I have a customer who wants to extend their wireless coverage without having to physically plug in an ethernet between the primary (Mikrotik) and secondary (airport express) routers, with the second one getting its ip address via dhcp from the primary one.
This suggests it is possible:
https://www.quora.com/Can-I-connect-my-Airport-Express-to-my-Linksys-router-wirelessly-to-help-me-extend-my-existing-Wi-Fi-network-to-another-part-of-the-house
but I haven’t found instructions on how to set up the mikrotik that are close enough to what I want given my current level of expertise.
I would first confirm the accuracy of the information that you received from that website. My understanding is that there is no common standard for WDS, and that every manufacturer implements it in their own proprietary way. I would expect that Apple’s implementation of WDS does not match MikroTik’s, and that they would be unable to communicate in that fashion. Unfortunately, since I don’t have an Apple router available to me, I can’t do the experiment.
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I’ve worked with Mirktoik, Ubiquiti, EnGenius, Ruckus, never ever once, WDS worked between different manufacturers.
OK…at least I have a definite answer. Glad for both responses (though it looks like I can only mark one as THE answer).
Ironically, if the equipment had been reversed you could have done this – not using WDS, but by using the MikroTik’s ability to configure any unit’s radio as both a station and an AP. You take a performance hit, but if flexibility is your goal, it works really well.
Since your guy seems to be married to his Apple router, a more straightforward solution might be one of these.