I need to purchase a new wifi mesh system, as my current one is starting to die. I am wondering if I purchased 3 of the Flint 3 (GL-BE9300), can I have one connected to my NBN gateway and the other two set up as WiFi access points to create a mesh/roaming network please? As I am renting, it is not possible to have the two that would be in AP mode wired to the network, as I cannot drill holes in the wall or ethernet wall ports installed.
Alternately, would anyone have any suggestions on what I could use to set up a tri-band mesh/roaming network with the Flint 3 please?
We have just added Mesh support for GL-BE9300 through the AstroMesh beta firmware and we also added some Astro features, such as routing traffic back home through the Astro network when you are away from home.
More information is available in this beta announcement:
If you are willing to try beta firmware, you can purchase the devices and test AstroMesh with the beta version provided in the post.
For the AstroMesh setup steps, please refer to the Quick Setup section in our documentation:
In your case, you can connect the WAN port of the first GL-BE9300 to your NBN gateway and use it as the Main Router.Then follow the Quick Setup guide to add the other GL-BE9300 units as Mesh Nodes.
If you prefer mature and stable features instead of beta firmware, you can also use Extender or WDS mode for now.
With 802.11k/v/r enabled, Extender or WDS mode should provide a roaming experience close to Mesh in many home environments.
After reviewing the Astromesh documentation and watched the video at youtube I got a doubt, since in the the video, after using ethernet cable option to connect both devices in mesh, it’s said that “the cable can now be removed”, does this mean that the Mesh system will ONLY work with WiFi to join devices in the same network? What I would need is an ethernet connected backhaul (like Asus has) to replicate all configuration from the main flint.
I currently have my second flint connected on the other end of my house by cable as an AP mode, but this mode does NOT replicate my wifi configuration, I had to placed it by hand, and cuts out my IoT Network I have configured on my main flint.
You can keep the Ethernet cable connected between the two Flint3 devices and use it as a wired backhaul. After the second device is added as an AstroMesh node, the Wi-Fi configuration can be managed from the main router.
/ Hans