I hadn't realised there could be a VLAN limitation - the AP903 specifically has a "Enable Bridge VLAN to Mesh" tickbox. When you ask if that is using mesh functionality, what would one look for? The "mesh" status pages say that the mesh is up and running, and if I disconnect one AP my devices move to another one. As I understand it that should happen almost instantly? I'll have to check...

EDIT - no, devices appear to be left "in limbo" if they are connected to a mesh node and the node goes down. Certainly no "instant" changeover

Yup, sounds like you are using Mesh. I’ve setup my system putting each access point into AP mode and using the AP central management (where the multiple VLAN functionality has also been removed in the latest firmware on the 2862). I suspect this is probably a case of wait and see for the next firmware version. Right now I cannot even “enable” mesh on the root node (the 2862), it goes to the initialise screen and then does nothing. Changing the admin password back to the default usually fixes this step (or it could be random). Time for some syslog digging later.

Well you may be right (I hope you are) but some things still puzzle me about this mesh business. How, for example, does it co-exist with the Assisted roaming function, and how does it differ from a bunch of APs in AP mode?

One step forward...
[dmn] Error: Password has invalid characters.

You can't have - characters in a password if you are using mesh.

Don't know if it will help but there was new firmware released last Friday for the 912C, version 1.3.5 and there are a few fixes and improvements on the mesh side of it.

Neil..

As an update. My setup has now been up and stable for 9 days.

My issue was down to having a “-“ character in the password. No objection from the router when I set this password, but “something” in the mesh config cant cope with it and was bombing out. I changed the passwords that I use to omit the “-“ character and everything now works.