hello
a complete newbie here with a brand new hap ac lite installed.
i would like to extend the wireless network range in my home. the hap is currently on one floor and on the second floor the throughput is only 10-20mbps.
i have got an ethernet cable between the two floors so i would like to purchase and additional piece of hardware from mikrotik that i could use to have better throughput. I d like to use the ethernet cable between them, possibly with poe, and migration to be seamless between the two APs. Configuration like DNS, etc i d like to do on only the master.
If possible i would also like to have ac on both of them, but i guess i can live without.
Maybe you guys could give me some advice on how to achieve the above in the most cost effective manner.
Sorry for all the requests, but this is all replacing an airport extreme setup that has worked simply and beautifully for the last 6 or so years without actually having to do anything. Love all the flexibility of router os, but still very much a newb…
It’s not only possible but the most optimal approach (wiring both).
Once both Hap devices are wired, setup the wireless portion of the second floor unit with same SSID and security as the first floor unit (use a different wireless channel that doesn’t overlap with the first floor’s)
As long as both devices are truly layer-2 connected that’s all needed.
ah, cool, thanks for this. didn t imagine it would be that simple.
but i assume in the described scenario i d have 2 routers dishing out ips and so on? is there some bridge setting that i need somewhere?
so i would need another hap device then, worth waiting for hap ac (non lite) ? would there be any other current hardware that i could choose, like those dishes that just do wireless they put in hotels or something?
Second device you can make it bridge so the only dhcp server will be on first, and you will have the same subnet in your LAN . Also set up same ssid with same encription on both but different channels, for roaming clients.
and hardware wise what do you think, go with another hap ac lite, or get something better to replace it as the first device, or maybe with one of the hot spot/access point offerings like cAP-2n, or maybe a RB951G-2HnD … so many choices…
As kiaunel pointed out no need for a second DHCP, just plug the second floor device on a port on the same bridge (or master port) where the DHCP server runs on the first floor device.
RB951G or 951Ui are amongst my favourite APs, and any of them will probably provide coverage for both stories.
They’re specially good with mobile devices.
Your pick:
951Ui version can both be powered by POE, and power another device (PoE out)
951G can be powered by PoE, but no PoE out; it has 5 gigabit ports however.
If following this route, I’d leave the Hap ac on the floor you need more bandwidth (next to your home office).
Regardoing 951 placement, it will probably work equally good on any of the stories. I’d disable the 2.4Ghz portion in the Hap if you position both on the same story and leave just the 951 for 2.4GHz coverage.
due to apparently some huge amount of metal in the iron slab between floors, signal is highly degraded, so i probably won t ever get away with just one router.
thinking about it my connection from the isp is 200mbps through pppoe, so i would need a gigabit variant anyway in order to benefit of any increase of above 100mbps, as the first device in chain
that would pretty much mean either a hap ac or 951G as the first device and moving the ac lite as the extender…
shame about the lack of poe out, i could of powered the ac lite over poe and changed it s location to somewhere where i don t have power..
Then the Hap ac is for you it has Poe-Out, and can be seen as the next-gen 951 in terms of “Workhorse AP” in Mikrotik AP lineup.
They were used in Europe MUM (Ljubljana) last week to provide WiFi on the conference hall, and they didn’t miss a beat with 100-150 average registered stations.
It is already on most distributors, was released about 1 week ago.
I would use a different SSID for each floor for the reason listed below,
Another consideration which could happen is where a client is registered on one floor moves to floor above but still remains registered to floor below and have a poor wireless service due to the weak signal,
I would ask for help with a script that would check registered clients signal level (maybe sample duration of 10/30 seconds (?) ) and disconnect those below a threshold level, hopefully this action will result in clients registering to the strongest signal?
Or you could simply manually switch between the different SSID’s,
that s a very interesting idea with the script…
if it s just two ssids, i have seen that phones/tablets like to cling onto the first they connected, even though there is a better AP around, so two separate aps won t really work without manual connection (which is a pain)
but the script thing is really interesting…worth a think
In a home scenario two SSIDs aren’t a big deal, and could ease seeing to which AP a given device is connected.
However if signal difference is so obvious between floors, a single SSID, different channels on each floor and adjusting tx-power should be enough to “make it more obvious” for stations to switch to each AP, while additionaly having a more optimized setup.
In a home environment manually adding each wireless device to the access list and setting min signal level on each wireless AP may not be a big issue, I don’t think access list will work in a commercial environment with new devices registering daily,
There’s no need to add every device to the access list. In fact this is a “technique” I constantly deploy on multi-AP hotspot commercial scenarios, or redundant sector-APs WISP towers.
What I suggested is accomplished by setting two access list rules, the first allowing any device with signal higher than say 60dBm, and the second denying any device with lower signal.
Access list works like firewall filter rules, i.e. on a first match fashion. Check the wiki entry I linked to, is explained there.
so in the end i got a RB951G-2HnD (didn t know it had a buzzer, that s cool )
set it up as main router, connecting to ISP, so far so good.
now i ve got the following two issues:
i can t find a way to make it so i can connect on 40mhz channels, both chains are active, set 20/40 mhz channels, no go, I still only connect at 20mhz, 145mbps max
i can t figure a way to make my hap ac lite be a “dumb client”, so it only extends the network, no dhcp, no nat, no firewall needed, only extend what it gets from the the RB951G-2HnD on ethernet and wireless…
so, i might have sorted at least part of it, the bridge ( i hope). posting what i ve done, in case i ve done something wrong and somebody can steer me in the right direction
main router
set as home ap
set app IP/Services to be available from local network only 10.0.88.0/24
set wireless/wlan/frequency to 2437 (not all channels appear here?)
no country set
secondary router
connected port 1 wlan to port 2 of main router
set as WISP router
set app IP/Services to be available from local network only 10.0.88.0/24 (although this is behind the first router)
set wireless/wlan/frequency to 2442 (highest, not all channels appear here?)
no country set
this seems to have given me a bridge, no nat or dhcp server on secondary router, etc, but it does seem to have two interfaces
ether 1
bridge
each with it s own ip. is this ok?
i still can t connect to 40mhz channels on the main router…
it has Poe-Out, and can be seen as the next-gen 951 in terms of “Workhorse AP” in Mikrotik AP lineup.
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