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.
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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.