First of all I would like to apologize if something is not written well, my level of English is not very good and I am using the translator.
We have installed hundreds of Mikrotiks in companies with the CAPSMAN protocol and we have never had any problems.
However, with the acquisition of the L009UiGS-2HaxD everything has changed. The first thing I have noticed is that the wifi interface is now called “wifi1”, although that change is not what worries me.
I need the wifi-qcom package to configure the wifi1 interface and connect to the Wi-Fi correctly. However, I do not have CAPSMAN manager.
In order for the CAPSMAN manager to appear, I have to install the wireless package. But here comes the problem: the wireless package and the wifi-qcom package cannot be running at the same time, so I have to decide between being able to broadcast WiFi on my router or being able to act as CAPSMAN manager.
I’ve tried it on another router and I have no problem installing the wireless package, managing the CAPSMAN manager and using the device’s own wifi interface as a CAPSMAN client. However, with the L009UiGS-2HaxD I’m not finding a way to do this.
I don’t know if the problem is the wifi1 interface, a driver, incompatibility or what’s going on. Could anyone help me? Thank you very much.
For AX radios capsman is found under the wifi menu on the controller.
For legacy radios it’s under the capsman menu.
But since you now have a mix of legacy wireless and ax wifi, you can not control both with the same capsman controller if it also has a local AX radio which you want to use.
So you need to make some choices.
Options:
keep that L009 standalone for now and put wifi-qcom back on it if you want to use its radio.
But you CAN NOT have both wireless and wifi-qcom on the same device when it needs to use a local AX radio as well.
If you want to use that device as capsman controller, then you would have been better with L009UiGS-RM, without radio.
Then you can load wireless and have it act as legacy capsman controller.
As of ROS 7.13 it’s not needed anymore to load extra packages to have it also act as capsman controller for AX radios. Those hooks are available by default (under wifi menu).
Or do load wireless on it (no need for wifi-qcom anymore) and use that L009 you have now without radio (would be a pitty).
Then it can act as capsman controller for both legacy and AX radios.
Unless there is something I misunderstood or assumed wrong, then you need to provide more info on your context, environment, and what you actually are planning to do.
Sorry if I didn’t add all the necessary information. The idea was that the L009UiGS-2HaxD would be the CAPSMAN manager of several hAPac2 devices (I have tested this and it works correctly) but at the same time, it would also be the CAPSMAN manager of its own wifi interface (since I need the area where the L009UiGS-2HaxD will be to connect to WiFi as well).
From what I understood in your answer, this model is incompatible with this action. Is this correct?
In that case you have another option but you should thoroughly test it …
hAP AC2 can also make use of wifiwave2 drivers (wifi-qcom-ac) IF you’re not doing other things on that device (plain switch, pure AP, nothing more).
Problem with AC2 is that it has a quite limited storage and using wifi-qcom-ac, there will not be a lot left.
Wifi wise it makes a very noticeable difference. If you use VLANs etc, be careful because wifi-qcom-ac package is a bit different in that aspect.
So again, test, test, test …
If you keep using wireless on those AC2 and you need a capsman controller for them, you can use L009 but since it then also needs wireless package loaded, it will loose its radio. That’s something nobody can change.
So yes, for that purpose L009 with radio is incompatible if you also want to use its radio.
Or use that L009 without radio and add separate AP.
But:
Why not use a spare AC2 as capsman manager ?
You’d be suprised how powerful these things are.
The truth is that I am really very happy with the performance of the AC2s, I even have several in other companies acting as CAPSMAN manager and I have never had any problems.
Here we tried to change routers because they needed more ports since it is in the main area of the company. In order not to put a second hardware (switch, another mikrotik, etc.) we tried the L009UiGS-2HaxD option thinking that it would give us the solution to both things, obviously we were wrong.
I could make the CAPSMAN manager another of the ac2 routers that are distributed throughout the company, but the good thing about this one is that it was in the central area and received the connection from everyone directly to it.
Anyway, I think I’m going to test in my office if it is possible to add the wifiwave2 driver to the AC2s and link them with the L009UiGS-2HaxD with the same driver. I’m not sure if it will work, but we have to try it.
It will work.
I have several AC devices runing wifi-qcom-ac package without problems.
At home I have wAP AC using same package under capsman control (RB5009). All the rest at home is AX.
Take AC2
Remove wireless, reboot
Add wifi-qcom-ac, reboot
And then you can start config.
As said, if you use VLAN then you need to be careful since that driver works quite a bit different then regular wifi-qcom for that aspect. But it can be done.
Help pages are quite good guidelines to start.
I think that this time the most sensible thing to do would be to leave the ac2 they already had and let it be the one that acts as CAPSMAN manager. I’ll use the L009UiGS-2HaxD for another installation and thus avoid problems.
Thanks for all the explanation, it has been really useful and I now understand the difference. It will be very useful for me in the future.