tbh every vendor has problems. I run Unifi stuff at home which has only recently become really stable for me, and even then APs randomly go crazy.

The reason for looking to Draytek for this particular installation I'm working on is because I don't want any call-backs. It has to 'just work'. For this reason, I'm currently planning to deploy AP903s as traditional managed APs with Ethernet uplinks. It all seems to work well like that and in any case wired uplink is guaranteed to be error-free and full speed at all times. Well, unless something eats it.

Fingers crossed that'll work well for you.

For me, the backhaul will need to be Wireless. As I mentioned earlier, I have a few Apple Airport Extreme's (ac versions) that are in Apple's faux mesh mode (Apple calls it 'Extend a Wireless network'). Really works flawlessly and I get 400-500Mb/s consistently. The only reason I'm looking at changing it is because they have long been abandoned by Apple (ie no security updates) and I want to VLAN off my home LAN to segregate trusted devices away from IoTs. Airports doesn't offer this.

I want to use extend the use of the 2865's VLAN and multi SSID capabilities aligned to those VLANs using Draytek's APs. I'm just concerned that I will drop £300 on 903's and be left with problems and instability which SWIMBO will not tolerate.

Well I decided to pull the trigger and I've just purchased 2x 903s. The plan is extend my 2865ac config (which contains 3 vLANs - trusted, untrusted and Guest) out to both APs:

2865ac <- wireless -> AP903 <- wired 1Gbe -> AP903 with a mixture of wired and wireless Apple devices attaching to it.

I gotta say I'm a little nervous based on comments over the past year in this thread but I'm fully aware that people come to forums to talk about issues and solutions. No one ever posts unsolicited positive feedback.

My only question at this stage I've seen some conflicting statements around whether the 2865ac should be the Mesh root or should a 903 be one instead? I will try with the 2865ac first otherwise I need to get a 3rd AP903.

Interesting plan to have a wireless link to the first node and then a wired link between two nodes. I don't think anyone else here has done that.

I trust you'll let us know how you get on?

(and yes, if you designate an AP903 as the root then the 2865 has no facility to be a node)

Of course - sharing is caring

Thinking about this I don't see how you can do it without creating a loop - will there not be a wireless and a wired link between the nodes? Unless they are so far apart that this is not possible, in which case what does that mean for the "mesh"?