100 Meters. One Network. How I Built a DIY Mesh With What I Had.

This Isn't a Typical Home Network.

WHERE IT STARTED

Most network guides assume you're covering one house. I'm covering a property — house, storage area, offices, and a store spread across roughly 1,250 square meters (13,450 sq ft). Three access points, 20–24 active devices at any given time, and no direct access to the ISP router.

When I set up Moonlight to stream games from my office to my bedroom, I realized fast that the network was going to be the hard part. Not the software. Not the hardware. The network.

Four Networks. Zero Coordination. Complete Chaos.

THE PROBLEM

Before I fixed it, this is what I was working with: the ISP router doing its own thing, and each access point creating its own separate network on top of that. Four different networks on one property.

Every AP wanted to run its own DHCP server. That meant IP conflicts constantly — especially between devices connected by LAN in the office and devices on whatever subnet the nearest AP decided to assign. Moving around the property meant manually switching networks on your phone or tablet, or restarting WiFi and hoping it connected to the right one. The office equipment connected by ethernet would fight with wireless devices on overlapping IP ranges. It was a mess that got worse the more devices were on the property.

The real breaking point: I had OPNsense running on a dedicated Intel NUC in phase one. DHCP static mapping, full network visibility, everything controlled properly. Then the NUC burned out — literally. I lost OPNsense and had to rebuild the entire network from scratch, manually, without the firewall layer I'd been relying on.

Three APs. What I Had. Nothing New.

THE HARDWARE

I don't buy new when I can reuse. The backbone is a Linksys 8-port switch connected directly to the ISP router — everything on the property flows through that. From the switch, three access points cover the full property:

  • TP-Link Archer C3200 — house coverage. Tri-band: 2.4GHz + 5GHz + 5GHz. Channel 1. Handles the heaviest load.
  • Tenda 11N — center coverage. 2.4GHz only. Channel 6. Covers the middle zone between house and offices.
  • Linksys 2101 — office and storage coverage. 2.4GHz + 5GHz. Channel 11.

All three broadcasting the same SSID: TC_main. Same password. Different channels — 1, 6, and 11 — the three non-overlapping channels on 2.4GHz. No interference between them.




[FOTO: TP-Link AC3200]

[FOTO: Linksys 2101]

Bridge Mode. Same SSID. No Conflicting Channels.

THE FIX

The solution came from reading a lot about WiFi spectrum and how APs interact. Three things had to happen simultaneously.

1. Bridge mode on every AP.
Each AP had to stop acting like a router and start acting like an extension of the main network. In bridge mode, they pass traffic through to the ISP router instead of creating their own subnet. One DHCP server. One IP range. No conflicts.

2. Same SSID, different channels.
Three APs can broadcast the same network name without fighting each other — as long as they're not on the same channel. Channels 1, 6, and 11 are the three non-overlapping channels on 2.4GHz. Each AP gets one. No interference, no competition.

3. Physical relocation.
Part of the problem was placement. I remapped the whole property and physically moved each AP to cover its zone without overlapping aggressively with the others. Two of the three APs weren't physically accessible — that meant ladders, finding them in the walls, pulling them out, reconfiguring, and reinstalling. Not glamorous work.

The transition also required a parallel setup — I added the new unified network manually to every device on the property before switching, so nobody noticed the change when it went live.

What Roaming Actually Looks Like in Real Life.

THE PROOF

This is what the roaming looks like captured live with WiFiman while walking the property. No manual switching. No restarting WiFi. The device finds the strongest AP automatically.





What you're seeing in the screenshots: the phone connected to the TP-Link at -49 dBm, then switching automatically to the Tenda at -55 dBm as I moved across the property. Same network. No manual switching. The AP Roaming event is visible right there in the graph.





Not Perfect. Functional.

CURRENT LIMITATIONS

This setup works — but I won't pretend it's flawless. Some devices occasionally lose internet connectivity. The culprit isn't the mesh — it's the ISP. When the ISP drops coverage or runs out of available IPs, devices on 2.4GHz get stuck. The fix is simple: switch to 5GHz and the connection comes back immediately.

Some devices don't switch APs aggressively enough on 2.4GHz. They'll hold onto a weaker signal longer than they should before roaming. It's a known limitation of how WiFi roaming works without a proper controller — each device decides when to switch, not the network.

For Moonlight specifically: 5GHz only. The Tenda 11N is 2.4GHz only — so Moonlight runs through the TP-Link AC3200 or the Linksys 2101, both of which have 5GHz. On a 20+ device network, 2.4GHz is too congested for game streaming. 5GHz is what makes it smooth.

The Ideal Setup I Had and Lost.

WHAT OPNSENSE CHANGED — AND WHY IT'S COMING BACK

When OPNsense was running, everything was cleaner. DHCP static mapping meant every device always had the same IP — the PC, the NAS, everything. Firewall rules gave full visibility into what was happening on the network. Moonlight was more stable because the host PC's address never changed.

The NUC burned out and took that layer with it. Right now I'm running manual static IP on the PC through Windows IPv4 settings — not elegant, but it works. The ISP confirmed they'll switch to bridge mode on their end once I'm ready, which means OPNsense will eventually sit between the ISP modem and everything else, running the whole property properly.

When OPNsense comes back online, the ISP handoff problem goes away. Proper DHCP control, static mappings for every device, firewall visibility. That's the next phase — and it'll get its own post.

What's Next.

THE ROADMAP

  • OPNsense back online on new hardware — proper DHCP control and firewall rules
  • ISP switching to bridge mode — full network control under OPNsense
  • NAS for automatic backup across the whole property
  • Detailed bridge mode guide for each specific router used here

If your network problem is that you have too much property to cover with one router, the answer isn't buying a $400 mesh system. It's understanding why your current APs are fighting each other — and making them stop.

Questions about the setup? Drop them below.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Every product listed here is something I personally own and use daily.

NETWORK GEAR

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