Hi.
I have Mikrotik C53UiG+5HPaxD2HPaxD using RouterOS. I’ve been struggling to make 2 different WIFI interfaces, one serving as access point and another as station (client) both functioning on 2.4Ghz.
I’ve managed to set wifi1 (5GHz) to function as station and wifi2 to be AP, but if I create wifi3 and make it “slave” of wifi2 to also function on 2.4GHz it simply doesn’t work and in status it always says “scanning”.
The ultimate goal is to have regular router with AP, internet provided via Ethernet cable (which I have) - with subnet 192.168.5.0/24 but with added functionality to connect to another router that has different subnet (10.193.0.0/16), so devices on that remote network can be reached. Local router would then through DHCP get single IP on remote (10.192.) network through which all devices from my local network would be communicating with remote network (using NAT).
So first of all I’m interested how to make AP+STA mode work in parallel on single radio (2.4GHz) and then how to properly set all the routing and NAT.
only master interface can set properties of physical radio, prime example is frequency used. Any slave interface will piggy back on whatever master interface sets.
in station mode, radio has to be able to change frequency (and other properties of physical radios) because it’s the AP who controls its wireless network and all stations have to follow whatever changes AP might do
Both basics together mean that slave wireless interface in station mode can only be able to connect to AP if master’s radio parameters somehow overlap with those used by AP.
There are ways to somehow make things work, but all of them have drawbacks and setups need to be babysitted. It’s much better to dedicate one interface to station duties and use the other interface for all other needs.