I think I have done it but I am not sure. After much trial and error I did the following today:
- Reflashed the 2.72 firmware on all three, and went through the initial setup including setting wifi passwords and making sure that the time was properly synched on the SYSTEM page of the luci ui.
- Unplugged the clients
- Did a full setup of the main router, including a static ip.
- Checked the main router was working.
- Plugged in first client and waited until its wifi was visible
- Pressed mesh button on the main router until medium speed flash (5-6 seconds)
- Pressed mesh button on the first client router until medium speed flash (5-6 seconds)
- Walked away for 15 minutes.
- Came back and saw that both had the mesh light showing continuously
- Checked the main router and it said nothing. Checked the wifi and it still showed the client router with its same network name.
- I logged onto the client and went into the admin UI (with the main router’s lan subnet , not 192.168.8 ) and it had no wifi settings (as it shouldn’t have if it is connected to mesh. Then I went to the Luci ui.
- as I did this the first node appeared on the main router’s admin ui.
- Pressed mesh button on the main router until medium speed flash (5-6 seconds)
- Pressed mesh button on the second client router until medium speed flash (5-6 seconds) (I can’t remember if I also did it on the first client as well -sorry)
- Walked away for 15 minutes.
- Came back and they were set and the main router web ui showed a second node.
- moved the second router further away yo where it was needed and plugged it back in.
The problem I am now having is whether the clients are talking to each other or not. I only seem to have 2.4g connections available, and I believe this may be because the second client is still connecting to the main router directly and slowing the whole network because the extra distance is causing it to switch to 2.4g.
But they are all shared an internet connection, SID and passwords so that it a plus.