Mk60 satellite ethernet ports usage?

michaelkenward
Guru - Experienced User
Mar 22, 2025
FURRYe38 wrote:

They are just passing data. MS satellites need to be connected to the MR for proper MESH operation.

macka601 wrote:
Hi there
I have a question about the ethernet port on the back of the mk60 satellites,
Are they just passing packets from the wifi side to the wired or can you use these as access points in their own right?

Thanks

I fear that this misses an important bit of information. Perhaps I should have been clearer.

Yes, the MS60 satellites need to be connected to the router. But there are two ways of doing that.

If the MS60 satellite is on wifi to the MR60 router (known as wireless backhaul), then you can plug something else into the LAN port on an MS60. That "something else" then connects to the network with wifi from MS60.

If the MS60 satellite is wired to the MR60 router (Ethernet backhaul) then you cannot use the satellite's LAN port for anything else. It is already occupied.

That does not apply to the MK9X series which, like the MK8X, has two LAN ports on the satellites. So I have an MS90 wired to an MR90 with something else connected to the extra port. I could, of course, use a wireless connect between the MS90 and MR90 which would give me two free LAN ports.

I have not investigated using a switch between the MR90 and MS90.

I was a bit confused b y the original question, "can you use these as access points in their own right". Use what as "access points", whatever it means?

Disclaimer: Just another user with time on their hands.
- macka601
  Aspirant
  Mar 23, 2025
  Thanks for the replies, i should have looked at the models before i posted, but i just did a quick google and thought i had the right type, I've updated the title anyhow.
  I'll also get more specific so it makes more sense.
  
  I was given the MR70 and 2 x MS70 satellites, as i already have an edgerouter, i thought would test these out as access points. I have ethernet wired in certain places of the house, so my thought was that i could just plug these in, and then the setup would find the satellites that were plugged into the cabled network, and then the wifi would start broadcasting from each of the satellites.
  
  However, they didn't seem to find each other unless they were within a short distance, so i figured that the operation was for it to join the satellites via wifi only, and if you had some ethernet devices nearby you could essentially plug these in as well, like a wireless switch, and it would only be passing packets from wifi -> ethernet, and not like i had hoped which was for them to operate from ethernet -> wifi instead.
  
  Hope that makes more sense? I was really looking for these three units to access as 3 access points in the house, cabled back to each other
  - michaelkenward
    Guru - Experienced User
    Mar 23, 2025
    Aha! A pile of extra information that begins to make it clearer.
    
    macka601 wrote:
    
    Thanks for the replies, i should have looked at the models before i posted, but i just did a quick google and thought i had the right type, I've updated the title anyhow.
    
    The title doesn't really matter. In this case, there isn't much difference between the hardware of the MK63 and MK73. This is the important bit:
    
    I was given the MR70 and 2 x MS70 satellites, as i already have an edgerouter, i thought would test these out as access points.
    
    For a start, I wouldn't think of the satellites as access points. They are satellites for the MR70 router.
    
    The MR70 is the device that you need to set up as an access point. Then you can connect the MS70s to the MR70 as Mesh satellites. The MS70s need to talk to the MR70 for genuine Mesh.
    
    As you already have a router on the network, I doubt if you will be able to wire the satellites to the MR70 without a bit of jiggery pokery. You already have another router in there running the network.
    
    You say nothing about the Edge router and its role on the network. Then there is the modem/Gateway/ONT that connects the Edge thing to the Internet. What's that?
    
    My first instinct would be to remove the Edge completely and see if the MK73 meets your needs. If the Edge does something useful, would it work to use the MR70 as a router and put the Edge into AP mode? I ask because I have a similar arrange with an MK93 network and another router as an AP to add USB access.
    
    Come to think of it, what are you trying to achieve? You have wifi "notspots" that the Edge can't reach? You want to wire some extra devices to the network through the satellite ports? Something else?
    
    It always helps to start by spelling out where you want to be. Then people can chip in with possible route maps to get you there.
    
    I can see opportunities for experimentation in there.
    
    Disclaimer: Just another user with time on their hands.

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Mk60 satellite ethernet ports usage?