Creating a network larger than 200 IPs I'm using several AirPort Extremes to create a wireless network for a large amount of devices. One AirPort is advertised to support 50 devices, so I'm using 4 AirPorts currently for 200 devices.

My setup consists of 1 AirPort in DHCP and NAT mode, and the remaining AirPorts in Bridge mode.

Now, I'd like to extend the network capacity to 400-ish devices.

One issue I see is that AirPort Utility only supports setting DHCP ranges within a /24 subnet, meaning that there is a maximum of around 250 devices possible.

It is important that all devices share the same subnet, because the used application requires UDP broadcasts to communicate with other peers.

It is also important that roaming (i.e. moving around in the room and reconnecting to other base stations without disconnects) is possible. This works fine with my 4 AirPort setup so far.

What is the preferred way to create a larger than default subnet (e.g. /23) using Apple AirPort Extreme?
I would get an edge router and place your AirPort devices in bridge mode.


Ubiquiti makes a nice one - EdgeRouter X
TP Link makes a nice one - TL-R600VPN


AirPort does a lot of things right - it doesn't have enough horsepower to manage more than 256 addresses - so let it do the things it does well like manage Bonjour sleep proxy and get a router to do routing and DNS/DHCP. You get bonus QOS and VPN features on these edge routers that will help you manage access in and out. That many clients will kill your network connection upstream if you don't have visibility and controls.

In my opinion, Apple chose wisely to not enable more clients than its hardware can manage. There's no use case where I can see you being happy with 200+ clients being routed by Apple gear.