Hello guys
I do have a MikroTik hAP lite Router at home which was provided to me by my ISP. My Internet connection is a bit unconventional - it’s using the MikroTik RBLHG-5nD to provide Internet via antenna.
The problem is: This RBLHG-5nD is managed by my ISP - I have no access whatsoever to it, so I can’t change my DNS or anything like that. For that reason I thought of changing my hAP lite - which I can fully control - from WISP AP Bridge mode to WISP AP Router mode.
Is that possible to do from my side or do I have to contact my ISP to change some settings on their side?
If my above explanation wasn’t enough - here a few more details: My ISPs RBLHG-5nD is the Gateway of my whole network (with the address 192.168.1.1/24), my hAP lite gets a dynamic IP via DHCP Client within that 192.168.1.0/24 range and every other client on the network also gets addresses from my ISPs DHCP Server. So my hAP lite is kind of only an Access Point but with it’s Ethernet ports enabled if that makes sense.
Thanks in advance for your help!
General lines how I would tackle it:
If you put the Hap wireless interface in station mode, you can connect to the SSID from your ISP device.
Don’t put that wlan-itf on your bridge. DHCP-client will be needed for that interface.
All the eth ports can be connected to the bridge, with a dedicated subnet/network/DHCP server connected to it.
You will loose the ability as wireless AP at this moment.
But you can add a virtual wlan to the wireless part and make a dedicated SSID on it. That virtual wlan can then also be added to the bridge.
It would however disturb the performance of the RBLHG-5nD ↔ Hap link since it will be operating at the exact same frequency as the main link.
Another cheap AP for wireless access to clients might be a better option ? A simple mAP or even mAP Lite can already suffice.
Others might chime in with better suggestions.
That sounds a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. What I don’t get is how changing this setting would reduce the link speed between the RBLHG-5nD and my hAP lite. There is an Ethernet cable with an POE injector running from my hAP lite to that RBLHG-5nD, so how would changing a WiFi setting interfer with that link?
Personally I thought it was basically as simple as going into the Quick Set of my hAP lite, changing from Bridge to Router and then changing my local IP range from 192.168.1.0/24 to maybe 192.168.0.0/24. So what I mean is leaving my router connected to the network as it was before and just creating another LAN for my devices which use my hAP lite as a Gateway which then forwards everything to the RBLHG-5nD from my ISP.
My apologies
I misunderstood you connected wireless to that isp device.
If it’s a cable, use eth 1 on hap, remove that ITF from bridge.
Quickset will be a good start. Never use it again after changing settings or you may have to start all over.
So my Winbox Setup currently looks like this:
Assuming ether1 is the WAN port, I just have to flip the switch in Quick Set to “Router” mode - apply this change and then remove ether1 from bridge1, right?
Changing to Router mode in QuickSet looks like this:
I assume in “Local Network” I have to choose a different IP Range - maybe something like 192.168.0.0/24, enable DHCP Server and that should do the job.
Edit: Sorry, I have just seen that the images aren’t properly embedded - here the first image: https://imgur.com/a/SGZGX69
And here the second image: https://imgur.com/a/WaOrgKC
On that second screen also enable DHCP and NAT for your local network.
You’ll also want to select a different subnet for the LAN side of your hAP, as the “WAN” side is already using 192.168.1.0/24. You can’t use the same subnet on both the WAN and LAN sides of a router, so your LAN subnet could be something like 192.168.2.0/24 with the router’s IP being 192.168.2.1/24 for example, and the DHCP server handing out IPs from the pool 192.168.2.50-192.168.2.250
Technically you’ll also be double-NATting, but that is unlikely to cause an issue unless you plan to host servers at your home.
Thanks for your explanations!
Everything seems to be working fine so far, I don’t notice the Double NAT when trying to ping Google and my Speedtests are as quick as they were before.
Could you please provide a bit more information on what problems I might face by using Double NAT? Could it negatively affect Gaming performance and what’s the problem with hosting own servers?
Outgoing you shouldn’t have a problem with double nat.
The problem is when you want to host a server on your network which needs to be accessible from the outside, some special settings need to be taken into account to make this happen since you will pass 2 routers.
But e.g. for setting op a VPN towards your internal network, should not be a problem if the ISP device passes all ports to your own device.
Okay, that makes sense.
Thanks again for your help!