Newbee needs help...weird wireless config

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Conditions:

We have an existing 532A (equipped w/ 600mW a/b/g miniPCI) in service as an indoor AP, and it works great. It is setup for NAT/DHCP.

Our small building is metal, so we don’t get a good signal outside (which is why I selected the 600mW card), so I bought a second AP for use outside where we do a lot of testing with our laptops. I plan to install the outdoor AP under a window where it can catch the signal from the indoor unit. This is much preferred to running CAT-5 to the outdoor unit.

The outdoor AP is equipped with two wireless cards:

  • 350mW a/b/g miniPCI, set for b/g channel 1 (same as the indoor AP)
  • 200mW b-only miniPCI, set for channel 11 (for use by the outdoor clients)

Both the indoor and the outdoor APs use moderate gain (7dBi) omnis. The outdoor AP has two sets of antennas, one for the link to the indoor AP (channel 1), and one for the outdoor clients (channel 11).

I would like to configure bridging, as we go in-and-out with our laptops during testing.

Questions:

  1. How do I make the outdoor AP function as both a client to the indoor AP (channel 1) and an ‘AP-Bridge’ (channel 11) for the outdoor clients?

  2. What do you call this config? So I can research the config? (It is not really a repeater, since one of the WLAN interfaces is functioning as a client to the indoor AP.) I am willing to dig for the answers but I don’t know the questions.

  3. Do I need to change any of the config on the indoor AP?

  4. I am guessing that I need to setup a bridge interface in the outdoor AP…do I assign both outdoor interfaces to the bridge or just one?

  5. What mode should I set the ‘backhaul’ WLAN interface in the outdoor AP? Station? Station Pseudomode? Station Pseudomode Clone?

Any help would be appreciated…


Thanks,
-Chris

2
  1. How do I make the outdoor AP function as both a client to the indoor AP (channel 1) and an ‘AP-Bridge’ (channel 11) for the outdoor clients?

One wireless card should be mode=ap-bridge. Second one could be station, but if you need transparent bridge then station-wds [the other end should have WDS enabled].

  1. What do you call this config? So I can research the config? (It is not really a repeater, since one of the WLAN interfaces is functioning as a client to the indoor AP.) I am willing to dig for the answers but I don’t know the questions.

If you need bridge network, then station-wds is the answer. You can bridge station-wds, other clients cannot connect to it [keep in mind that mode=station does not support bridging].