Setting up connection between 2 routers over the WiFi

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hi.

Recently moved into apartment where ISP cable is located in the room I want to use as kids room - main router will be placed there.
Do not want to put NAS and printer to kids room, so looking for safer place. Have no idea how cable is routed within apartment, and right now not willing investigate.
As an idea, want to place another router in other location within apartment and connect via WiFi, wired connection is not an option right now.
Nothing specific needed, just to be able to connect to NAS and printer within LAN, and for NAS to have access to Internet.
What I have:

  • Microtik Audience, currently as main router, connected to ISP cable
  • Microtik hAP ac2 as secondary where I want to connect NAS and printer.
    Both running RouterOS 7.17 with wifi-qcom-ac package.

I have tried several tutorials over the internet, but haven’t succeeded to get things working.
Audience is up and running, and I have no real issues with WiFi coverage within the apartment.
On hAP ac2 I have configured WiFi and added everything except wifi2 to bridge:

2025-01-20 22:47:22 by RouterOS 7.17

/interface bridge
add name=bridge_local
/interface wifi
set [ find default-name=wifi1 ] configuration.country=Latvia .mode=ap .ssid=
SID_WIFI disabled=no
set [ find default-name=wifi2 ] configuration.country=Latvia .mode=station
.ssid=SID_CONNECTED_TO_ANOTHER_ROUTER disabled=no
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether1
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether2
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether3
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether4
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether5
add bridge=bridge_local interface=wifi1
/ip hotspot profile
set [ find default=yes ] html-directory=hotspot
/system clock
set time-zone-name=Europe/Riga
/system note
set show-at-login=no
/system routerboard settings
set auto-upgrade=yes

On hAP ac2 under WiFi->Registrations I see successful connection to Audience via wifi2, and same is on Audience.
But on Audience I do not see any IP address assigned to this connection under IP->DHCP Server->Leases. Is it correct?

Next thing, when running ipconfig /all on laptop connected to hAP ac2 I see IP address like 169.254.93.242. While expecting to see something from 192.168.88.0/24 range.
DHCP is not configured currently on ac2, but is it possible to use DHCP service from Audience to lease IP addresses to devices connected to hAP ac2?

And another question is on DNS. Do I need to configure something specific on hAP ac2? Or I can get all info from Audience?

Till now, whatever I was doing on hAP ac2, none of connected device was able to access internet:

ping google.com
Ping request could not find host google.com. Please check the name and try again.

nslookup google.com
Server: UnKnown
Address: fec0:0:0:ffff::1

*** UnKnown can’t find google.com: No response from server

Same when trying to ping from ac2:

ping google.com
invalid value for argument address:
invalid value of mac-address, mac address required
invalid value for argument ipv6-address
while resolving ip-address: could not get answer from dns server

I am quite far from any network stuff, and definitely messing something up.
Please help to understand what is the right way to set it up?

Thanks.

2

I think one possible set of changes is likely to be:

Add wifi2 to the bridge, and change its mode to “Station Bridge”

Optional:

You could/should also put a dhcp-client on the bridge if you don’t have one on it already so the hapac2 also gets an IP address from the Audience.
(if you have a dhcp-client on wifi2 at present, you could move it to the bridge)

3

Hi.

@rplant, many thanks, it worked. And working as expected. I am able to connect to Internet through ac2 on both, wired and wireless.
I was moving on cycles for quite a while. So, @rplant, thank you for sharing solution.

If someone is looking for similar solution:

  • Audience, main router where ISP cable is connected → no configuration changes were done
  • hAP ac2, below exported configuration that is working for me:

2025-01-21 08:34:18 by RouterOS 7.17

/interface bridge
add name=bridge_local
/interface wifi
set [ find default-name=wifi1 ] configuration.country=Latvia .mode=ap .ssid=
SID_WIFI disabled=no
set [ find default-name=wifi2 ] configuration.country=Latvia .mode=
station-bridge .ssid=SID_CONNECTED_TO_ANOTHER_ROUTER disabled=no
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether1
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether2
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether3
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether4
add bridge=bridge_local interface=ether5
add bridge=bridge_local interface=wifi1
add bridge=bridge_local interface=wifi2
/ip dhcp-client
add interface=bridge_local
/ip hotspot profile
set [ find default=yes ] html-directory=hotspot

Instruction for dummies like me, all steps below from Winbox4 :slight_smile:

  1. reset router: System->Reset Configuration->No Default Configuration
  2. Set user and password for the router / disable admin. Use new user for connection and configuration.
  3. Configure WiFi interface on which you want to connect to another router. Set SID same as SID on main router, set Mode->Station Bridge, set passphrase same as on main router. Check under WiFi->Registration if connection to main router is established. If no connection, then try WiFi->WiFi->Scan->Select Interface->Find WiFi network->Connect
  4. Configure other WiFi interfaces if you want to use WiFi on secondary router, set passphrase for all interfaces. Do not leave non protected access to your WiFi.
  5. Create Bridge. Bridge->Bridge->New->leave all as default
  6. Add all interfaces to created Bridge. Bridge->Ports->New->add all required interfaces one by one. Use all settings as default.
  7. Create DHCP Client. IP->DHCP Client->DHCP Client->New. As interface select Bridge, other settings use as default.

Regards,
Andrejs