That was exactly the info I needed, thanks you!
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Hey guys,
is there any chance to get mesh working with two MAX Transit?
Wired Uplink — MAX Transit 1 ----- Mesh ----- Max Transit 2
I know, sounds weird, but i need a device with 10cm width in total and has external antenna connectors 
I tried this config here, but was unable to get the second Max Transit working as a Mesh Slave.
Thanks!
From the product page documentation, it says that the Max Transit and Max Transit Duo supports wifi-mesh - but the Max Transit Mini does not mention that it supports the feature. You didn’t specify a duo or mini in your question - but since the names are so similar, I didn’t want to assume. Also, I don’t have any of the Max Transit devices available to me, so my advice is implied based on my experience with my Balance One Core and my access points - your mileage may vary and/or my advice may be absolute poopy-doop.
Make sure that both Max Transit devices have the latest firmware installed and running. My advice would be to configure both devices while they are both hardwired into the network, then to test the mesh – just unplug the network wire from the second Max Transit. If the mesh works as expected - you should still be able to get to the management web site on the non-wired Max Transit. You can also view the Mesh status on the Status->Mesh / WDS page in the administration web page. The event log on the devices should also show some log entries for “WLAN: MESH Peer (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx) connected (2.4 GHz) IEEE 802.11”.
Make sure the MeshID, Frequency (2.4 or 5Ghz), and passphrase all match between the two devices. Also, make sure the hard-wired Max Transit is powered on and available before you turn on the second (non-wired) Max Transit. I have had better luck with the 2.4Ghz mesh, but data throughput is not really a concern for my use case. To start with, leave the channel and channel width set to Auto - you can make adjustments after you verify that the mesh is able to establish itself properly. I believe that it takes one of the two radios and dedicates it to the Mesh, and uses the other for client connectivity - but how it manages the broadcast channels between the two radios is beyond my comprehension. I am still a noob, but I am learning more all the time.
Remember, they will only ever try to establish the mesh if the path to the gateway is lost. They both start a “receiver” (server) listening for connections to the mesh, but neither will try to being the “sender” (client) until the path to the gateway is lost.
What is unclear is whether or not you need to use an AP controller to push out the mesh configurations. I wouldn’t think that you would, but I have only ever set it up using the AP Controller inside my Balance One. I am sure someone from Peplink will chime in soon and inform us. This is still a relatively new feature, so there may be some lag in documentation updates, etc. Also, since I imagine the first Max Transit actually IS the gateway, that may change the way things work a bit. Also, the “Wifi as WAN” probably has some influence to the mesh operation. I can see that there just wouldn’t be enough physical radios to support such a configuration - maybe? I really don’t know, but it really does expose the complexity these engineers are dealing with to provide such a feature across multiple product lines. Kudos to the engineers doing all the difficult tasks to implement such great features - even for the older product lines - it allows me to get value out of my old APs by extending my modest wired infrastructure.
Good luck in your adventure with the mesh setup - it does work very well and seems very stable and performant (until it isn’t), but I have faith that it will be more resilient to interruptions with a few minor firmware tweaks. Currently, I haven’t found the proper configurations to prevent clients from connecting to the APs when the mesh is “broken”, but I am trying out the “Management Unavailable Action - turn off radio” option currently to try to mitigate the effects on the client devices if/when the mesh breaks. Unfortunately, I can only describe how to set it through an AP Controller based configuration…
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@jmjones
Thank you very much!
I am using Max Transit (no mini) devices, so everything should work…
However, I almost suspect that the MAX Transits can only WiFi mesh to AccessPoints (AC One), but not between two MAX Transit devices.
I did exactly as described. Both devices hard wired in one network, both configured the same MeshConfig, …
Both MAX Transit have the latest 8.1.1 firmware.
As soon as I remove the network cable, I can no longer reach the “slave”.
Mesh/WDS Page is completely empty and you cant find any info in the logs.
@TK_Liew - can you mesh two Max Transits together? Or do you need an additional non-Max AP to create the mesh?
@jmjones, please refer to my reply below. The answer is applied to all Pepwave routers.
Hope this helps.
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Well… okay - so we have to to go with devices from Ubiquiti withinin this project.
As mentioned, we need a device with a max width of 10cm and external antenna connectors.
