Please, have mercy on me. I’m a total newbie on MikroTik equipment, but it looks promising.
I have 3 units stationed on a small ranch in the mountains of wyoming. The first unit is a 411AR box using
just the built-in AR2417 b-g transceiver. It’s connected to the LAN there, and has a 12-db yagi
pointing to the second unit. The LAN includes a satellite uplink to connect all this to the internet.
The second unit is a 411AR with the builtin transceiver using the same 12 db yagi pointing back to the first
unit, and an R52Hn 802.11a/b/g/n is connected to an 8 dBi Log Periodic pointing to the third unit.
The third unit is the same as the second; it’s onboard transceiver is likewise using a 12 db yagi pointing
at the second unit, and the R52Hn is hooked up to the 8dBi Log Periodic, pointing at a house. We are
hoping to provide the house with wireless internet, for the long and tedious and lonely winters.
The distances between units are all just around a thousand yards… the setup is woods, mostly pine and some
aspen. The links (line of sight) are pretty clear, the manager has a chain saw if anything seems to be getting in the way.
The ideal: all 3 units are linked together in some chain. All 3 can also accept connections from other
units (laptops, pda’s, smartphones, etc). My first impression is that WDS is the way to go, but…
the example setups I’ve spotted, like the Wi-pipe MikroTik AP1/AP2 Quick Setup Guide, don’t go into
the detail of what to do on the AP3 link… Ideally, I’d like to let the already existing LAN do the DHCP for
any laptops, etc wanting to connect. No use introducing new levels of NAT if that can be avoided also.
Any general advise from you wise and experienced folks, on the best attack for configuration?
Hello,
So from what I get is your going to be using PTP backhauls between buildings and then have the 3rd radio also provide WIFI to the 3 home.
So if your going for simplicity setup the first as AP bridge and then the one receiving as station pseudobridge
and then then the same for the last link between the last two buildings. this makes all of them appear as a giant ethernet cable between each other. on radio 1 you will want to create a bridge and put wlan and lan into the bridge and on radio 2 create a bridge and put both wlans into it. and the same on radio 3
using plain 802.11 is ok, but nstreme generally produces better results. totally up to you. alignment is important as well as making sure channels are spaced out from each other as much as possible.
Many thanks, Josh! I didn’t think to mention it, but all 3 have a lan connection into their respective buildings (also POE), from which they will be configured.
So, I’d include the lan interfaces on all 3 bridges? I looked up Nstreme, but I’d have to have another card to provide the dual in/out linkages, right?
The descriptions that I’ve bumped into so far, of how the WDS stuff works, seems a little sketchy for me, but I take I don’t have to bother with it… ?
You can add the lan eth interface one each to the bridge no problem. and you are referring to dual nstreme, I was referrring to normal nstreme.
start with the pseudobridge client radios first so you dont lose connection by changing the AP side first
wireless/interfaces click on your wlan interface and look for wireless protocol and click on the nstreme tabe and check each of the three boxes and then go to wireless tab and locate “wireless protocol” and select “any” then apply.
on AP side check the three nstreme boxes and on wireless protocol select nstreme and apply. then they should link back up and be using the nstreme protocol instead of 802.11.
you dont have to use nstreme but it generally resists interference much better then 802.11
I tend to stay away from WDS as its not something that would work for my networks. But the nice thing about Mikrotik is that the sky is the limit for tweaks and customization.
