How to enable and disable wireless mesh?

Plasma Cloud Access Points always use the wired uplink connection when available as this provides the best performance for your networks. In some cases, it is not feasible to provide wired uplink connectivity to some locations in your network. Wireless mesh can help bridge the gap between non-wired Access Points and connect them to the nearest Access Point with wired uplink connectivity.

The Plasma Cloud Console allows you to manage wireless mesh both manually and automatically. The wireless mesh function enables wired APs to act as gateway and share their Internet uplink with non-wired APs.

Generally, the use of WiFi AI is recommended for automated wireless mesh management. It will perform regular networks scans (based on your maintenance window) and dynamically optimize your settings to better suit your topology. For instance, wireless mesh may be disabled to reduce the WiFi overhead and increase performance when not needed. On the other hand, it will be activated on those devices that can't successfully connect to the Internet via cable.

Should you wish to manually configure wireless mesh, you can do so on an per-network or per-Access Point basis. First, you need to:

1. Log into the Plasma Cloud console;
2. Select the relevant Organisation and Network from the top right menu;

To change your network settings, you need to:

3. Navigate to Settings > Network in the main menu on the left;
4. Ensure the WiFi AI toggle is deactivated in the Wireless section;
5. Enable or disable the Mesh toggle as needed.

To change your Access Point settings, you need to:

3. Navigate to Access Points and click on the relevant device displayed in the table;
4. Locate the Wireless mesh section and configure the settings for this particular device via the drop-down menu. Press save to apply your changes.

Access Point mesh settings set to "Network default" are managed by the WiFi AI (if enabled in the network settings).

Only wired Access Points can share their Internet uplink via mesh. For this reason, the Wireless mesh section is hidden on the device details page of Access Points.