WiFi Setup for Access Point

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

I have a new cAP XL ac model: RBcAPGi-5acD2nD that I’m trying to set up as a simple WiFi access point bridge (no routing, no DHCP server, just get WiFi clients on the LAN).

I have upgraded to the latest stable: current-firmware: 7.15.3

I have disabled the DHCP server and added ether1 to the bridge (along with ether2).

I am trying to follow the instructions here: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/WiFi

I added common-auth and common-conf, and the ch-2ghz and ch-5ghz channels:

[admin@capybara] /interface/wifi> /interface/wifi/security/print
Flags: X - disabled 
 0   name="common-auth" authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk passphrase="something" wps=disable 
[admin@capybara] /interface/wifi> /interface/wifi/configuration/print
Flags: X - disabled 
 0   name="common-conf" ssid="Cougars" country=United Kingdom security=common-auth 
     security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk .passphrase="something" .wps=disable 
[admin@capybara] /interface/wifi> /interface/wifi/channel/print
Flags: X - disabled 
 0   name="ch-2ghz" frequency=2412,2432,2472 width=20mhz 

 1   name="ch-5ghz" frequency=5180,5260,5500 width=20/40/80mhz

but then I get an error:

[admin@capybara] /interface/wifi> set wifi1 channel=ch-5ghz configuration=common-conf disabled=no
no such item
[admin@capybara] /interface/wifi> set wifi2 channel=ch-2ghz configuration=common-conf disabled=no
no such item

What am I doing wrong?

2

Perhaps the interfaces are disabled?

3

Interfaces wifi1 and wifi2 don’t even exist, if I’m reading things right.

[admin@capybara] /interface> print
Flags: R - RUNNING; S - SLAVE
Columns: NAME, TYPE, ACTUAL-MTU, L2MTU, MAX-L2MTU, MAC-ADDRESS
#    NAME    TYPE      ACTUAL-MTU  L2MTU  MAX-L2MTU  MAC-ADDRESS      
0 RS ether1  ether           1500   1598       9214  D4:01:C3:93:67:4A
1  S ether2  ether           1500   1598       9214  D4:01:C3:93:67:4B
;;; defconf
2 R  bridge  bridge          1500   1598             D4:01:C3:93:67:4B
3 R  lo      loopback       65536                    00:00:00:00:00:00

I don’t see anything in the original instructions about creating them.

4

Cap XL AC default comes with legacy wireless drivers.
If you want to use wifi part of menu, that means wave2 drivers. So you need to remove wireless and load wifi-qcom-ac driver.

Or stick with legacy wifi but then you need to use Wireless / Wireless part of the menu structure.

Can you list which packages are visible when you go to system / packages ?

5

Just the routeros package it looks like:

[admin@capybara] > /system/package/ print
Columns: NAME, VERSION, BUILD-TIME, SIZE
# NAME      VERSION  BUILD-TIME           SIZE   
0 routeros  7.15.3   2024-07-24 10:39:01  11.0MiB
6

Looks like you upgraded in an odd way then because normally that wireless package should have come nicely in the regular upgrade process.

But now you need to choose first:
legacy wireless - add wireless package
wave2 wifi - add wifi-qcom-ac

7

I don’t think I upgraded in an odd way. I used WebFig to upgrade the v6 firmware to the most current v6, then uploaded the latest stable v7 to the root directory and rebooted it.

I’ll give legacy wireless a try. I have found and loaded the package, and now see two interfaces:

[admin@capybara] /interface/wireless> print
Flags: X - disabled; R - running 
 0    name="wlan1" mtu=1500 l2mtu=1600 mac-address=D4:01:C3:93:67:4C arp=enabled interface-type=IPQ4019 mode=ap-bridge ssid="MikroTik-93674C" frequency=auto 
      band=2ghz-b/g/n channel-width=20/40mhz-XX secondary-frequency="" scan-list=default wireless-protocol=802.11 vlan-mode=no-tag vlan-id=1 wds-mode=disabled 
      wds-default-bridge=none wds-ignore-ssid=no bridge-mode=enabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0 
      default-client-tx-limit=0 hide-ssid=no security-profile=default compression=no 

 1    name="wlan2" mtu=1500 l2mtu=1600 mac-address=D4:01:C3:93:67:4D arp=enabled interface-type=IPQ4019 mode=ap-bridge ssid="Thunderbirds are Go! =\80" 
      frequency=auto band=5ghz-a/n/ac channel-width=20/40/80mhz-XXXX secondary-frequency="" scan-list=default wireless-protocol=802.11 vlan-mode=no-tag vlan-id=1 
      wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none wds-ignore-ssid=no bridge-mode=enabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0 
      default-client-tx-limit=0 hide-ssid=no security-profile=default compression=no

If anyone has a howto for setting this all up, please let me know. In the meantime I’ll start down the rabbit hole of figuring things out…

8

Dropping the ros file directly, was the odd way.
If you followed upgrade path, it would have first upgraded to 7.13.2.
And the next upgrade wireless would automatically have been split ( something which was prepared in the background with 7.13.x).

Help pages still have all examples and settings for wireless.

9

There is an “upgrade” channel on v6. That’s the safe way. Or you read the manual before doing such a huge upgrade step from v6 to v7.

10

Can you elaborate on where the examples are, please?

I see in the help pages https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Wireless+Interface but it’s more of a reference of all the commands and properties, rather than examples or guidance of how best to set things up.

11

It seems you are correct, they didn’t bring over all examples from the old wiki environment …
(to say it more accurate: I couldn’t find them in the Help pages, only on old Wiki)

See here:
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:TOC

Section wireless, right column with examples.
There you can find the pages with setup examples for wireless