The more I study how Mikrotik works, the more I realize that I know almost nothing about computer networking. It can be frustrating sometimes.
Ok. I was wondering if I can bridge my WLAN1 (which is working as my WAN in station mode at the moment) with an ethernet interface in order to get the same WLAN1 IP on the bridge.
Thanks
Where is the point to do that. If is wlan1 WAN side of the roter than is eth0 LAN side of router. Or do want to have bridge to local wireless hotspot?
Yes you can…
I was wondering if it can be possible to bridge directly to ISP router’s LAN via Wifi and get an IP for a device connected to that enthernet interface on the same ISP router subnet.
It can’t most likely be done.
Thanks
How? Thanks
Create a bridge interface and add the eth interface as well as the wirelles one…
I can’t give it a go now, but what would the result be? Would I get an IP on the same subnet of my WAN (ISP router LAN subnet)?
Should I set a DHCP client on the bridge? Thanks
You cannot bridge wireless interface in station mode. You can, however, do that if you change the mode to station-bridge or station-pseudobridge. Please be aware, though, that these modes have their own limitation. You can read more about various wireless station modes on the wiki here: Wireless Station Modes.
Also please have a look at the following thread where this exact question has recently been discussed: http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/how-to-connect-a-hap-ac2-to-an-isp-router-via-wifi/138264/1
EDIT: I’ve just noticed it was actually you, mur, who asked questions in that other thread. So… What’s the point in asking this here again?
@andriys this is not what the OP asked… at least to my understanding…
Ofcorse you can add a wireless interface in Station mode inside your Bridge in case lets say you want to assign the address to the Bridge and not to just your wireless interface…
No one said that we want to create a wireless bridge from Point A to Point B using Station Mode…
Well, my question is a bit different this time.
Anyway, I needed to dive a bit deeper into the subject .
Meanwhile I found this thread about DD-WRT device and client and client-bridge mode:
https://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/diffrence-between-client-and-client-bridge-mode.13563/
It seems that a DD-WRT router can do what a Mikrotik can’t.
Thanks
Why would one need to do that? What’s the point?
Really? Your link talks about wireless in “client” mode vs wireless in “client-transparent-bridge” mode on DD-WRT. And that you can bridge the latter, but not the former. And how does that differ from wireless in station mode and wireless in one of the station bridge modes on Mikrotik?
I’m just trying to understand.
With client-bridge mode in DD-WRT, my devices connected to my DD-WRT router (which in turn is connected to ISP router via wireless) can get an IP with the same ISP router subnet.
So, what would it be the Mikrotik equivalent?
Station-bridge mode?
But why I read this then:
Mode station-bridge.
"This mode works only with RouterOS APs and provides support for transparent protocol-independent L2 bridging on the station device. RouterOS AP accepts clients in station-bridge mode when enabled using bridge-mode parameter. In this mode, the AP maintains a forwarding table with information on which MAC addresses are reachable over which station device. "
There must be something I still miss of course
Thanks
Ofcorse you can add a wireless interface in Station mode inside your Bridge in case lets say you want to assign the address to the Bridge and not to just your wireless interface…
Why would one need to do that? What’s the point?
I just answered the OPs question.. Why would someone want to do that is something else…
@mur the answer is simple..
If you want to create a wireless briidge from point A to point B, station bridge Mode can only be used between RouterOS Devices…
If you want to add inside the bridge of a Station Mode all the ethernet interfaces, for whatever reason, you can, but this does not create obviously a bridge mode with your AP…
What you can do, in case you want to create a wireless bridge, is set your Mikrotik to mode AP Bridge and the WRT to Client Bridge… In case it does not work you can enable WDS as well on noth devices…
On Mikrotik just go to the WDS tab and select the bridge as WDS Interface and set it to dynamic… On the WRT enable WDS as well…
I used to do that between Mikrotik and Ubiquity wireless links…
No. Your ISP router is not a RouterOS-powered devices, as far I understand, so station-bridge won’t work for you as expected. The only viable option is station-pseudobridge. I’m sure DD-WRT does the same, unless it talks to another DD-WRT device on the other side of the wireless link (in which case it might be doing a real bridging, but I don’t know for sure).
No, there is no DD-WRT device on the other side. It’s an ISP router/switch/AP.
So, as far as I’ve understood, DD-wrt client-bridge would be the same as station-pseudobridge of a Mikrotik device?
Correct?
This is exactly what I’m trying to figure out once and for all.
Thank you
Well, there cannot be other way how it works. For proper bridging to work your AP and your station bridge should exchange frames with 4 MAC addresses (source, destination, sender, receiver), whereas the standard frame for station to AP communication contains only 3 MACs (because source and sender are always the same). Bridge mode is not covered by the standards, and vendors doing that all do it in their own, usually mutually incompatible way. Pseudobridge mode uses the standard 3 MAC frame, but then implements some kind of MAC-address-translation on the station side (for an observer connected to your ISP router all your clients behind pseudobridge will look like a single host with multiple IP address, because all of them will share the same single MAC address). It mostly works, but may cause troubles in some cases. For instance there were reports that some DHCP servers do not work properly with clients behind wireless pseudobridge. And in general that’s just another address translation technique, so why just not use NAT?
PS. And by the way, all of these is described in great detail on the documentation page I pointed you to twice already…
So, any brand tries to “bypass” this kind of wireless limitation by using their own method, and DD-WRT solution does no magic at all. Client-bridge is the way they call what Mikrotik would call “station pseudo-bridge” instead, as far as I’ve understood. I hope I got it eventualy.
Sorry I know that it seems as though I keep asking the same thing, but I want to make sure that I understand one thing at least of a such a complex subject to me
I know you pointed me that document twice already, but it doesn’t mean that it makes completely sense to me as soon as I read it, since I am kind of a newbie.
Sorry again and thank you
Until next time, bye.
You can avoid station pseudobridge…
As i suggested earlier you can try setting Mikrotik to AP Bridge mode, enable wds and then on the WRT enable Client mode with WDS as well…
It is worth trying… It is not experimental, i ve implemented this exact scenario (with other vendors) with devices that are in producation now that we speak and work with no problems…
you meant something like
ISP router->Mikrotik AP bridge mode: : DD-WRT in client-bridge mode (with WDS enabled) → any clients?
Thanks