EasyMesh ethernet backhaul between 2 AX routers
Hello,
I have a local home network which all set with a bunch of TP-Link products, and recently I've read somewhere that it is in fact possible to use EasyMesh between 2 routers using Ethernet, instead of WiFi, so I wanted to try and set this up.
My setup is as follows:
Archer AX73 as a gateway - the main/first router in the network(no modems)
Archer AX53 as secondary in AP mode via Ethernet to the gateway router.
RE305 extender connected via WiFi to the secondary router.
(all devices are up to the latests firmwares)
I followed the guide from the TP-Link guides section, and it did not work.... So here's what happened.
Secondary router was reset to factory defaults using the small button on the back of it, then I logged into the main router, enabled EasyMesh, and added the secondary router to the mesh.
Even though both devices are connected via Ethernet, the mesh was done via WiFi, which is far from what I was aiming for.
So I then noticed that slightly below the given scenarios in the guide, there is a note saying that the secondary router should also be connected to the LAN, instead of the WAN(as it was, and as it is).
So I removed it from the EasyMesh, then reset the router again, moved the cable WAN to LAN and waited for the secondary router to fully initiate/load.
After all this was done, I tried logging into the main router, but it kept forwarding me to the secondary router GUI since they are both using the same default local IP of 192.160.0.1, and when I type this into the browser, it is getting confused to which of the 2 devices to connect me to, and basically it refuses to connect me to any of them at some point.
So here's where I found an issue with this setup, and the guide in general.
Since by default, all LAN ports are set to bridge mode, and all TP-Link routers are using the same local IP, there is no way to have them both reset to factory, connect LAN, to LAN on both devices, and just expect it to work, because it wont.
The only possible way for this to work is to change the default main router local IP to something different then the default one so that when you connect a secondary router the whole local network would not simply go down as a result of the local IP conflict.
Correct me If I'm wrong somewhere, but this has caused me so much headeches that I find the guide absolutely inferior to what the reality of things seems to be.