Manage 2GHz CAPSMAN AP over 5GHz "backbone"

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hi. Can anyone clarify if CAPSMAN can be used over wireless?

Currently i’m running HAP AC2, that’s a 2+5GHz access point with internet. A line-of-sight wAP AC connects to it’s 5GHz and bridges it over 2GHz, that provides connectivity on another floor. Any way i set it up - one SSID in repeater mode, multiple SSIDs with devices configured for all, multiple SSIDs with devices using only strongest it’s a mess - poor connectivity when walking around or dropped connections and suboptimal AP selection during hand-over etc. Would CAPSMAN solve this and what’s the best way to do it? Can i E.g. dedicate one frequency to management function and other to access point. Or better yet - keep both frequencies as APs with use of VirtualAPs?
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2

Capsman can use whatever interface you throw at it but that will not solve your underlying problem.
The connection between your APs is flaky.

If you are 150% convinced there is PERFECT line of sight between both APs (NO objects in between), 5GHz can be used.
Only use 2.4GHz then for client SSIDs. Leave 5GHz for backbone only.

You might also try to reverse that strategy and use 2.4GHz as backbone, 5GHz only for clients.
Better distance, better penetration through walls in case line of sight is not really 100% as you say.

But before going that road, have you considered better alternatives ?

  • WIRE … nothing beats wire. Nothing (OK, maybe fiber but that’s also a wire :laughing: )

  • Is there really no way to add somewhere additional ethernet cable ? Even when going through the wall outside and then coming back in (make sure to use weather/UV proof cable then) ? I once had a CAT6 cable laid through the wall of my home office, down the floor, across the ceiling of the garage, down to the basement and then back up to the living room where my main router was at that time.
    From the drawing you provided I would think something might be possible using corners of the walls and ceiling going up ?

  • Other wired options: Powerline ! But can be a problem if you have a solar convertor in your house installed (digital way of creating sine waves stacking block harmonics does not play nice with powerlines). Also, those powerlines need to be on the same phase or it will not work. They are not that cheap but maybe better then having cable installed.

  • Other wired options: MOCA. Ethernet over COAX cable. Maybe you have coax cable lying in the walls not being used ? Just an idea.

  • did I already mention wires are always better then wireless ?

3

5G is solid. The distance is small and there’s only wood stairs and ceiling in-between. Connection to 2G repeater on 2nd floor gives max speed. Stationary devices work well. Problem is mobiles - if they’re on one AP, they’ll suck on other floor. If i add them to both, they’ll drop connection on handover or stay on wrong floor AP with bad speed. Even with single SSID.

Wiring issue is the same as why one AP doesn’t cut it - concrete. Only options are use ugly plastic channels trough stairs or do quite some drilling and remodeling. Compounded by the fact the ISP dropped and crimped their fiber adapter in random corner i’m forced to use. Otherwise i could put my main AP right in middle of stairs. Anyway IMHO CAPSMAN is worth trying before i resort to tearing wallpapers and cutting cable channels in concrete.

So you’re saying 5G backbone should work? How would i set it up? Just have them connected as they already are ( 5G ap → 5G client ) and follow CAPSMAN wiki for 2GHz? Can main AP 5Ghz be used as both CAPSMAN and AP? Or CAPSMAN completely “occupies” the connection it uses for management.

Another thing i’m considering is moving the repeater further away. There’s an area where their coverage overlap strongly making it difficult for devices to select the best option. I’ve already reduced their TX power but that did little to help.

4

Connect 5Ghz link between both devices. Don’t add them to bridge. Use local adresses for each endpoint in a subnet not used by anything else.
And now comes the magic … add EOIP link ACROSS those endpoints and DO connect that EOIP to local bridge on each end.
And then you have one nice L2 network across devices. Broadcast, DHCP, DNS, … it will all work as if it was wired.

Clients hanging on:
use access rules to kick out clients early enough (but some will then tend to avoid such an AP so you need to test it out).
Or use capsman.
Capsman on itself doesn’t use a lot of traffic, shouldn’t be a problem.
I seem to recall though that even with capsman you need to use such access list rules based on signal level. So you can already try to use them without capsman.

Small remark … AC2 can be upgraded to wave2 drivers since 7.13. If that wap is an arm-based wap-AC, it can also use those new drivers.
HUGE difference wifi-wise.

HOWEVER: after installing wave2 drivers on AC2/WAP-AC, not much else is left storage-wise to do other stuff …
So I do not recommend that approach in your case. Just in case you ever consider getting a beefier router (e.g. AX2), you can recover that AC2 as pure access point with wave2 drivers. And then move Wap-ac as well in that direction.

5

Ok, so i installed wifi-qcom-ac on my hAP AC2 and lost all connectivity with wAP AC repeater. Could it be that wireless and wifi-qcom-ac packages are incompatible and cant form an AP to STATION-BRIDGE connection? Signal strength changing from -66 to -101 after update seems weird. Additionally the access list is missing now on main AP and i don’t see the option to configure its use anywhere.

Before qcom-ac:
 19:21:39 wireless,debug wlan5g: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF attempts to associate
 19:21:39 wireless,debug wlan5g: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF in local ACL, accept
 19:21:39 wireless,info FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@wlan5g: connected, signal strength -66
 19:23:16 wireless,debug wlan5g: 00:00:00:00:00:00 attempts to associate
 19:23:16 wireless,debug wlan5g: 00:00:00:00:00:00 in local ACL, accept
 19:23:16 wireless,info 00:00:00:00:00:00@wlan5g: connected, signal strength -56, wants bridge
 19:24:10 wireless,info FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@wlan5g: disconnected, received deauth: sending station leaving (3)
 19:26:06 wireless,info 00:00:00:00:00:00 @wlan5g: disconnected, received deauth: sending station leaving (3)
 19:26:17 wireless,debug wlan5g: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF attempts to associate
 19:26:17 wireless,debug wlan5g: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF in local ACL, accept
 19:26:17 wireless,info FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@wlan5g: connected, signal strength -63

After qcom-ac:
 03-10 00:46:33 wireless,debug FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@5GHz_ap associated, signal strength -101
 03-10 00:46:33 wireless,info FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@5GHz_ap connected, signal strength -101
 03-10 00:46:33 wireless,info FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@5GHz_ap connected, signal strength -101
 03-10 00:46:36 wireless,info FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@5GHz_ap disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -101
 03-10 00:46:36 wireless,info FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@5GHz_ap disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -101
 03-10 00:46:36 wireless,debug FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF@5GHz_ap disassociated, connection lost, signal strength -101

The AP-BRIDGE on 2GHz seems to be alive, but I can’t properly reach it with phone as i guess the Bridge part messes up IP and stuff making it inaccessible without proper “backbone” link.

Or could it be the 192kb of remaining “HDD” space on my hAP AC2 thats just messing up everything? Reverting to wireless package on hAP AC2 main AP with 830kb free space just works.

OTOH 5G speed on main AP went from 50..70Mbit to full 200Mbit ISP fiber speed.