Hello, very new to OpenWRT and was hopping I could get some advice.
My plan is to set up a 3 node mesh throughout my house is a little unusual in that its very long and thin meaning I can really place a single AP in the optimal position and am stuck with it at the very front of the house.
My current modem router combo (Archer VR400) does not support mesh, so I think my first question should probably be what are some good option based on a 3 node wifi backhaul setup that is going to be user friendly for someone new like myself and for the other 2 node is it best to use the same hardware?
Edit to Add clarity in my aims:
What I'm really aiming for is:
multiple APs connected via wireless backhaul (because I can't run Ethernet)
a single SSID so that user devices can roam between APs seamlessly
ideally using OpenWRT so I can learn and customize as I go, and to have greater control and data privacy compared to an off-the-shelf mesh system that relies on cloud services
Ideal would be devices with 3 radios, 2.4+5+5 GHz, as sold as mesh systems by the various vendors. For 802.11ac, we have quite a a selection of these devices, for 802.11ax device support is more lacking so far. In practical terms, a 2-radio 802.11ax device might still beat a 3-radio 802.11ac device though.
Before you go any further, answer this important question:
Do you want your user devices (phones, tablets, laptops etc) to seamlessly roam from one node to the other?
If that is what you want, that is not what a mesh does.
A mesh provides a wireless backhaul that normal user devices cannot connect to directly (they need an access point to do that, either separate or built in to the mesh node).
I don't mean to be contradictory in any way, but why do you think this is so?
I have seen it mentioned on this forum a few times.
That second 5GHz radio in those devices is usually provided for passive scanning in a WiFi Alliance EasyMesh system and not for use as anything else, not having proper antennas and limited transmit capability. For use in AP or mesh mode it generally does not give good performance.
I added South Africa local buying tip in your other thread. You can set up mesh 11s , or if you want guest vlans then batman mesh. And separate APs from mesh on each router.
Most of the time you would be correct but Wifi 6 has turned that around. Devices like the Linksys MX4200 (or ISP equivalent) can be easily flashed to OpenWRT and had for under 30 euros. I don't think there will ever be a better mesh router for OpenWRT since Wifi 7 tri band isn't exactly mesh friendly.
Thanks for the clarification — I think I may have used the term "mesh" a little loosely.
What I'm really aiming for is:
multiple APs connected via wireless backhaul (because I can't run Ethernet)
a single SSID so that user devices can roam between APs seamlessly
ideally using OpenWRT so I can learn and customize as I go, and to have greater control and data privacy compared to an off-the-shelf mesh system that relies on cloud services
From what I've read, OpenWRT can do this with 802.11s mesh or WDS, plus options like 802.11r/DAWN/usteer to help with roaming.
If I'm understanding correctly, this would give me the seamless experience I'm looking for as I move through the house. If you have any tips on the best way to approach this (mesh vs WDS, hardware suggestions), I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks, that's really helpful. I hadn't considered that WDS might be the simpler option with just 3 nodes.
Would you say WDS is generally more stable than 802.11s mesh on current OpenWRT builds? And any particular dual- or tri-radio models you’d recommend for a beginner-friendly setup?
At least for the devices I have in mind (map-ac2200, orbi, etc.) there are two full-featured 802.11ac 5 GHz radios (one low-band, ch36-64 and one high-band, ch100+). The wireless backhaul usually goes on the high-band (which often is the better, 4x4 qca9984, radio compared to the 2x2 qca4019 fronthaul), to retain maximum client compatibility for the fronthaul. These are real 2.4+5+5 GHz devices, without drawbacks or footnotes (similar ipq807x devices exist, but mostly aren't supported by OpenWrt yet, although xiaomi ax9000, nbg7815 might come close).
Quite different situation than the wrt3200acm/ wrt32x or xiaomi ax3600, where the third radio is indeed only a crippled 1x1 variant for scanning or IoT use
How many wifi7 OpenWrt supported devices can you list and how do you know it's not mesh friendly?
Hopefully we will get some supported wifi6e and wifi7 devices "soon"... 2026... 2027...
Then on 6GHz, mesh will have its "Game Changer" moment - multi gigabit channels...
Sounds good but the problem is channel >100 is either DFS or SRD (ultra low power Short Range), or both, in most regions so is unusable for reliable 802.11s mesh...
