The host sets up three NanoBeam 5AC units on airOS 8, first as a point-to-point bridge and then as point-to-multipoint, linking a main house to two stations at a back house about 50 yards away. The finished links run on airOS 8.7.9, and the only real snag was a point-to-point mode setting that blocks a second station.
Architecture and power. The access point sits where the network comes from, and each far end is a station. A bridge acts as a wireless cable and serves no phones or laptops, so client Wi-Fi still needs separate access points. The $99 NanoBeam needs 24 V passive PoE. The host's UniFi Lite 8 PoE switch and UDM SE supply 802.3af, so he uses an INS-3AF-I-G converter, though the bundled injector or an older US-8-150W also work.
Bench setup. Each unit starts at 192.168.1.20 and is reached from a laptop set to 192.168.1.99/24. The host names each unit, turns off the Bluetooth management radio, moves the units to 192.168.42.10–.12 with DNS 1.1.1.1 and 9.9.9.9, and updates them from 8.7.1 to 8.7.9.
Radio settings. He uses 80 MHz channels because his rural site is quiet, drops DFS channels and lets the radio choose a centre frequency. Output is set to 0 dBm out of a −4 to 21 range, distance is auto-adjusted, and every unit shares the same SSID and pre-shared key. Flat on a desk, the link showed 250–300 Mbps of capacity and a 77/41 Mbps speed test.
Firmware order. Stations are updated before the access point, so that an incompatible update cannot strand a remote unit.
Multipoint. A second station could not join until point-to-point mode was turned off on the access point and on station one. Finally he sets time zones and NTP and takes backups. Management through UISP is left for later.