I have replaced a Netmetal 5 that was damaged by weather with a mANTBox ax 15s. I had originally just wanted to replace with another Netmetal 5, but they were back ordered. So at the direction of MikroTik, I ordered the mANTBox ax 15s because it be compatible I was told.
Full disclosure, I am fairly fluent with networking but not a wireless genius. I’m taking over a security camera system installed by a colleague who has retired.
Long story short, I figured I would be able to match the configuration of the NetMetal 5 to the mANTBox. I have since realized that the drivers are different. I cannot get them to interact the way that they did with the NetMetal 5. Most noticeable between the two drivers is the “Quick Set” manual does not have anything other than Home AP Dual.
Can someone please give me a crash (elaborate) course on how to setup the mANTBox 15 ax as a “WISP AP”, and the SXTsq 5 as CPE’s?
Best option is to install wifi-qcom-ac package on SXTsq5’s and set wireless mode to station bridge. You setup the mAntBox ax 15s as ap. Don’t use QuickSet.
What’s the exact model number of your SXTsq5? Is it the SXTsq 5 ac, the SXTsq 5 HP or SXTsq Lite 5? The first is ARM and supports the wifi-qcom-ac package but the second and last ones are mipsbe and only supports the old ‘wireless’ package. In that case, you’ll either have to use either ‘station’ or ‘station-pseudobridge’ mode on the SXTsq devices for them to connect to the mAntBox 15 ax. Be aware that in ‘station’ mode, L2 bridging is not supported and you’ll have to resort to workarounds (such as an EoIP tunnel), so I’d test ‘station-pseudobridge’ first.
I suppose the title was taken as a typo. I did not mean SXTsq5 ac. SXTsq5 “as a CPE”.
Can I use an older MIPSBE SXTsq5 to bridge to a mANTBox ax 15s. I was told by MikroTik I could. Perhaps I should have stipulated the architecture was MIPSBE
You can connect, but you are restricted to some (sub-optimal) modes.
These "two-different-generation" devices use these two different - let's call them drivers - "wireless" and "wifi" and it seems like that to a "wireless" device another Mikrotik (but "wifi" device) is like a completely different brand and the station mode table applicability matrix "pure 802.11" column applies :
Ok i have bit the bullet and bought sxtsq 5 ax’s . What is the best way to get these to connect. I understand you need them on the same SSID. And i am able to get them to connect to each other. What I can’t do is ping the sxtsq 5 from the mantbox via IP
You should assign on both sides the IP to the bridge as opposed to the wifi interface.
When an interface (wifi1 on the SXT and wifi2 on the Mantbox) are put inside the bridge (or are set "slave" to the bridge) they lose some independent characteristics.
As a side note, having both wpa2-psk and wpa3-psk makes little sense.
If you have ONLY wpa3-psk (which BTW is usually problematic with some devices) you have a slightly better security, but if you have both, then the security is at the same level of the less secure of the two, wpa2-psk.
You have two different gateways on the two devices, 192.168.88.1 on one and 192.168.88.155 on the other. Is this correct?
Do you mean to say i should assign just the same IP on only the bridge interfaces of the two? I’m not sure I understand. What should be LAN and WAN? I took your advice and removed WPA3 PSK.
The mANTBox connects to a network switch that has the VMS on it. 192.168.0.228 which is the network the cameras and VMS use. The AP’s and stations use the 192.168.88 subnet. I’m not sure if that is the way it should be. However that is what i walked into when I took this project over, and it was working that way with the older units
You have an interface, let's say ether1.
You assign an IP to it, imagine that this IP as a label affixed on the ethernet port.
You read this IP number and then ping it.
Everything is fine.
Then you take this same ether1 and you put it inside a bridge (think of a bridge as a box now containing ether1).
From the outside you cannot see anymore the interface ether1 and its IP, and you cannot ping it.
If you remove the IP address from ether1 and assign it to the bridge, then this IP will be visible (because it is now printed on the outside of the box).
Thanks. I believe I had that configured in asuch a way before and it didn’t work. Matters not because I have set the ips just to the bridge interface and I still have no ping back and fourth
Post your updated configurations, I couldn't see anything in the ones you posted (besides the bridges without an IP assigned) that would justify a no-ping.
Post also the output (once for each device) of the command:
/ip route print
Now, having an IP assigned to the bridge(s) you should have a DAC route to 192.168.88.0/24 through the bridge.
DAC routes have a distance of 0, so they should prevail on any other route.
BTW you didn't explain why the two devices have two different gateways, .1 and .155.
I checked your SXTsq ax config. It is configured in ‘station’ mode. Refer to my #1 post in this topic and you’ll see I recommended you to configure them in ‘station bridge’ mode. As also mentioned in my #2 post, ‘station’ mode doesn’t support L2 bridging.
Fezz - can’t believe I over looked that detail in your first post. Station-bridge fixed it. That was a lot of time I wasted. Thank you FezzFest and jaclaz for sticking it out with this dummy . I definitely learned a few things. Great to have a community willing to help
. I definitely learned a few things. Great to have a community willing to help