@AC-Max, the design for the Mesh router (MAX Transit here) always accepts the incoming Mesh connections. Hence, both MAX Transits can’t communicate via Mesh connection. Do you think this helps?
Transit 1 (WIFI AP) -----> (WIFI WAN) Transit 2
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@TK_Liew
I have already thought about this, but i am not sure if this meets our requirements. We will evaluate this in our lab. Thanks!
If an AP was meshed, and you plugged a device into the AP’s ethernet port, would that device have a connection?
I have been trying to mesh my Balance one to a Soho MK3 for several days with no success. I have see similar question with this same combination in different forums with less than clear solutions. I have even reset the units back to factory and tried going forward from there. This is what I am trying to do.
(Peplink Balance One - 8.1.3 build 5172) connected over the WiFi to my Soho MK3 with the same build FW.
I have** **configured the Wireless Mesh on both to be HomeMesh , 5Ghz, with the same shared key. But nothing will connect.
The question I have is what does the SOHO MK3 use for a WAN in this case? Since there is nothing upstream WLAN connection. Do I need to do something special here to give it something to connect to or should it automatically connect via the SSID HomeMesh? I do have some VLANs. Do I need to change something on the VLAN to allow the configuration of the SOHO?
Below are both device settings. Any suggestions?
How many AP Ones can be meshed serially back to an AP controller?
I.e. AP Controller – AP One (1) – AP One (2) – … – AP One (x)
I would suggest avoiding going further than 1 hop from the hardwired unit. You could have a few that are all one hop and not likely have much trouble.
Overall, this is a great tool for filling in a coverage gap in an area that is hard to run a wire, but it is also not the same as a dedicated enterprise mesh routing system.
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Can the AP One connect to multiple gateways, or only one?
By one hop, do you mean two wireless mesh links? In the example above, is this out to AP One (2)?
Hi,
I have a Peplink Balance 20X. And I have a large house which is a two storied building. Now I have multiple APs (of a different brand) hooked up through ethernet in different locations. But the problem I am facing is that the devices have a tendency to remain locked on a particular AP but if they move to another area with a stronger signal from another AP, the device remains locked to the original AP meaning the signal level is low causing poor data rates.
Now if I were to replace the current APs with Peplink one considering it supports mesh system, will the problem be solved and all the Peplink APs work together to form one unified network. And will the device automatically connect to the fastest Peplink AP as I move through the home, creating a truly seamless Wi-Fi experience?
Can you please confirm, if this will be achieved? Just like the TP Link Deco model does below.
TP Link Deco
TP Link Deco
If replacing the current APs with Peplink AP ONE AX Lite or Peplink AP One AC Mini will help me achieve a superior wifi roaming experience, I am going to order 4 APs straight away. Thanks.
To be clear, Mesh is only used to make a wireless AP (an AP without Ethernet uplink) work as an extension of other hardwired APs.
Fast roaming is also supported, but not really related to mesh, but they can be nice to use together of course.
Regardless, if you have several APs all connected to Ethernet, or a mix of ethernet and Mesh APs, you just need to enable (or confirm, it’s usually on by default) that the “Fast transition” setting is enabled, this allows clients to quickly handoff from one AP to another with the same SSID profile on.
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Hi Travis,
Thanks for the info. Really helpful stuff!
I was wondering if you could help me out in choosing the correct Pepwave APs model and the correct number I will need for maximum coverage.
Both the floor is about 2000 square feet. The first floor is doesn’t have any walls but second floor has walls. Kindly see the floor plan below. Its also worth noting that, all the walls are made of bricks. So this is the main reason for me to ask your help.
My initial plan was to put AP One AX Lite on the first floor where there is no walls and put the AP One AX on the second floor where there many-many walls as you can see from the picture below.
Or do you think I should just get the AP One AC Mini for each bed room for maximum coverage without having to worry about the walls but then again, I would be missing out on WiFI 6.
Hope to hear from you soon.
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I’ve got what I’m sure is a stupid question: if I set up three AP One AX units in a mesh, with only the central AP connected to a Balance 20X via ethernet, can I use the ethernet port on the other two to connect non-WiFi devices to the network (as opposed to only being able to use the ethernet ports on the AP One AX units as a wired backhaul)?
ETA: It looks like a similar question was asked here—no definitive answer though, so if someone knows for sure I’d be very appreciative.