Setting up MikroTik as simple access point?

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hi all,

I’m very new to RouterOS and I am having trouble setting up a MikroTik GrooveA 52HPn. It’s currently running RouterOS 6.18 which is what it came with.

What I’m looking to do is hopefully not very complicated. I want to use the unit as a simple access point for a closed control network. The network is in the 192.168.0.x range and has about 12-15 devices on it. I need to be able to connect an iPad in to adjust some things. The iPad will have a static IP, so no DHCP is really needed. Ideally there would be no NAT or anything, the remote needs to connect as directly as possible.

So here’s my problem, I’m really not sure how to set the unit up to accomplish this. I tried assigning 192.168.0.190 on the Internet IP (in Quick Set). Then I assigned 192.168.0.191 to the Local Network. Then I turned off bridge. At that point I couldn’t connect to the unit via the Ethernet port anymore. And my computer was in the correct IP address range.

So for now, I’m really not sure what to do. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you!

2

an access-point is basically a bridge between the wired Ethernet interface and the wireless radio interface

if you want a simple access-point make a bridge

assign the ip address to manage the access-point to the bridge interface itself

3

Just a bit of an update. I factory reset the unit to clear out whatever it was that I did. I’ve now got the Internet IP set to 192.168.0.190 and the Local IP set to 192.168.0.191. I can connect wirelessly to the AP with the iPad, with a static of IP of 192.168.0.195. But I can’t ping anything from the iPad.

I don’t know what to set as the Internet gateway IP. At the moment I set it to 192.168.0.251, but that’s a nonsense IP. I tried it as 192.168.0.190 as well, but no luck.

Everything else is set to defaults. I even adjusted the clock to make sure having it way out of date wasn’t messing up the board. I’m thinking that I should get pinging working first, then start working on getting the data flow working for my application.

4

Hi Chechito,

I don’t understand exactly what you mean. When I look at the bridge interface page there isn’t a place to specify an IP address. Unless I’m looking at the wrong place maybe?

Thank you for the help!

5

when reset configuration be sure of this options:

keep user configuration unchecked
no default configuration checked
do not backup checked

then yo have a clean device, you have to manage it by mac address using winbox, because any ip address is configured

6

first you create a bridge interface

then you add 2 ports, 1 ethernet interface, 2 wireless radio

then

on ip → addresses you add an ip address and set bridge interface to this address

from this point you will be able to manage device using ip address configured

7

Hi all,

Ok, after much messing around today, I’m making progress at least!

The main problem seems to have been that one of the first things I did was to switch the unit from CPE mode to Home AP. Seemed like a good idea to me at the time…but it wasn’t, at least not for my purpose.

So now I am in CPE, set to Bridge mode. I have assigned a static IP of 192.168.0.190. Netmask is correct. And I can even connect wirelessly, which is awesome!

However, not all is great. Something is making the wireless interface extremely slow. For example, I connected my laptop wired and pinged the unit (192.168.0.190). Ping response times were around 0.25-0.3mS. Then I pulled the cable, connected the same laptop wirelessly, and pinged the unit. This time ping responses ranged from 1700mS to 60mS.

I went through the setup and made sure everything I wasn’t using was turned off, for instance DHCP, filtering, etc. But nothing seems to have made a difference. I plopped down an Airport Express just to make sure the area wasn’t way too jammed, and the Airport worked fine.

So…what have I done?

8

You can try this script to set the unit up as a bridge, no dhcp or ip address.

You will need to change the timezone and country the the correct one for you.

save the code in a text file and make the extension .rsc

copy the text file to the files folder on the router

the in the terminal just type import file=[yourfile].rsc and hit enter

You can set the ssid and the password of the router by changing local id and local pwd


#This script will execute a general setup for a 751/951
#Please ensure that the unit has been reset with no default config

#This Script will not add any IP's, and also will assume it is used
#in full bridge mode, no DHCP Server

#Specify credentials below

:local id "Wifi"
:local pwd "password"

# Adding wireless security Profile
/interface wireless security-profiles add name=$id wpa-pre-shared-key=$pwd wpa2-pre-shared-key=$pwd mode=dynamic-keys authentication-types=wpa-psk,wpa2-psk unicast-ciphers=aes-ccm,tkip group-ciphers=aes-ccm,tkip

#Setting up wireless interface
/interface wireless set wlan1 mode=ap-bridge disabled=no ssid=$id band=2ghz-b/g frequency-mode=manual-txpower country="south africa" wireless-protocol=802.11 security-profile=$id 

#### Setup time and NTP

/system clock set time-zone-name=Africa/Johannesburg
/system ntp client set primary-ntp=196.10.52.57

#Adding bridge, setting up interfaces, will have to reconnect to unit
/interface bridge add name=Internal
/interface bridge port add bridge=Internal interface=ether1
/interface bridge port add bridge=Internal interface=ether2
/interface bridge port add bridge=Internal interface=wlan1
/interface ethernet set ether3 master-port=ether2
/interface ethernet set ether4 master-port=ether2
/interface ethernet set ether5 master-port=ether2
/ip address set numbers=0 interface=Internal

#### Setting up Identities
/interface wireless set 0 radio-name=$id name=$id
/system identity set name=$id