Hello! I'm newbie here. I'll try to explain my situation.
I live on the island with no mobile signal around the house but I managed to solve that using Mikrotik LHG LTE6 and two Nanostations M2. Mikrotik LHG is 'main router', and is located ~200m away from the house where it's bridged to Nanostation in AP mode, and other Nanostation is located on my roof in Station mode.
Last Nanostation, call it 'B' is wired to gigabit poe switch where I have internet connection (tested with my laptop, or new access point).
Thing is that my house is not so small and I need at least 3 Access points to cover it as I wanted. (3 floors, big backyard..)
I have different devices available (my bad, not same manufacturer...)
I have:
1 x Ubiquiti uap-ac-m-pro
1 x Tp-link Archer C6
1 x Mikrotik (wAP)
1 x Tp-link, some old model, maybe 901ND
Thanks for reading, my question is:
Is it possible to MESH all of them if I flash them to Openwrt? I saw some article about DUMP-AP and etc....
My main router, Mikrotik LHG is set to 192.168.1.1 so I suppose that all these AP's need to be on the same subnet (192.168.1.x)
Mikrotik WAP - static 192.168.1.2
Ubiquiti - static 192.168.1.3
Archer C6 - static 192.168.1.4
...
with DHCP only enabled on 'gateway' router?
I will post an image to describe all my mess.
Yes, you can spawn a mesh between devices using different SOCs/ wireless chipsets while running OpenWrt. Not all wireless chipsets/ drivers/ firmwares support non-mainstream uses that push the envelope (such as meshing) equally well though, so the devil might be in the details.
The question would be if you'd need a mesh (which one, there are different implementations) in the first place, or if simple AP configurations (if a wired backhaul is available through the house) or a simpler WDS/ 4addr (static locations of your WDS repeaters) would suffice already.
I'm not a pro with 'network things' but I'm not amateur neither.
I need simple wifi coverage of my house for ~10 smartphones on 2 floors (3 rooms, two terraces...) area appx. 300m squared.
Can you give me some tutorial how to do this is someone already done this because I don't know correct words to search.
Is 'mesh' real thing or I just need to wire multiple AP's and give them another channels in spectrum?
I can wire all devices from switch and I have two devices (xiaomi repeater and tp link 901nd) which by factory supports repeater (WDS) mode and I'm okay with that because it works.
If you can run a wire to each location, use dumb APs and never look back. If all locations are static and within reach from the main router, then go for WDS. Otherwise, you will need a mesh.
I can run wires from gigabit switch who is connected to Nanostation in 'Station mode', or you mean from LAN port of AP1 to Wan port of AP2, and etc...?
If I connect any AP in gigabit switch I can create connections and it works, tested. IP camera is also wired-connected to switch and it has connection
Can I just run wires from multiple AP's to switch and create WiFi networks with same name and password and put then in Access point mode?
Make sure that you manually assign the channels and set them such that no neighboring APs use the same channels (in 2.4GHz, only use channels 1, 6, 11). It is also best to set the power levels (reduce them) so that you minimize the overlap between APs so that your devices will smoothly roam from one to the next.
And what should I do about ip addresses? My 'main router' and gateway is 192.168.1.1.
Every new AP should be static, for example 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3.,....?
So I should enable DHCP only on gateway, and in range, for example 192.168.1.50 - 192.168.1.150.
Furthermore, I should disable DHCP on ap's and give them static up address out of DHCP gateway range?
Sounds logical if that's it.
Personally I don't see any reason not to use dhcp for all devices, including your APs (albeit with static dhcp reservations) - but that's a personal preference.
