Airport Extremes as WAP from TP Link

Chardygirl007 wrote:

I’ve done some reading and still haven’t any idea what IPv6 is but from what I understand it’s not yet in common daily use as it’s really just the next stage after IPv4 about which I’m also clueless.

That is correct. IPv6 (Internet Protocol) is the next rendition. It is coming into existence because we are running out of IPv4 addresses with the explosion of devices on the Internet. The key here, at present, is does your ISP support IPv6? Only a few major ones do ... so it is not critical that you need to "worry" about this yet.

Think of IP as a street address. For IPv4, it consists of four octets. For example: 123.456.789.0. Your local network uses what is called local IP addresses, that start with either 10, 172, or 192. These are not routable over the Internet.

Do I put it in native or tunnel mode? The same on all 3?

Two things here:

1. You would only need to configure IPv6 on your network router. You do not need to configure these for your network clients.
2. You only need to configure this if BOTH, your ISP support this, AND, you actually need to use it.

What’s the snooping thing about too please?

IGMP snooping is the process of listening to Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) network traffic. The feature allows a network switch to listen in on the IGMP conversation between hosts and multicast routers. By listening to these conversations the switch maintains a map of which links need which IP multicast streams. The switch uses what IGMP snooping learns to forward multicast traffic only to interfaces that are connected to hosts that want to receive the traffic, instead of flooding the traffic to all interfaces in the VLAN.

Ref: What is IGMP snooping? - Cloudflare

anyway so how do I know which port is which number on it, do they have a standard format like port one is closest to the power input?

This is where the user guide for your router would come in handy. Most routers have these ports labeled. The port that you connect to the Internet would be the WAN port. The ports that you would connect your local devices to would be labeled as either LAN or Ethernet ports.

Here's a link to their support page for this router: https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/download/archer-ax1500/

Tesserax has provided excellent answers for you.

To confirm.....All of the AirPorts (and Time Capsule) need to be set up the same way to "Create a wireless network" and they all need to be configured to operate in Bridge Mode.

The exception might be if AirPorts (or Time Capsule) are located in close proximity to each other....(say the same room)... then you don't need to have two devices both set up to Create a wireless network. In that case, simply turn off the Wi-Fi on one of the AirPorts or Time Capsule device.

AirPort Utility > Edit > Wireless Tab > Network Mode > Off

Chardygirl007 wrote:

Do I set up all 3 Airports in Bridge Mode or do one or three need to be set up to create the wireless network?

With all of your Apple base stations, connected back to the TP-Link by Ethernet, you want them all (not the TP-Link) configured in Bridge mode. If one of your goals is to extend the wireless range of the TP-Link, then each of those base stations should also be configured to broadcast their own wireless network ... using the same network name (aka, SSID) as the TP-Link's wireless network. That way wireless clients should be able to roam around and still be on the same network.

So while resetting the AX1500 I think I should enable IPTV/VLAN, is that as easy as switching it on or do I need up manually configure the LAN ports? One of them is for my security cameras does that mean I need up set that port up differently?

Configuring a VLAN (Virtual LAN) is used when you want particular network traffic to traverse on one particular network subnet. Effectively isolating it from other traffic. One typical example of establishing a VLAN is for IoT devices, like your security cameras. You would need to refer to your TP-Links user guide on how you would configure VLANs.

One thing to note: The Apple AirPort base stations do not support VLANs. At least, not in the typical sense. They only allow for a pseudo VLAN for establishing a Guest network ... but that is only available if they are performing as routers, and not as bridges.