I bought a second Mikrotik router to use as another wireless access point on my home network as I needed extended coverage for my patio. My current setup is as follows: I have one router that connects to my fiber modem and serves as my primary wireless access point (access point A) and a second router that I am installing in another area to extend wifi coverage (access point B).
Both access points are connected via ethernet cable. My goal is to have access point B act as transparently as possible, with DHCP and DNS being deferred to access point A.
How do I configure access point A & B to extend my wifi coverage? Do I configure separately or connect B to A via ethernet and then only make changes on access point A.
CAPsMAN is best way how to control more APs from one place (channels, access list, create more SSID like guest etc).
So setup CAPsMAN at first AP A (as is first on way to Internet and its already your network GW). And second / AP B connect to CAPsMAN as CAP.
AP A will have: CAPsMAN (channels, access list), its WLANs hooked to same CAPsMAN, NAT, Firewall rules, DHCP, DNS forwarded to ISP DNS or public DNS like google.
AP B will have: all ports in one bridge and WLANs connected to AP A CAPsMAN.
As AP A with CAPsMAN is on way to internet I would suggest use CAPsMAN forwarding and not Local forvarding - more easy manage if you create more WLAN SSID and want restrict access for one (for example Guest SSID only access to Internet).
Note: from my experience sometimes CAPsMAN is bad with selecting channels and select same channel for both AP …
It is not clear if you are using your first router as an access point only or you are using it as a router as well. It makes a difference if you will be using more SSIDs and you want them to be in separate VLANs.
Here are a few ideas from me:
at the beginning focus on only one SSID and enable local-forwarding.
on the first router setup the CAPsMAN.
reset the configuration on the second router and select the CAPS mode from the reset menu.