Running 2 WiFi Networks

Witterings

New Member
I've recently bought 2 x Deco BE65's, it's left a dead spot in the room where the router is, if I enable the WiFi on the router is it likely to "clash" with the BE65's and cause any issues.
If it's Ok and I do this, whilst I appreciate my router won't join the mesh network, am I better off using the same SSID as the Deco's or using something completely different.
 
Same SSID, different channel. Stick it in AP mode if you can then you won't have NAT/DHCP conflicts. Clients will choose the one with stronger signal but it should bridge those hosts into the same logical network.

I have a similar setup at home but it's with a couple of unifi APs.
 
Same SSID, different channel. Stick it in AP mode if you can then you won't have NAT/DHCP conflicts. Clients will choose the one with stronger signal but it should bridge those hosts into the same logical network.

I have a similar setup at home but it's with a couple of unifi APs.

Cheers ..... much appreciated!
 
Good advice from beers there. A couple of extra things worth knowing if you go the same SSID route:

On 2.4 GHz there are only 3 non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11), so check what channels your Deco nodes are broadcasting on first and assign a different one to the router. If the Deco is on channel 6 for example, put the router on channel 1 or 11. The Deco app will usually show you this under each node's details.

On 5 GHz there are far more non-overlapping channels available (36, 40, 44, 48, etc.) so channel conflicts are much less likely there.

Also worth noting: when you enable AP mode on the router it will usually disable its own DHCP server automatically, but it is worth checking after the change that only one DHCP server is handing out addresses. You can confirm this from a client by running ipconfig /all on Windows and checking that the default gateway shown matches your Deco's IP, not the router's.

With the same SSID and band steering, your devices will roam between the Deco nodes and the router without you having to do anything, which is exactly what you want.
 
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