Obviously I’m new to MikroTik but now my way around the basic stuff. I got a MikroTik routerboard wAP (the one in the image below) and planned to use it to extend the range of my wifi network coming from a non-mikrotik router. At first, I just connected them by the ethernet cable (PoE to use it for power and internet) and everything worked fine since it provided me with a new network to which I assigned an SSID and a password.
My problem, however, is that i have smart lights which are connected through a gateway. This gateway was connected to my original (non mikrotik) router through power via TPLink ethernet powerline extenders, since the MikroTik routerboard doesn’t have another ethernet port. Because of this, you can only use the smart lights while connected to the original network, but the lights are located in an area where you can only access the MirkoTik network, which can not be used to control the lights.
I wanted to ask if there was a way for me to use the router board to only purely extend my original network (mirror it) to a wider range? I’ve tried using bridge mode, but then I just lose the MikroTik network and have to reset the routerboard. Then I tried to set it up as a repeater, which technically worked as I got my original network extended, but that made the wifi extremely slow, barely even existant.
Also, how can I make it so that the routerboard doesn’t disconnect idle devices?
If you need further information/explanation please feel free to contact me.
It will stay wired. I have installed the AP so that it is connected to the router by a long cable and I planned on keeping it that way, but if there is a better solution I’m open to trying it too!
This is an extra AP to your network. There is no quick setup entry to select but the setup or correction is easy.
Bridge ether1-Wlan1 and Wlan2 together
The bridge is a LAN connection.If there is still a LAN and WAN list, add the bridge to the LAN list, and remove ether1 from the WAN list.
There is no need for a DHCP server on the bridge, remove it, the IP addresses come from your first router.
Give IP address to the bridge or add a DHCP client to the bridge (not to ether1)
Thank you for your answer. I will try to implement the settings and see if they make things work.
But since I am completely new to MikroTik (and internet setup in general), do you know if there is a video/manual of some sorts with some kind of step-by-step instructions on what exactly to do since I don’t want to mess something up and then have to reset the router-board all over again. If there is no such manual I will just follow your instructions and hope to do everything right. My router-board is wired to my router (which isn’t MikroTik) and I am connected to its configuration via WiFi through the online IP-address access method. I’m on a mac so I haven’t installed winbox as I would have to use vine, but if winbox is the preferred method of connection I can use it too.
Well this instructions are somewhere, but rather difficult to find. I did send it to some friends but lost track of it
Actually it’s very simple. You have to add a DHCP client to the bridge, and connect the ether1 to the bridge.
If this works, then remove the DHCP server from the bridge.
And so you bypassed the DHCP server, NAT to ether1 and the firewall protection that disabled access from ether1 to the rest of the LAN.
