?
WDS/ 4addr is the better (and faster) option, if:
- the APs aren't changing their location constantly (often)
- all 'repeaters' can connect to your central wifi router directly (so not multiple levels of wireless daisy-chaining)
With only two APs, this is guaranteed. With 3-4 APs it's still likely to be the case (or possible).
If you can connect 'some' of your APs by wire (ethernet, which is always best), you can extend this limit (considerably).
Meaning it plays its hand, if you have a structured and relatively stable network (where you can configure which WDS-AP the WDS-client(s) should use as their uplink), without (too much) wireless daisy-chaining
Mesh (in the sense of 802.11s, B.A.T.M.A.N. et al) is necessary if you need-need the self-organizing aspects of a mesh:
- so if your APs are moving unpredictably (or go on- and off randomly)
- if you need multiple hops of (wireless-) daisy-chaining (so there is no clear uplink path to the WDS-Ap anymore)
- if you set up a shared mesh with your neighbour, with each of you contributing their internet/ wan connection to the mesh
- if the preferred 'route' to the internet changes frequently
For WDS/ 4addr something like this are easy network topologies:
[WDS-Client1] [WDS-Client2]
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
Internet <-- [WDS-AP1]
|
|
ethernet
|
|
[WDS-AP2]
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
[WDS-Client3] [WDS-Client4]
The closer you remain within the concept of 'single best route' to the uplink, the better.
Even without WDS-AP2 in the picture, the situation remains equivalent, as long as all WDS-Clients have a good connection to the/ their WDS-AP.
Should you enter a situation where WDS-Client4 could get better performance (keep the repeater-effect in mind) from WDS-Client2, than from (either of) the WDS-APs depending on the time of day (devices moving physically or switching on/off unpredictably), or if you have *many* wireless-backhaul-only mesh clients in your fleet (probably 5+) - or if you want a shared mesh with your neighbours (each/ most of them donating their internet connection for improved aggregate resilience/ speed), the mesh approach starts to win.
WDS/ 4addr is much easier to set up - and in a good network topology always faster (and easier to maintain).
Mesh scores with heavily dynamic situations you can't configure 'by hand' anymore.
So I managed to get the dummy ap to connect to the main ap. Any reason why host is listed as "?"? Im able to ping the main ap and connect to the internet without the temporary ethernet connecting the 2 aps.
I found this thread looking for advice on Batman-adv. But he’s asking for a simple mesh network, which I already have and have had for years, working excellent. I assume others are going to find this thread and have the same question, and there was no follow-up on their question.
The existing recommendation has been WDS. WDS is typically manufacturer specific, and model-specific too, so as long as both devices are the same, it should work. However, I’ve found mesh to be easier to set-up and works on any device.
Dedicate your only 5ghz wifi to mesh use (or use 1 of 2, if you have 2, use the 2nd, the higher channel one, e.g. channel 149 at 80mhz). Use your 2.4ghz for regular wifi, setup for 802.11r roaming. If you have 2 5ghz radios on your device (one for mesh, one for regular wifi), set that up too as you normally would. Basically, all you are doing is swapping an ethernet backhaul where the second or third access point is connected via the LAN port to the router, and instead you are dedicating a wifi link for the same thing. Performance will not be as good, but if it has 2 wifi radios for 5ghz, one dedicated for mesh, you won’t notice a difference, typically.
Prerequisites:
Make sure your builds have wpad-mbedtls, not wpad-basic-mbedtls, as basic lacks mesh support.
Make sure the network drivers also support mesh. There are variations among firmwares for wifi.
I don’t have experience with your specific device, but if your build meets those requirements then you will have an option when you ‘Add’ (create) a new ‘wireless network’. Mode: 802.11s (if you don’t have this option under mode, you don’t have the correct support and need to investigate what you messed-up ealier about making sure you have driver support and wpad-mbedtls). Security will be WPA3-SEA, use a complex password that the mesh aspect of the nodes will use to talk to each other with (not your clients!).
Turn on Time Advertisement under WLAN Roaming/Advanced. DO NOT check the WNM Sleep Mode options (2) or the ProxyARP (1) options. You do not want the mesh node going to ‘sleep’: those options are there for clients.
You don’t need any other software or options: assuming you used the same fixed channel and width for your mesh nodes, they will find each other and link-up.