Setting up hAP AC as station for wired connections

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hi all, trying to repurpose my old router to connect to wired connections in my lab through the hAP wireless interface. It’s pretty much the same as this post: http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/routerboard-configuration-as-wifi-client/145843/1

I’m at the point where my hAP is connected to the serving router and get’s an IP, but when I plug in an ethernet cable, I get a self assigned IP on my device if it’s using DHCP and can’t connect to anything. I’ve tried adding and removing wlan1 from the bridge and neither seems to work. I also added a masquerate rule on srcnat with out device as wlan1 with no luck. Any suggestions?



These are the actual steps I followed:

Step 1: Reset Configuration
This helps avoid conflicts from old settings.

In Winbox/WebFig: System > Reset Configuration

Check “No Default Configuration” or “Reset Configuration Without Defaults” depending on your MikroTik version.

Step 2: Set Wireless Interface to Station Mode
Go to Wireless > Interfaces

Double-click the wireless interface (usually wlan1)

Set the Mode to station or station-pseudobridge

station is better if your main Wi-Fi router gives DHCP to clients (most do)

Set the SSID to your Wi-Fi network name

Go to Wireless > Security Profiles, create or edit one with your Wi-Fi password

Step 3: Connect to Wi-Fi
Go back to Wireless > Interfaces

Assign the security profile

Enable the wireless interface and connect

Step 4: Get IP from the Main Router
Go to IP > DHCP Client

Add a new client on the wlan1 interface

Wait for it to get an IP from your main router

Step 5: Bridge to Ethernet (LAN)
Option A: Bridge Mode (simpler if you’re not doing routing/NAT)

Go to Bridge > Bridge

Create a new bridge (e.g., bridge1)

Add ether1, ether2, etc. AND wlan1 to the bridge

2

Try making the bridge the dhcp client, not wlan1

3

What you want to obtain is seemingly a switch (no routing, no nat, all ports into a bridge) with a wireless connection to the rest of the wifi network (station or station-pseudobridge mode, i.e. “client”).

When you have wlan1 as self-standing, the DHCP client should be running on it.

The moment you add wlan1 to the bridge, wlan1 “loses some dignity” as it is now part of the bridge, so that setting is not valid anymore, and the DHCP client should be running on the outer envelope (the bridge).

If you are running 7.x, a basic configuration should look loosely like this one:
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/hap-ax-lite-lte6-how-to-set-as-repeater/180534/1

Then it is your choice to add or not a slave wlan interface (or use the second radio) to have the device act also as repeater/extender.

4

station will not work, you need station-pseudobridge if you want a wireless bridge (all ports including WLAN are part of the bridge and DHCP is give by the main AP you connect to).

The DHCP client on the bridge is not needed, but allows you to connect via IP to the device via Winbox.
You did not mention what ROS version is used on the devices.

5

My thoughts.
Sorry for the amount of text.
Assumes a moderately recent router OS. (v6 or v7)

  1. If what you mostly want is internet. Use a Routed/Natted wireless connection. This is reliable under almost all conditions.

From a default configuration. (Using winbox)

If needed you can (carefully) use quickset to change the IP address range of the hap.
You will likely need to disconnect and reconnect your PC’s network connection
after changing it to get the dhcp client on your Computer to update.

After this
Remove the WLAN from the bridge. (bridge port)
Set the WLAN up to connect to the Access Point, use station mode.
Put an IP DHCP Client on the WLAN interface, perhaps make its default route distance 2.
Add the WLAN to the WAN interface list. (So traffic exiting via the WLAN gets NATTED) Interface / Interface List

You should now have a dual wan configuration on the HAP. (ether1, and the WLAN client)

If required, you can disable the DHCP client on ether1 and then add ether1 to the bridge.
Giving 5 LAN ethernet interfaces.

  1. A bridged configuration. Your devices behind the hap device are on the same subnet as the devices on the existing wired network.
    Configuring this ranges from easy to “It won’t work”.

From a default configuration:

2.1. Common configuration:

2.1.1. Setup so you have somewhat guaranteed access to the device,
(alternatively with winbox you can connect via mac address)

Connect to hap via ether4.
Remove ether5 from the bridge (bridge port)
Add ether5 to the LAN interface list. interface / interface list
Move the ip dhcp server from bridge to ether5
Move the ip address from bridge to ether5
You should now connect to ether5 to manage the hap.


2.1.2. Common configuration continued.
Set the WLAN up to connect to the Access Point, use station mode.
Add an ip dhcp client to the bridge.
Attach the WLAN to the bridge.

You won’t have connectivity via the WLAN at this time.

2.2. Device Specific setups.

2.2.1. Traditional Mikrotik Access Point (easy):

The Access Point you are connecting to is a Mikrotik running the traditional wireless package.
Change the WLAN to station bridge mode.
Check to see the dhcp client on the bridge gets an IP address.
Plug back into any of the WAN ports (likely ether2-ether4)
Should be job done, yay.

2.2.2. Other Access Point (less easy):

2.2.2.1 Station Pseudo Bridge Mode

Change the WLAN to station pseudo bridge mode.
Disable Spanning tree on the bridge (protocol=none)
Check WLAN is connected.
See if the dhcp client on the bridge gets an IP address.
If you plug your computer into ether4, hopefully it will also get an IP address,
and be able to connect to the rest of the network, and internet.

If not work:
Try reboot.
Potentially, turn off spanning tree on the Access Point you are connected too.

If can’t get it to work, you can try Station Pseudo Bridge clone mode.

2.2.2.2 Station Pseudo Bridge Clone Mode

This allows a SINGLE device behind the HAP to connect to the Access Point.

However, the hap itself won’t get an IP address by DHCP.
Though you may be able to connect to it with winbox via mac address, or you can
give the hap a static IP address in the same range provided by the Access Point.

Disable the ip dhcp client on the bridge.
Maybe: give the bridge on the hap a static address (ip address)
(from the Access Point Range)
Change the WLAN mode to station pseudo bridge clone.
Disable Spanning Tree on the bridge (Protocol=none)
Plug your computer into say ether4, and see if it gets an IP address
(In the Access Point Range)

If not work, try reboot.