Question about mesh system networking setup

[thievesarmy]

I've got a small wired home network fed by AT&T Gig internet. All the wired connections work fine - my question is regarding how I have the Wifi setup, or more specifically how I WANT to set it up.

Currently I have my AT&T device (BGW320) only functioning as a router with the wireless access turned off, because I have the Netgear RAX200 router (the one that looks like a new republic spaceship) which is a pretty powerful AP, so that has been my main one positioned in the center of the house, in bridge mode. Then on the two far ends of the house (my home is kinda long) I have each end hooked up with a smaller AP that are fed from the wired network. So, 3 AP's, but 3 separate networks. My Wifi speeds are usually great but it can be annoying when walking from one end of the house to the other, the signal of the original network is faint but strong enough that the device stays connected to it, so I have to do a fair amount of manual switching to the closest AP.

I ended up buying a mesh system on prime day because I thought it would solve that problem, but now I'm not so sure if it will work the way I thought it would.

I assume I have to keep using the BGW320 as the router because of the fiber input line (unless there is some way to connect that to a 3rd party non-fiber router that I'm unaware of? ) - but can the mesh system work that way without the main node also functioning as a router? The Mesh system is the MK83, with 1 router and 2 satellites, so my thinking was the router node would replace my main AP, the RAX200, and would connect directly to the BGW320 in bridge mode, and then my 2 satellites would replace my 2 smaller AP's at each end of the house, and use the ethernet backhaul for optimal performance.

Is this possible ?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, thievesarmy said:

BGW320

https://www.att.com/support/smallbusiness/article/smb-dsl-high-speed/KM1188698/

[LIGISTX]

31 minutes ago, thievesarmy said:

I've got a small wired home network fed by AT&T Gig internet. All the wired connections work fine - my question is regarding how I have the Wifi setup, or more specifically how I WANT to set it up.

Currently I have my AT&T device (BGW320) only functioning as a router with the wireless access turned off, because I have the Netgear RAX200 router (the one that looks like a new republic spaceship) which is a pretty powerful AP, so that has been my main one positioned in the center of the house, in bridge mode. Then on the two far ends of the house (my home is kinda long) I have each end hooked up with a smaller AP that are fed from the wired network. So, 3 AP's, but 3 separate networks. My Wifi speeds are usually great but it can be annoying when walking from one end of the house to the other, the signal of the original network is faint but strong enough that the device stays connected to it, so I have to do a fair amount of manual switching to the closest AP.

I ended up buying a mesh system on prime day because I thought it would solve that problem, but now I'm not so sure if it will work the way I thought it would.

I assume I have to keep using the BGW320 as the router because of the fiber input line (unless there is some way to connect that to a 3rd party non-fiber router that I'm unaware of? ) - but can the mesh system work that way without the main node also functioning as a router? The Mesh system is the MK83, with 1 router and 2 satellites, so my thinking was the router node would replace my main AP, the RAX200, and would connect directly to the BGW320 in bridge mode, and then my 2 satellites would replace my 2 smaller AP's at each end of the house, and use the ethernet backhaul for optimal performance.

Is this possible ?

What you want to do is put the ATT box into bridge or passthrough mode. This will turn it into just a modem, with no firewall… remember this part. You always want a firewall between your devices and the internet, so for future reference, never use it without a router between devices and the ATT box once you do this, or set it back to default first. 
 

From that point, you can then use any router behind it you want. If you don’t do this, you end up in double NAT. Which is not inherently bad, but it’s not desired. 
 

So you have fiber > ATT ONT (the box they give you) in bridge mode > your router. If you can wire them to use an Ethernet backhaul that is obviously desired, but wireless mesh is usually pretty good. 

[Bdavis]

Your current setup should work fine. Just set all three routers/ access points to the same ssids and passwords and your devices will automatically switch between them. If you really want a good mesh/wired system buy ubiquiti gear. A dream machine pro SE and 3 access points of your choosing will do what you want. It's expensive but awesome.

[LIGISTX]

23 minutes ago, Bdavis said:

Your current setup should work fine. Just set all three routers/ access points to the same ssids and passwords and your devices will automatically switch between them. If you really want a good mesh/wired system buy ubiquiti gear. A dream machine pro SE and 3 access points of your choosing will do what you want. It's expensive but awesome.

Setting "random" AP's to the same SSID isn't the best option, you end up with devices being sticky and not wanting to jump to a closer AP. Mesh systems do a better job of handling this. Plus, since OP already has the mesh set up, might as well use it.

 

Just make sure you are not in double NAT as that can cause some issues.

 

But, I agree, unifi stuff is great, I use their switches and AP's myself. But that wouldn't be what I would recommend for someone less interested in networking. Their stuff takes actual configuration and tweaking, things don't work great right out of the box... especially with apple devices. Apple plays a bit fast and loose with the standards, so you need to tweak unifi gear a bit to make apple devices work happily with them - trust me, its been a bit of a pain for me.

[Bdavis]

10 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

Setting "random" AP's to the same SSID isn't the best option, you end up with devices being sticky and not wanting to jump to a closer AP. Mesh systems do a better job of handling this. Plus, since OP already has the mesh set up, might as well use it.

 

Just make sure you are not in double NAT as that can cause some issues.

 

But, I agree, unifi stuff is great, I use their switches and AP's myself. But that wouldn't be what I would recommend for someone less interested in networking. Their stuff takes actual configuration and tweaking, things don't work great right out of the box... especially with apple devices. Apple plays a bit fast and loose with the standards, so you need to tweak unifi gear a bit to make apple devices work happily with them - trust me, its been a bit of a pain for me.

That's kind of ironic considering unifi was started by an ex-apple engineer. Perhaps there's a bit of bad blood between the two and apple devices purposely don't work well with unifi.

[Falcon1986]

13 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

...things don't work great right out of the box... especially with apple devices.

Hasn't been same for me.

[LIGISTX]

3 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Hasn't been same for me.

Really? Hmm, interesting. I have had to adjust a few advanced settings to keep them from dropping. There are LOTS of forum posts on the subject, so thankfully I found the solutions I needed.