I have two Audience devices. Both are connected to each other via wireless mesh, one of the Audience units is connected via ethernet back to the router. I’m currently using the original “wireless” package to manage both in the original CAPsMAN. It’s been working fine for the most part, but with the changes to the wireless packages in ROS v7.x, should I be using the old wireless package w/CAPsMAN? Or should I be using the “wifi-qcom-ac” package instead with the new CAPsMAN? Are both at the same level now in terms of out-of-the-box features/functionality?
I haven’t even tested the wifi-qcom-ac package with the Audience yet. Does mesh still work with it even when using CAPsMAN?
The router hosting CAPsMAN is a CCR2004- the 64 bit ARM downloads don’t include the qcom-ac package, 32 bit ARM downloads do. Can I even use the qcom-ac package on the CCR2004?
Feature-wise wifi-qcom(-ac) is not on par with legacy wireless and according to what MT staffers indicated it never will be (some features are gone forever). But for 99% of use cases, wifi-qcom(-ac) is fine and performs better than legacy wireless.
As to meshing: I don’t know what exactly mesh config looks like (as in: quickset configuration profile). But it’s definitely possible to set up a pair of MT wifi devices (not only audiences) to form a wireless bridge which transparrently joins two parts of L2 network, which is what you’re after if I understand you correctly. And wifi-qcom-ac allows that as well.
Looks like I answered my own question. I cannot install qcom-ac on the CCR2004. Looks like I’m stuck using the old wireless package to manage the Audience devices.
Sure would be nice if MikroTik released an updated Audience…
Or bare minimum made it so that I can manage the Audience on an ARM64 router with the updated qcom ac package.
And now after that reboot and the aforementioned error, the Audience devices are now gone from CAPsMAN. Really, MikroTik? Smgdh.
I don’t understand, you do not need any wifi-qcom package on your CAPsMAN device, if you are trying to run new wifi 7.13+ CAPsMAN you totally can even on a device without wifi-qcom(ac) drivers, you do not even need a device with wireless radios, because since 7.13 CAPsMAN is embedded in the routeros package itself.
So go ahead, install wifi-qcom-ac on your audiences, then go to Wifi menu on your CCR2004 and configure CAPsMAN there.
That’s not what I’m seeing within the CCR2004. It’s also not what I see in MikroTik’s own guide (attached.) The new CAPsMAN (WiFi menu) is reserved for WiFi 6 devices. The Audience is not WiFi 6. I’ve also tested it and can confirm, the Audience(s) do not appear in the new CAPsMAN for adoption/provisioning. They only appear in the old CAPsMAN (Wireless → CAPsMAN) manager.
Truth is I only manage ax devices through the CAPsMAN Wifi menu (it works even on RB2011), but I have seen many tutorials where even ac devices were managed by the new capsan successfully, so I do not understand that table from Mikrotik. I was under the impression the new Wifi CAPsMAN works with all devices that support wifi-qcom(ac) drivers.
Did you test this with the “wireless” package or “wifi-qcom-ac” package on the Audience device?
Okay so I installed/enabled wifi-qcom on the CCR2004, installed/enabled wifi-qcom-ac on both Audiences. The new CAPsMAN now sees the Audience devices.
But now the WPS-Sync button on the Audience devices does nothing. Press it to enable/search, nothing happens. I can reset it into CAPs mode and the new CAPsMAN on the CCR2004 finds it fine. Cool. So how do I mesh the two Audience units together?
Is this my only option for getting these meshed together? Completely remove CAPsMAN from the equation and just configure them manually?
Following the instructions in post #4 of the aforementioned thread worked. Completely deleted the configurations in all CAPsMAN areas and disabled CAPsMAN at the CCR2004. Manually configured each of the Audience units. Used the 5GHz wifi3 radio as the wireless backhaul with its own SSID, etc. Working fine.
