Question Need help with a dedicated wifi

[lingarajug]

I currently own tp link x5400 2 pack mesh system, one is in basement and one upstairs, both have only 2 Ethernet ports and one of them is wan and the other is lan to which my PC is wired to. My mesh doesn't have the capability to dedicate a specific band to a specific client and I am trying to setup a dedicated wifi to connect to my meta quest 3 VR headset so I can use airlink feature to connect to my PC and play games and for that to happen the PC and quest 3 must be on the same router. I was thinking that if I attach a switch to the LAN port on my router and then use 1 of the LAN ports on the switch to wire my PC to and attach an access point to one of the other port on the switch and only connect quest 3 to that access point so it gets all the bandwidth ( wifi 6e access point), but I am confused that it might result in IP address conflict as the PC and quest 3 are basically connected to same physical port on the router, I don't want to spend another 500$ to get wifi 6e mesh and want to do this below 50$, any help appreciated.

 

[bill001g]

Can you get a wifi6e device to use as a AP for $50, that would be a great deal.

Your plan should work fine. When you run as a AP it is effect runs as switch that has wifi radios. These devices do not use IP addresses...except to configure them. All the IP are still handled by your main router. Just be sure that you choose IP addresses used to configure the AP so it does not conflict. If the main router uses say 192.168.0.1 set the AP to use 192.168.0.230. Technically you should really use a IP that is outside the DHCP range on the main router but since routers give them out from the bottom you can be lazy unless you are going to have more than 200 devices.

A simpler solution if your new switch and AP are all in the same room is to just use a cheap router as a AP. You can use all the lan ports on the router as a switch and you don't need the extra box. I guess it depends if you need a real AP for something like power over ethernet or if you can get by using a router set to AP mode.

 

[gggplaya]

When I used airlink on a quest 2, you needed a very solid 200mbps. Luckily my access point was in the same room as my PC and VR headset, so I had zero issues. However, the picture quality is not that good, so I purchased a USB cable to attach to my PC directly.

As bill said, you can buy another access point and attach that to your existing network. Give that AP it's own SSID name and connect both your pc and VR headset to it. It won't mess with any of your network settings and you'll get the full bandwidth between the PC and headset.

 

[lingarajug]

Can you get a wifi6e device to use as a AP for $50, that would be a great deal.

Your plan should work fine. When you run as a AP it is effect runs as switch that has wifi radios. These devices do not use IP addresses...except to configure them. All the IP are still handled by your main router. Just be sure that you choose IP addresses used to configure the AP so it does not conflict. If the main router uses say 192.168.0.1 set the AP to use 192.168.0.230. Technically you should really use a IP that is outside the DHCP range on the main router but since routers give them out from the bottom you can be lazy unless you are going to have more than 200 devices.

A simpler solution if your new switch and AP are all in the same room is to just use a cheap router as a AP. You can use all the lan ports on the router as a switch and you don't need the extra box. I guess it depends if you need a real AP for something like power over ethernet or if you can get by using a router set to AP mode.

I do have an old tp link router that has 4 Ethernet ports and it's a triband wifi ( 2 5ghz bands and 1 2.4ghz band) and I suppose I can run it as an AP but it's not even wifi 6 standard and I believe it's a Gen old to wifi 6, but if use it as an AP I am kinda concerned that it's 5ghz band might cause interference with my main mesh router 5ghz and my main mesh router uses 5ghz band for wifi backhaul, and getting a new wifi 6e wouldn't cause any interference as it's not in my home and none of my neighbors have wifi 6e routers

 

[lingarajug]

When I used airlink on a quest 2, you needed a very solid 200mbps. Luckily my access point was in the same room as my PC and VR headset, so I had zero issues. However, the picture quality is not that good, so I purchased a USB cable to attach to my PC directly.

As bill said, you can buy another access point and attach that to your existing network. Give that AP it's own SSID name and connect both your pc and VR headset to it. It won't mess with any of your network settings and you'll get the full bandwidth between the PC and headset.

Yes my PC and VR headset and the main mesh router are all in the same room and I too have the oculus fibre optic cable to use as link cable and the USB c port on my Asus motherboard provides 45 w of power and I get a bandwidth between 2.5 to 2.7gbs when I test it but I can't stand the cable weight on me for longer periods apart from the weight of the quest 3 with the elite strap with battery and my neck hurts within an hour so I am looking for a wireless solution.

 

[bill001g]

Might as well try it an see how well it works since you already have it. You could try a couple different channel options and maybe it will work fine.

For now the 6ghz bands has few people on it. Unfortunately the wifi vendors...and stupid consumers that think MOORE is better are talking about wifi7. Wifi7 uses 320 width bands and if you use repeaters a single user can use all the possible radio bandwidth on the 6ghz channel and if they use the feature that lets them use 2.4 and 5 at the same time a single machine can eat all the bandwidth on all the radio bands.

 

[lingarajug]

Might as well try it an see how well it works since you already have it. You could try a couple different channel options and maybe it will work fine.

For now the 6ghz bands has few people on it. Unfortunately the wifi vendors...and stupid consumers that think MOORE is better are talking about wifi7. Wifi7 uses 320 width bands and if you use repeaters a single user can use all the possible radio bandwidth on the 6ghz channel and if they use the feature that lets them use 2.4 and 5 at the same time a single machine can eat all the bandwidth on all the radio bands.

My old router is tp link archer c5400, what are your thoughts on it to use as an AP? And how do I setup that as an AP( sorry no idea), I do remember that when I use the to link app in my phone it would ask me if I want to use it as a router or AP so do u just select it as AP, and once I do that how do I go on about setting up addresses to make sure it causes no conflicts with main router, thank you very much.

 

[bill001g]

It should be just set it to AP mode. It might even change the IP but I would change the lan IP yourself.

You can make any router a AP. You plug into a LAN port rather than the wan. Disable the DHCP function and set the lan IP.

The AP feature in the router mostly just lets you use the wan port so you get a extra port.