Hello. i have taken on the task of setting up a wifi network at a friends farm, connecting 3 houses so the family can all access the internet. I have set up simple MikroTik networks a while back, and thought I would manage this one easily, but I am stumped. If anyone has the time and the inclination to help it would be very much appreciated. What I need to know is how to configure each of the devices so as to connect them as per the diagram I will include here. Or maybe somebody could organise a skype call to talk me through some of it.
Thank you
Trolley
We would like to help, but there is no question??
Where is the problem??
Trolley -
You will need to go to the Mikrotik Wiki and start putting the pieces together. Here is the generic setup…
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Since ‘Main House’ has the Internet connection and you are using the ‘Machinery Shed’ as basically a ‘relay’ then you will need to setup Main House as WDS AP-Bridge. Machinery Shed will get setup as a WDS station. While looking at the Wiki choose Static WDS, not dynamic. This will make things easier for you.
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Each of the remaining houses will also be WDS stations. So they will all need to be on the same channel and all have the same SSID.
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Set the Main House Mikrotik LAN port to DHCP client mode. This will get the Mikrotik an IP address. Setup whatever network address you would like on the Wireless Interface. I would pick something in the range of 192.168.5.1/24 - 192.168.80.1/24 Somewhere in there. See caveat below. In IP Firewall, set src-nat, action=masquerade out-interface LAN (whatever the LAN is, i.e., ether1, etc).
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Follow the Wiki on setting up your ‘client’ WDS stations with static IP addresses. Use the Main House IP address as your DNS.
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I like to use 192.168.5.0/24 networks on in house routers because manufacturers use, 192.168.0.0/24, 192.168.1.0/24, 192.168.88.0/24 and 192.168.254.0/24, I have never seen one use 192.168.5.0/24 as a network. This makes it a lot easier on you for two reasons…all of the in house routers are the same and you can plug any consumer grade router in to the outside Mikrotik’s ethernet port and it will work. So, what you would do with each house router (except for the main house) is set the Mikrotik LAN IP address to 192.168.5.1/24. Setup a DHCP server on the Mikrotik LAN port. In the firewall setup src-nat out-interface wireless, action=masquerade…
Once you get the above done, or if you have issues getting them setup, come back here and post your specific issue. 
Thom
I recommend moving the internet connection to the same building with the Omnitik if at all possible.
Your proposed topology will basically cut your bandwidth in half because the Omnitik will spend half of its time receiving from the main house, and then repeating each packet to whichever house is the destination.
If you can’t move the main internet feed, then try to use the main house as the Omnitik location (obviously, the physical layout of the property will dictate what you can and cannot do in this regard).
Assuming you can get the Internet connection and router to be in the same building as the Omnitik…
Here is how I would configure the various Mikrotiks:
Choose a ‘distribution’ IP network for the house-to-house links, e.g. 192.168.255.x/24
Router configuration: (I recommend a RB2011UAS-2HnD)
- Make an interface (non-bridged) with 192.168.255.1/24 as the IP address.
- create routes for the LAN at each house:
/ip route add dst=192.168.3.0/24 gateway=192.168.255.3
/ip route add dst=192.168.4.0/24 gateway=192.168.255.4
etc
- configure the wlan1 interface to be the wireless AP for the house, and connect it to the LAN bridge.
- put IP address 192.168.1.1/24 on the LAN bridge and configure the usual DHCP for this net/interface
- one basic masquerade rule should cover the whole farm:
/ip firewall nat add chain=srcnat out-interface=ether1-gateway action=masquerade
(remove any other srcnat rules)
The Omnitik should be a basic bridge
- create a bridge interface bridge1 and attach the wlan1 and ether1 interfaces to the bridge.
- put the IP address 192.168.255.254/24 on the bridge interface and set 192.168.255.1 as the default GW
- wlan1 interface will be in mode “ap bridge” (no WDS is required for routed connections to the other houses)
SXT configurations:
- Each SXT should get an IP address 192.168.255.2/24, 192.168.255.3/24, 192.168.255.4/24, etc. on wlan1
- Each SXT should have the default GW set to 192.168.255.1
- Wireless mode is “station”
- IP address 192.168.x.1/24 on ether1 interface (x is the same as the 4th number in the wlan1 IP address) So 192.168.255.3 would be 192.168.3.1/24 on the LAN side.
- Configure DHCP server to hand out IP addresses 192.168.x.10 - 192.168.x.254 with default GW = 192.168.x.1
Access Point configurations:
Finally, for the RB951U access points, configure them as simple bridges just like you did with the Omnitik:
- create bridge interface bridge1 and attach ether1 and wlan1 interfaces
- put the IP address 192.168.x.2/24 on the bridge1 interface (where x is appropriate to the house).
- set default GW to be 192.168.x.1
- configure ether2 - ether5 as slaves with ether1 = master port. This lets you have a few hard-wired ports on the network in case you want to attach something like a Roku or a printer or something.
As for the SSID - if the houses are far enough apart that there’s no way a client device would roam to the wrong house’s AP, you can make them all use the same SSID so people don’t need 3 or 4 wireless networks and passwords, but do be aware if they’re the same that there’s a possibility that devices might try to associate to the wrong AP, and the IP addresses are different at each house. You can put an ACL which will force disconnect if the signal is below a certain threshold and that should keep things straight. If it gets to be too big of a headache, you can always change the SSID at each house to a unique network so the devices won’t try to roam.
That’s how I’d skin this cat. YMMV - good luck!