CAPSMAN Access Point Setup Questions (newbie)

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

I’m setting up CAPSMAN on my router and adding three access points. Im following the manual on the wiki - https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Simple_CAPsMAN_setup

Step 3 of the wiki talks about setting up the CAPs: “Step #3, setup CAPs”. It says that you can skip all of these steps if you connect your CAPS to the router when it is in CAPS mode (holding the reset button for 5 seconds until the LED turns solid). Is that all there is to it? Do I literally take the CAP out of the box, connect to the router via ethernet cable, power it up in CAPS mode and it automagically find CAPSMAN in the router anc mate up with it? Is there nothing else I need to do to the CAP to harden it up like turn off services, set user names/passwords, etc (similar to what I did the router?

My Hardware:
Three Access Points: cAP ac Dual-band 802.11ac Wireless Access Point (RBcAPGi-5acD2nD-US)
One Router: hEX RB750Gr3

Thank you.

2

That’s indeed how it works if all devices are on the same network.
I have a setup running in France with SXT LTE as router and cAPs and cAPs AC as access point.
During configuration back here in Belgium, I used that method MULTIPLE times while thinkering with the settings.
Just keep the reset button long enough and it will automagically get configured (and you will see it appearing on the router as a “controlled by CAPSMAN” interface).

You may want to go in afterwards for usernames/passwds and services (the devices are behind your router and are protected that way but it’s always wise to change the default username. Even to prevent some adventurous users to do some things they shouldn’t :slight_smile: )

3

I’m using a hex RB750Gr3 and CAPSMAN is not an option on the main menu. How do I configure it on? I know this devices does not have a built in access point but I want to use CAPSMAN to control other access points connected to the LAN.

4

figured it out… I had the wireless package disabled. reenabled it and CAPSMAN is back!

5

I followed this official Mikrotik video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taQ70m0DVYA to setup CAPSMAN and when done the wireless clients could not access the LAN or WAN.

It was only after I added “datapath.bridge=bridge” were the clients able to access the LAN and WAN. This step was not in the video.

My question is this: Is this the proper way to setup CAPSMAN, and why does this work?

router = HEX
WAP = HAP AC

/caps-man configuration
add country="united states" datapath.bridge=bridge distance=indoors \
    installation=indoor mode=ap name=cfg1 security.authentication-types=\
    wpa2-psk security.encryption=aes-ccm ssid=cc93
6

From Wiki

 (/caps-man datapath)
datapath.bridge (list; Default: )	Bridge to which particular interface should be automatically added as port. Required only when local-forwarding is not used.

Without it, the Caps interface is not added to any bridge.