I am setting up a wireless network for a school. The initial plan was to set up all APs to use a 450G box as a Hotspot and gateway. The 450g would then be setup to authenticate users via a freeradius server, pointing to an LDAP server.
The tech I am working with has asked that I set things up very simple for now and wants all wireless users to authenticate using the same login. I can still use a local LDAP server on the Freeradius server for this. However, they want all devices to use the same IP scheme as the rest of the network, rather than the separate 10.x subnet that is generated when setting up a normal hotspot.
Is a hot spot still the best answer for my setup? If so, what would I have to modify to set it up the way they are asking?
That will work just fine. You can use any IP addressing on a network protected by a Hotspot, including public or any scheme of private addressing.
If it’s all the same login you can save yourself the bother of setting up RADIUS and tying it to LDAP and can just use a local user account, if you want.
I am not sure what you mean by “what do I have to modify”. You either run the setup wizard and answer the IP address question differently, or you set things up manually on an already configured interface.
One thing I know can be eliminated is nating, since that will be done by their main firewall. Wasn’t sure if there was more to change because of using the same subnet as their local network.
When you say 'local user". I am assuming you just mean add a user to “User Manager”
No, I mean a user in “/ip hotspot user”. User Manager is Mikrotik’s RADIUS server specifically for their Hotspot solution. FreeRADIUS is considerably more powerful, and if you’re going to do RADIUS, I’d choose FreeRADIUS if you’re comfortable using it.