I’ve been very frustrated with my new Mikrotik router, I know the answers are in there and I know that it’s certainly capable of what I want it to do but I am struggling. For context, the router sits in a rack on stage where it connects to (all via ethernet)
A Behringer XR18 mixer (192.168.88.10)
A rack pc I built myself that we use for recording from the mixer (192.168.88.20)
A laptop that controls both (192.168.88.30) (the mixer has an app that works across networks, for the pc I use RDP to remote desktop to the machine and press ‘record’)
This has all been working fine in our studio for several months (where it’s all been connected to the talktalk router that’s in there) however we would like to be able to take the recording rig to gigs and record there so I bought the hAP hoping that it could fulfill the role of router between the 3 devices. Now, I’d consider myself fairly competent with computers but I’ve never really had to do any kind of networking before and I’m out of my depth. I’m having the following issues, and I’d really appreciate your help please!
It seems as though one of the ethernet ports don’t work. As I understand it, the router comes configured out of the box as a bridge and there’s like a master port or something? I don’t need or want that. There’s no other router at a gig to be a DHCP server or provide internet access or anything, I want the hAP to do it all, I have been getting around this so far by using two ethernet ports and having the laptop use wifi.
There seems to be an issue with the RDP port forwarding, no matter how many online tutorials I follow to open port 3389 it doesn’t work! I must stress that (other than the ip address change) this RDP has been working successfully.
If those devices have static addresses and are in same subnet, then you don’t need any router at all, just switch (if it needs to be only local thing without internet access). If they get addresses from DHCP, then hAP can do it for you.
Default config is usually first port as WAN (internet) and the rest switched as LAN. If you don’t need internet access, then break the config and put first port together with others. And so far it sound like you do want bridge, master port or something.
Again, if all devices have same subnet (probably yes), you don’t need any port forwarding. You just connect directly to target device, router is by default not interfering with switched traffic.
Some questions that your post raises for me, please be patient.
I was under the impression that I needed a router? All of the devices have a static ip on my home network but they’re then all going to be powered off, driven somewhere else and turned back on. Will they keep their ip addresses if they’re on a switch? If so, that might be the easiest way to do this.
You say there no port blocking on the same subnet? Is this then because my laptop is wireless and the rest wired? If so, how exactly would I ‘break the bridge’ as you put it? I tired to do it once and I had to reset the router back to factory. All I want is for everything, all the ethernet and all the wifi to be completely self contained and connected. For the 2-3 hours it’s going to be in any one venue then a wifi password will be more than sufficient security and I don’t want anything else.
Re static addresses: there are static addresses and there are “static” addresses. If you set IP address manually on every device (mixer, recording PC and controlling laptop), then this is trully static and will “survive” powering off, moving to remote location and powering on. On the other hand there’s “static” addressing, where network administrator configures DHCP server to always hand off same IP address to same device (bound to its MAC address). In this case the setup will not survive move to remote location without appropriately configured DHCP server being available there (e.g. properly configured hAP).
hAP comes configured with port 1 as WAN and the rest 4 ports as switched LAN segment. If you have true static addresses on your 3 devices, then it doesn’t really matter how hAP is configured since you can use it as simple switch … but don’t use WAN (left-most) interface.
If you really want to add WiFi into mix, then you need to configure DHCP server (I don’t think you can configure truly static address to wifi interface under wjndows os). Keep in mind that you can not set DHCP server to give out same IP address to two different clients … e.g. laptop has two different MAC addresses, one for fixed and one for wireless interface. Thus it can not get same IP address when connecting wired or wirelessly.
A router does the following: It “connects” (routes) the client to a DIFFERENT network than it’s own.
For example: your mixer has an address 192.168.1.15. And it want to go to the internet for updates or whatever. It needs to go to: 85.48.169.25 (example). The mixer does not know how to get there. That is why there is a router, that “translates” the mixer’s request to the internet and back.
If your equipment does NOT need to go to a different network, and only communicates between each other, you can use static IP’s. Set the hAp Mini to defaults (no router, nothing). Then it will function pure as a switch. But you can take any brand of a switch.
Ok, great. So if I just reset everything to factory defaults then I can just use the hAP as a switch? The only reason I started messing around with it was because it didn’t work out of the box.
I’ll try this asap and report back. Thanks again. All I want to do is connect everything together, maybe a simpler switch would have served me better in the first instance but firstly I thought I needed a router rather than a swithc and secondly I’d prefer to support smaller companies doing cool things rather than any of the massive tech giants.
This bit at least shouldn’t be an issue, the mixer and pc are only wired, the laptop can be be either but as it doesn’t really matter what ip I access the pc from that should be fine.
I noticed that you also want wifi, so router was good choice. What you need to do it to change ether1 from being WAN port, to member of LAN bridge. I’m not sure about exact current config, so I can’t give you detailed description how to do it, but it can’t be hard.
Reconfiguring WAN port (ether1) to “normal” LAN port includes a few steps … deconfiguring whatever WAN procedure in place (most probably it’s DHCP client running on ether1, but it might be PPPoE or something else), removing FW rules, … and at the end, adding the ether1 port to default bridge.
If OP doesn’t really need all 5 ethernet ports, this can be skipped (and he can put a piece of self adhesive tape over ether1 port just to make sure it won’t get used accidentally).
However, if OP needs WiFi, then the LAN part needs to be properly configured:
Adjust DHCP address pool to match subnet, used by mixer, recording PC and controlling laptop (if the rig parts really are using 192.168.88.x, then this step doesn’t need to be done as RB default LAN IP segment is 192.168.88.x as well)
Possibly set up some static DHCP bindings - for mixer and recording PC - in case that IP addresses are “static” (see my post describing the difference between truly static and “static” IP addresses). Even if addresses are truly static, this can be done regardless to ensure that DHCP server will not offer one of those IP addresses to some third device. Note that DHCP boindings can be done to addresses outside the dynamic DHCP address pool.
Adjust WiFi security profile and SSID
change LAN IP address of RB to match needed subnet (address, bound to bridge interface) - again, if the rig parts really use 192.168.88.x, this step can be skipped
If WAN port configuration is left intact, then RB can be used also to provide internet to the rig … if need arises and possibility is there in the future … and without extensive reconfiguration at that time.
BTW, if OP only needs WiFi access, bridged to wired ethernet ports, he could use simple AP device. However, they are quite scarce nowadays (almost every device includes router, the rest don’t have enough switched ethernet ports) and even if he found one, the price wouldn’t be much lower than hAP price … while the quality of that device would quite probably be much lower.