First time routerOS user and totally lost…I got the hAP ax3 and it’s running routerOS 7.15.2 (can’t update because I don’t have internet connection yet). I have a mobile office with several devices, that I take with me and I need to connect to the internet depending on what I get in wherever I go.
Basically, I want the hAP to be the router for my “portable” network consisting of ether2-5 and a wifi AP for devices to connect to. This should have it’s own DHCP server providing the IPs and all NATed.
I then need the hAP to connect to the “internet” via wifi or ether1. Usually it’s WiFi, so I’m happy if I get that part working first. And that it what I am actually struggling: How do I tell the hAP to use wifi for uplink?
Let’s first start understanding how a default Mikrotik (Ax3) configuration is set up.
There are two categories of interfaces:
WAN (outside, dangerous, here be lions)
LAN (inside, safe)
The normal configuration puts ALL interfaces BUT ether1 into a bridge and assigns the bridge to the category LAN.
Ether1 is self-standing and assigned to category WAN.
A NAT is performed between the LAN and WAN and as well firewall rules are applied to the traffic depending on these categorization.
This is the typical use as a router/AP, internet is connected to ether1 and all other ports are interconnected between them.
Now, if I get it right your WiFi needs to be used BOTH as Access Point (to which you connect your device(s) with a DHCP server like in the default) AND as a client (in Mikrotik jargon “station”) to an existing WI-FI internet connection.
This cannot be done (with a “same” configuration) a WiFi interface is EITHER an AP or a client (station) and as well it is EITHER LAN or WAN, but since the Ax3 has two radios (and two interfaces, wlan1 and wlan2), one at 2.4 GHz and one at 5 GHz, maybe you want one to act as AP (LAN) and the other one to act as client (WAN).
Since traffic will pass through both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz radios, the speed/throughput will be determined by the slower of the two (the 2.4 GHz one) that is however more compatible with existing wifi you may find and has better penetration, so it would make sense to use the 2.4 GHz as client and the 5 Ghz as access point, but all your devices need to be 5 GHz compatible.
Or you need two configurations and swap between them depending on where you are/how you are connecting to the internet.