Extend wireless coverage with WDS

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Hello community,

I have installed a Mikrotik router 493G inside a house and I have noticed that the wireless coverage isn’t that good in some parts of the house so I thought I’d extend it with the help of a new Mikrotik equipment. Said and done, I bought a 411U router board with Atheros 11N wireless interface (R52NM).

First let me tell you what I want to accomplish. I want to extend the wireless coverage in the house. I want to have the same SSID and security settings, I don’t want different SSIDs. I have looked on the Internet and found out that I have/could use WDS to accomplish this. Given that I have one router 493G (let’s call it MASTER) and one AP 411U (let’s call it RELAY) I have followed the tutorial found at http://infodotnet.blogspot.com/2008/01/mikrotik-wireless-easy-steps-create-wds.html.

Follows the configuration on both router and AP.

MASTER (Router)

[admin@MikroTik] /system> /interface wireless print 
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0  R name="fwlan" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:0C:42:61:CC:1B arp=enabled interface-type=Atheros 11N 
      mode=ap-bridge ssid="Flopi5" frequency=2462 band=2ghz-b/g/n channel-width=20mhz 
      scan-list=default wireless-protocol=unspecified wds-mode=static wds-default-bridge=flan 
      wds-ignore-ssid=no bridge-mode=enabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes 
      default-ap-tx-limit=0 default-client-tx-limit=0 hide-ssid=no 
      security-profile=wpa2-psk-fwlan compression=no 

 1    name="gwlan" mtu=1500 mac-address=02:0C:42:61:CC:1B arp=enabled interface-type=virtual-AP 
      master-interface=fwlan ssid="Guest" wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none 
      wds-ignore-ssid=no bridge-mode=enabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes 
      default-ap-tx-limit=0 default-client-tx-limit=0 hide-ssid=no 
      security-profile=wpa2-psk-gwlan




[admin@MikroTik] /system> /interface wireless wds print 
Flags: X - disabled, R - running, D - dynamic 
 0 R    name="fwds" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:00:00:00:00:00 arp=enabled master-interface=fwlan 
       wds-address=00:0C:42:6B:1F:90




[admin@MikroTik] /system> /interface bridge print  
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0  R ;;; Family Local Area Network - LAN.
      name="flan" mtu=1500 l2mtu=1520 arp=proxy-arp mac-address=00:0C:42:A9:05:68 
      protocol-mode=rstp priority=0x8000 auto-mac=yes admin-mac=00:00:00:00:00:00 
      max-message-age=20s forward-delay=15s transmit-hold-count=6 ageing-time=5m




[admin@MikroTik] /system> /interface bridge port print 
Flags: X - disabled, I - inactive, D - dynamic 
 #    INTERFACE                        BRIDGE                        PRIORITY  PATH-COST    HORIZON
 0 I  ether3                           flan                              0x80         10       none
 1    ether4                           flan                              0x80         10       none
 2    ether5                           flan                              0x80         10       none
 3 I  ether6                           flan                              0x80         10       none
 4 I  ether7                           flan                              0x80         10       none
 5    ether8                           flan                              0x80         10       none
 6 I  ether9                           flan                              0x80         10       none
 7    fwlan                            flan                              0x80         10       none
 8    fwds                             flan                              0x80         10       none




[admin@MikroTik] /system> /ip address print 
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic 
 #   ADDRESS            NETWORK         INTERFACE                                                  
 0   ;;; default configuration
     192.168.88.1/24    192.168.88.0    ether1                                                     
 1   ;;; Family network interface.
     172.21.0.1/24      172.21.0.0      flan                                                       
 2   ;;; Guests LAN interface.
     172.21.1.1/24      172.21.1.0      gwlan

RELAY (AP)

[admin@MikroTik] /interface wireless> /interface wireless print 
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0    name="fwlan" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:0C:42:6B:1F:90 arp=enabled interface-type=Atheros 11N 
      mode=ap-bridge ssid="Flopi5" frequency=2462 band=2ghz-b/g/n channel-width=20mhz 
      scan-list=default wireless-protocol=unspecified wds-mode=static wds-default-bridge=flan 
      wds-ignore-ssid=no bridge-mode=enabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes 
      default-ap-tx-limit=0 default-client-tx-limit=0 hide-ssid=no 
      security-profile=wpa2-psk-fwlan compression=no




