Configure a mAP where ETH1 is a AP and ETH2 a full Router

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hey there,

I’m more or less new to the whole RouterOS World - and I hope someone can help me find a solution for this problem:

I purchased a couple of mAP 2nd for our Tech Crew (Audio/Light) in hope of giving them that one little Access Helper Tool for these scenarios:
A: for already deployed on-location Networks - ETH1 PoE-In acts as a sole Wireless-AP where DHCP is off
B: for Wireless Access to a DHCP dependent device (e.g. Digital Mixer) - ETH2 as generic Wireless-Router .. DHCP on

Is that even possible as static setup?? Or could it be realized with making use of the physical button on the side?
I’m happy for any feedback to this madness :slight_smile:

Cheers,
John

2

Can you try to better explain the intended use?
Possibly making a couple examples, I cannot understand what do you mean by “sole wireless AP” and “generic wireless router”.

And - if I get It right - you want a same device be capable of changing between the two scenarios?

3

In our use-case that mAP should either work as a DHCP Server with wireless Access (“generic router”) on Port 1 (ETH1) - when a device is connected to that Port the mAP should assign it a IP, so that a Wireless connected Laptop or Phone could communicate with the wired device.

Or, when we just need WiFi from an already on-location deployed Network Router, where we would wire ETH2 to a PoE Switch / Wall Socket or similar - so the mAP gets its IP from that hypothetical Router and acts straight up as a Access Point to that Network.

In my ideal World, no physical switching between Modes for those two use cases should be needed, just the pure choice of wether plugging into ETH1 (-AP) or ETH2 (-WirelessRouter).

Hope that helps understanding to where I’m trying to get with this..

4

So, you want a DHCP server running on ether1 and a DHCP client running on ether2.
This Is not in any way and issue, as a matter of fact most Mikrotik devices (cannot say the mAp) have a similar setup, only “reversed”, with a DHCP client running on ether1 (which is WAN) and a DHCP server running on the bridge (LAN) which comprises ether2 and the other interfaces.
But It has to be seen how to set the wlan (radio) interface, normally It Is in the bridge, as definitely the wifi Is LAN.
In your case you cannot have ether1 and ether2 in a same bridge.
You could have the wlan routed to either ether1 or ether2.
But maybe It would be easier to add a second slave wlan, and have two SSID’s/two wireless networks, one bridged with ether1 and the other bridged to ether2.
All in all It seems possible/doable.
Let’s see if some other member has better ideas and/or some references to similar setups.
In the meantime, you should post your configuration (even if It Is untouched default) to have a base to work on.
Follow the instructions here:
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/forum-rules/173010/1

5

Conceptually I don’t see any issues.
mAP, small as it may be, runs ROS so it’s incredibly flexible in what it can do.

A small drawing might help as well to clarify where you’re aiming for.
(draw on paper and scan it in)

6

The main concepts you need to understand are:

  • Interfaces (Ether1, Ether2, wlan1).
  • Bridges (In your case you’ll want to bridge wlan1 and Ether2 to cover the AP bridge only case
  • IP > Firewall > NAT: Masquerade, you’ll want to NAT traffic going out Ether1
  • IP > DHCP Server: You’ll want a DHCP server on your Bridge interface to cover the AP-Router scenario, however you will want to have it disabled for the AP-bridge scenario (and by default, otherwise the venue admin will be very upset with you)
  • IP > DHCP Client (on Ether1 for the AP-Router scenario)
  • IP > DNS you probably want DNS to work
  • Scripts > You’ll want to check if Ether1 is connected AND if Ether2 is disconnected and in that case enable your DHCP server. If anything connects to Ether2 you’ll want the disable the DHCP server.

You don’t really need a DHCP client for the bridge scenario unless you want to access the mAP via IP. You can still access it using MAC Protocol (check if it’s available on all interfaces in Tools > MAC Server) even without an assigned IP.

I think that’s about it. Unless you want a firewall.

7

Since there are two devices available, the easiest would be to configure and test one device as AP-router working on ether1 and the other as AP-bridge working on ether2, then, once each one works as expected, find the differences and adapt a script like this one:
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/ethernet-status-up-or-down-script/169560/1
to switch between configurations depending on which interface has connection.