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 Subject :WiFi AP Recommendations.. 2016-12-24- 10:05:57 
VA7IQ
Member
Joined: 2015-11-06- 11:49:25
Posts: 10
Location: 

In the HSMM-Mesh software (Linksys) there is an Access Point (AP) defined. A bit tricky to use, but it does work, at least most of the time.  ;-)

My question to everyone is whether there really is any reason to not just connect any wireless router as an access point and to hook it into the mesh router? The more I think of it, I cannot tell why a Mesh AP is useful, but I may be missing something.

Perhaps there are config things to consider like DHCP, timing, gateway definition and so on -- but that shouldn't be much different than having tiered routers.

Any insights?
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 Subject :Re:WiFi AP Recommendations.. 2017-01-01- 13:20:59 
KI6MLU
Member
Joined: 2014-11-17- 22:57:17
Posts: 18
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Donald, I agree that connecting an off-the-shelf wi-fi router in order to get access to the mesh is easy to do. But that assumes that you have the resources--and the proper power sources available. Our club supports a number of off-the-grid exercises such as EMCOMM, SAR, marathon races, etc. Because we're volunteers, the participants may change from one event to another and sometimes we don't know until shortly before the event starts (or in the case of SAR, not until we arrive on site) what the mesh equipment needs are or what the equipment availability is. My experience is that we have plenty of mesh nodes (because everyone brings two or three nodes) but not enough access points. In that case, it is far easier to go into the setup screen and repurpose a node to make it an access point than it is to try to reinstall the factory firmware. Then the next time you need a node, it is easy to go back to the setup screen and change it back to a node. Russ
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Russ Chung
KI6MLU
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