Need help with specific configuration on mAP lite

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Greetings.

I’ve acquired mAP lite with specific purpose in mind, and made some progress, but also experienced some issues. Would like to ask for some help with these issues.

What I have:

  • Wireless local network
  • Printer with LAN support
  • mAP lite

What I originally wanted:

  • To connect the printer to wireless network through mAP lite.
    (I’m testing it with a laptop instead of a printer during the process)

What I’ve tried and done so far:
First, I’ve followed an advice to just use Quick Set - change to CPE mode, choose WLAN to connect to, switch to get IP from WLAN, and enable “Bridge all LAN ports”. This led me to issue: the device I connect to LAN port of mAP lite didn’t get IP address from my WLAN, but it got it from mAP lite (192.168.88.x), which I don’t need. After looking for solutions, I’ve made the following changes:

  • On bridge, I’ve changed protocol mode to none, from RSTP.
  • On DHCP servers, I’ve removed the default DHCP server (192.168.88.x).
    That seemed to work.

But I’ve noticed 2 issues:

  • On my main WLAN router, I could see that both laptop (connected to LAN on mAP lite) and mAP lite had the same MAC address - the one owned by mAP lite. I need them to be at least different, if not fully proper.
  • Speedtest showed horrible speed performance: ~1 Mbps. If I connect laptop to my main WLAN instead, I’d get no less than 20 Mbps.

I’d like to solve these issues. And get a better recommendation on how to setup a device for my needs, faster and properly. I’d need to connect about 10 printers the same way.

What I’d like to achieve now with a single mAP lite, ideally:

  1. Force the sole device connected to the sole LAN port to connect to WLAN.
  2. Make sure the mentioned issues are not happening.
  3. I’d like mAP lite to not use any IP address from WLAN address pool. At the moment, I’m not sure how this can be achieved, if possible at all. Maybe it can just not request a separate IP address for itself, or maybe it can fully mask itself and act in place of the connected LAN device.

Thanks.

2

The problem you’re facing is that plain 802.11 doesn’t support wireless bridges (which would transparently connect two parts of wired network). Most of WiFi vendors solve this using some proprietary extensions, so does Mikrotik. This, however, means that both APs participating in such bridge have to be by same manufacturer.

If you’re going to connect single device and it will only use IPv4, then not everything is lost. You can configure mAP lite to wireless mode=station-pseudobridge … check how different station modes work in manual.

3

Do you mean that my main WLAN has to come from Microtik router too? This is not the case unfortunately, the main wireless network comes via Ruckus hardware.

Actually I forgot to mention. After setting up the CPE mode, the mAP lite was already in mode=station-pseudobridge. And I also had to change it to mode=station-bridge (as various other discussions suggested) to get any results at all.

Did I do it wrong? If I set up CPE mode and just remove DHCP server, should it work like I want?

And another question. I didn’t check if RouterOS that came with it was updated. But I didn’t expect updates to change much - I expected that functionality I need was simple enough for any older existing versions of RouterOS to handle. Should I try to update it before asking further questions?

4

As your main wifi AP is not Mikrotik, you are very limited in selection of station modes. Really read tge manual document I linked in my previous post, it’ll explain all the problems you’re facing.

I’m not familiar with QuickSet modes so I can’t comment of feasibility of CPE mode for this particular use case … you definitely don’t want to run DHCP server on mAP, neither you want any routing nor firewalling. You actually want to bridge wireless and ethernet ports .. and it’s quite possible that there isn’t a QuickSet mode for that …

I don’t think ROS version will change it much unless your mAP lite came with ancient version. Anyhow, you can upgrade it to long-term or stable just in case.

5

So I fiddled with it for some time. I’ve reset it to no-default and managed to configure it from that state. It works, plus I’ve set a static IP for mAP lite from a different subnet so it doesn’t consume one from my WLAN.

But there is still at least one serious problem remains. The speed is very bad. Still about 1-2 Mbps only.

Here is my config from export:

# aug/26/2019 19:59:21 by RouterOS 6.45.3
# software id = YCNA-LUR0
#
# model = RouterBOARD mAP L-2nD
# serial number = ***
/interface bridge
add name=bridge1
/interface pwr-line
set [ find default-name=pwr-line1 ] disabled=yes
/interface list
add name=WAN
add name=LAN
/interface wireless security-profiles
set [ find default=yes ] supplicant-identity=MikroTik
add authentication-types=wpa-psk,wpa2-psk eap-methods="" group-ciphers=\
    tkip,aes-ccm management-protection=allowed mode=dynamic-keys name=\
    *** supplicant-identity="" unicast-ciphers=tkip,aes-ccm \
    wpa-pre-shared-key=*** wpa2-pre-shared-key=***
/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] band=2ghz-onlyn basic-rates-a/g=\
    6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=\
    2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps channel-width=20/40mhz-XX country=*** disabled=no \
    frequency=auto mode=station-pseudobridge security-profile=*** \
    ssid=*** supported-rates-b=2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps wireless-protocol=\
    802.11
/ip hotspot profile
set [ find default=yes ] html-directory=flash/hotspot
/interface bridge filter
add action=drop chain=input dst-port=68 in-interface=!wlan1 ip-protocol=udp \
    mac-protocol=ip
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge1 interface=ether1
add bridge=bridge1 interface=wlan1
/interface list member
add interface=wlan1 list=WAN
add interface=ether1 list=LAN
/ip address
add address=192.168.1.1/24 disabled=yes interface=ether1 network=192.168.1.0
/ip dhcp-client
add dhcp-options=hostname,clientid disabled=no interface=bridge1

The signal from main AP (TP-link) should be good as other clients in the same room don’t have issues with speed.
How can I debug and fix this?

ADD:
It seems like it always connects to WLAN at 1 Mpbs - if I disable 1 Mbps rate, it refuses to connect.

6

Just in case, as I wanted to run similar setup and was “worried” about 1mbps speed OP had.

An exception from original OP is that I’m connecting my mAP lite to an AP that is still Mikrotik but as it’s in CAPsMAN mode it’s still limited as of modes one can use to connect.
My mAP lite is in station pseudobridge as with OP.

Result: no speed issues, getting what’s expected.

7

Well a bit confused with your basic rate settings. Why did you change this? And the supported rates in your config are only for 802.11b . (No a/g rates, or default a/g rates ???)
Please reset to default. (a/g basic rate =6 Mbps, supported rates = 6 till 54). If you need b-rates (when very poor signal : basic rates= 1Mbps, supported rates = 1 till 11)

Use only 802.11g/n , avoid 802.11b.
Using 40 MHz in 2.4GHz band is seldom recommended. Stick to 20 MHz.
Avoid using tkip in the security profile. “tkip” does not support fast connections.

Removing low speeds does not help in bad conditions. On the contrary it leads to disconnects only!

Check the “Registrations” in the wireless tab. TX rates, RX rates, CCQ, at least, to know what are your connection parameters.

And “Quick Set” is only usable for some well defined (but poorly documented) setups. For anything else it destroys more than it helps.