I have Spark 4G wireless broadband, which performs to a decent standard where I live on the Karikari Peninsula. I have the modem (Spark Huawei B-618) in the garage, and have a Cat6  Ethernet link to my house, where I have set up a Spark Arcadyan VRV9517 Smart Modem as a wifi router to provide wifi in my house.

I initially set it up to be a wireless access point as per the many YouTube instructions such as these, where we connect the second router via a LAN port and turn DHCP server off. I created a seperate name for the SSIDs on the VRV9517 so that I could ensure that a security camera that picks both wifi SSIDs up uses the one I want it to (the one with the slightly stronger signal) after watching this video.This worked okay, but I could not see all connected devices on my network, whether logged into the B-618, or the VRV5917.

I then tried using the VRV5917 to work as a normal router by editing the WAN settings to Ethernet/WAN in bridge mode (with DHCP server still disabled), and connected the Ethernet link to the Internet/WAN port instead.  This also works fine, and I can now see the devices that are connected to the VRV9517 in its interface. Another advantage is that I also get a green status light on the VRV9517, instead of this remaining red as it does with the other method.

I am wondering if by using the bridged router configuration if I can now use a singe SSID as if this were a mesh system by mirroring my B-618 wifi settings on the VRV9517, or whether this would still have the same disadvantage that apply to the other configuration as per the reasons I linked already?

Any thoughts/comments on this, or which of these methods is best (and why please), would be greatly appreciated.