TP-Link One Mesh Only Work In Rtr Mode, Altcfg AP MODE 1SSID Multi WAP ARP Flapping

nullcure

Everything been working great and Dandy, I am Enjoying my Proxmox VE 8 BareMetal with Pfsense bridged as vm

(getting that public IP on the pFsenseVM was hours wasted on such right in front of your face oversight, DHCP Power Cycle Modem lol over looked by so so many)

Running TrueNAS Core with plex media server amongst other things.

Anyhow I been having problems witha device and my troubleshooting has narrowed it down to

It's either the wifi signal or it's not. In order to conclude my tshoot I need to put my TP Link Router from happily working Access Point Mode to Router mode so that The TP Link Range Extender I bought can work in OneMesh mode.

It is the last fine detail unless of course this problem of running the RExt from a switch with an ethernet cable and broadcasting the same SSID as the Tplink Wifi Router in AP is causing ARP Flapping as there appears to be some kind of loop I disabled DHCP on both AP's pfsense is doing everything

Question should I return this range extender for something else? otherwise putting both tp link devices in router and extender mode allows me to use onemesh which keeps it all on the same ssid without the mac flapping and just connect the pfsense downlink (LAN) cable to the switch side of the router in router mode and be sure to disable all conflicting router features dhcp etc.

Or is there any actual use case for using these consumer wifi routing devices in router mode such as a routing protocol.....

So much floating around in my head.

Help me out it's my first pfsense and well.... networking home lab

Thanks guys.

stephenw10

If it's not working well in access point mode I wouldn't expect using it in router mode to help. Adding one layer of NAT can only confuse things normally.
If you're only seeing issues when connected to the extender that's probably the issue. The way extenders work by hiding the client MAC address is....ugly! Avoid them if you can.

Steve