Hi,
I want to setup wifi network over a building (small town theatre).
I have RB4011 router, two cAPs ax and one hAP ax lite.
I was able to setup capsman using wifi (wireless2) package and everything works quite fine - I have there
two SSIDs on both 2.4 and 5GHz, one for technical staff, one for others.
/interface wifi configuration
add datapath.bridge=bridge .vlan-id=10 disabled=no mode=ap name=stdk_cfg security=sec-stdk security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk .ft=yes .ft-over-ds=yes .ft-preserve-vlanid=yes ssid=stdk
add datapath.vlan-id=20 disabled=no mode=ap name=krakonos_cfg security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk .ft=yes .ft-over-ds=yes .ft-preserve-vlanid=yes ssid=krakonos
/interface wifi provisioning
add action=create-dynamic-enabled disabled=no master-configuration=stdk_cfg slave-configurations=krakonos_cfg
I have found that roaming is not working very well, probably because all APs run on default same channel. Now I’m trying to figure out how to update my configuration but it seems to me when I want to specify channels over CAPsMAN I need a lot of duplicated configs. I know they can share eg. datapath and security subconfigs but then I need separate config with SSID specified for 2.4GHz, 5GHz, for each of my AP (times 3) and for both SSIDs (times 2) - do I understand it correctly, please?
best regards
Jan
You do, Jan.
In regards to the overlapping channels...you could consider using either reselect-interval or reselect-time to have the accesspoint scan (in the background) for better channels.
More info:
Thank you for fast response. This sounds good to me. Can you tell me whether automatic channel selection in reselect time/interval is more suitable in my case of partialy overlaping APs than manual channel assignment?
If I read it correctly the only thing I need to do is to set the reselect interval in my capsman configuration and APs should change their channels soon by themselves…
Another question would be - should I bother with setting channel width somehow?
You can use reselect interval but you still may end up with channels which cause issues.
Personally I always set frequencies to fixed value in master configuration profiles so I know what it will be.
And I provision based on MAC address so I know exactly what gets used where.
But that's me ...
It depends...if you live in an environment with little to no wireless networks, you can choose fixed channels. But if anything changes (new wireless networks, other forms of interference), auto could help.
By using reselect-time, it will scan at specified time. By using reselect-interval it will scan every time the interval finishes. First scan will occur after either interval or at the time...you can trigger it manually (by using the scan functionality).
Again, it depends. Wider channels, more bandwidth, more (possible) interference. Just test it.
ok, thank for clarifications
back to original question - in case I set my channels manually the number of my configurations would increase dramatically (x2 for radios, x2 for ssids, x3 for my cap count, …) and there is no way to eg. set SSID at single place. I don’t see any option to prepare some common config. Am I right?
Changing those configurations is not a big deal, really.
Especially not using Winbox and the right columns visible.
The screenshot I showed you has 36 provisioning rules (17 APs, each having 2 radios and then 2 blank MAC rules for if I have to add a new AP, to make sure it has something).
I have 7 master configs for one SSID, 10 for another one. Should I have to change configs for 1 SSID, that's maybe 5 minutes work. Not more.
First setup is a bit of work yes, afterwards, not so much.
Extra hint to the very complete answer by @holvoetn, once you have an item ready (like config/security/channel/etc.) you can copy it to a new item. Will save you some time.
