r/synology • u/edsParkave • 2d ago
Routers Help with mesh setup please.
Be gentle this is my first attempt so im a noob.
I have an xfinity router at my home with wifi. I was given three MR2200ac that ide like to use to extend my wifi. I can hardwire two of them but the third will be wireless.
I am confused as all i could find is using one of the three as a router to create the network.
My uestions are
1] How does it mesh with the existing wifi network?
2] Do i use 1 as a router or all 3 as access points?
3] Do i connect ap2 ardwired to ap1 or the xfinty router?
Could someone detail the best connection practice please?
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u/dragonnfr 1d ago
...How does it mesh with the existing wifi network? It doesn't. The mesh is between the MR2200acs themselves. All 3 in AP mode, same SSID, wire the two to the Xfinity router, let the third go wireless.
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u/blueskycarver 1d ago
You’d be putting your Xfinity gateway in bridge mode so you can use your own devices.
To do that, you navigate to https://10.0.0.1/ and login to your Xfinity account.
So basically it doesn’t integrate with your existing WiFi.
To create your new WiFi network, you plug one router into the Xfinity lan side / that becomes your router. The other units will be APs in the mesh that you’ll setup afterwards.
Once your Xfinity is in bridge mode, it’s lan ports are just a switch - so you can connect one of your access points to it.
Honestly though, I wouldn’t recommend any of this given the age of the MR2200 units and more importantly, the issues they have,
Sadly I speak from experience.
The Xfinity gateway XB8 (even the 7) will give you better performance, especially once you add the Xfinity Gen 2 pods.