[admin@MikroTik] /interface wireless> /interface wireless wds print 
Flags: X - disabled, R - running, D - dynamic 
 0 R    name="fwds" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:00:00:00:00:00 arp=enabled master-interface=fwlan 
       wds-address=00:0C:42:61:CC:1B




[admin@MikroTik] /interface wireless> /interface bridge print 
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0  R name="flan" mtu=1500 l2mtu=65535 arp=enabled mac-address=00:00:00:00:00:00 protocol-mode=rstp 
      priority=0x8000 auto-mac=yes admin-mac=00:00:00:00:00:00 max-message-age=20s 
      forward-delay=15s transmit-hold-count=6 ageing-time=5m




[admin@MikroTik] /interface wireless> /interface bridge port print 
Flags: X - disabled, I - inactive, D - dynamic 
 #    INTERFACE                        BRIDGE                        PRIORITY  PATH-COST    HORIZON
 0 I  fwds                             flan                              0x80         10       none
 1 I  fwlan                            flan                              0x80         10       none




[admin@MikroTik] /interface wireless> /ip address print 
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic 
 #   ADDRESS            NETWORK         INTERFACE                                                  
 0   ;;; default configuration
     192.168.88.1/24    192.168.88.0    ether1                                                     
 1   ;;; Wireless bridge (flan).
     172.21.0.2/24      172.21.0.0      flan

When I plug the both equipments the WDS goes up (on both of them) and ping from MASTER CLI to ‘flan’ bridge IP address on RELAY works. Same goes for ping from RELAY CLI to MASTER ‘flan’ bridge.

When I connect with my laptop to RELAY I receive an IP address from the DHCP server configured on MASTER but I cannot ping the MASTER ‘flan’ bridge IP address which is the default gateway of the network. Also from my laptop when connected to MASTER via WiFi I cannot ping the RELAY ‘flan’ bridge IP address. When the laptop is connected via wire to MASTER the ping goes through. And no Internet access if I am connected to the RELAY, or access to computers connected to MASTER either via WiFi or wire.

Are the above settings correct? How can I debug this further. Does the fact that I have a Virtual-AP messes up WDS?

Thank you,
v

2

does the relay have a gateway of 172.21.0.1?[ip->route-> add gateway of 172.21.0.1
also go to ip->firewall->nat and add a scr-nat rule with src address as 172.21.0.0/24 and in action tab select masquarade.

3

Hello Community,

Thank you for your answer. No the the RELAY doesn’t have any default route set up. I thought it shouldn’t be necessary. It is necessary if I want the RELAY to access Internet, but that’s not what I look for. The thing is that a PC connected to RELAY cannot access the Internet or other PCs connected to the MASTER.

The thing I want to accomplish is very simple. The same SSIDs on both equipments so I it extends the wireless coverage through out the house.

NAT is setup to masquerade 172.21.0.0/24 and 172.22.0.0/24 (Guest subnet) to the Public IP address on wan Interface.

[admin@MikroTik] > /ip firewall nat print    
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic 
 0   chain=srcnat action=masquerade out-interface=wan

How to debug this further, and most of all is my setup correct? Does the use of VAP (Guest SSID) influence WDS? Should I do one VAP for Flopi5 also. Flopi5 SSID is configured directly on the wlan1 (fwlan) interface.

Thank you and have a great day,
v

4

Hello Community,

For others experiencing the same problem I will post here how I have solved the problem.

First stept was to down grade the RELAY to 4.17. Then I have setup VAPs for each SSID that I wanted to extend the wireless coverage for. On “top” of each VAP I have created a WDS.

Thanks for helping,
v

5

I’ve built this same scenario in the office with 2 751u’s with 5.14 and could not get traffic to pass to the client computer, I did exactly the same down graded the repeater to 4.17 and everything now works. It would be nice to know what has changed and why it does not work with 5.14??

Thanks