Not sure if this is how it works or if I'm just not doing things incorrectly but I have RSTP enabled on a bridge with 4 ports. I loop two of the ports together with another switch just to test and start pinging the the mikrotik and it shutdown down all the ports in the bridge - even the two other ports that aren't looped. Am I doing something wrong or is that just how it is?

RSTP its not an EtherChannel you just make a loop, you should try put a lower priority in one of the ports (Wikipedia said that for non ether-channel in RSTP) .

that's not what I mean though. I WANT to make a loop because I'm testing out spanning tree for a certain implementation. RSTP should disable the offending port of the loop preventing packet storms, network weirdness, etc.

The scenario I'm working on is a semi-public network at a company that often has vendors/partners over to do work. There are 2 ways to connect, wifi or cable connection. Sometimes vendors/partners will be both cabled and on the wifi because they just don't know any better (they may go into a meeting via wifi and go to a work area and plug in). Unfortunately this sometimes causes their computer to freak or for some reason causes a packet storm taking down the entire network.

I'm hoping spanning tree would solve this issue by placing the cables ports on spanning tree and the wireless on a non spanning tree port. That way the cabled port will shut off if a user creates a loop but the wifi would still work for everyone.

I have it separated right now so the wifi and cable are on different networks but there is a public drop box (nas server) that both networks need to access and the people I'm working with would like it all on the same network.

Does the bridge have 4 independent ports or are they part of a switch group?

What hardware are you using?

Not sure if this is how it works or if I'm just not doing things incorrectly but I have RSTP enabled on a bridge with 4 ports. I loop two of the ports together with another switch just to test and start pinging the the mikrotik and it shutdown down all the ports in the bridge - even the two other ports that aren't looped. Am I doing something wrong or is that just how it is?

It makes no sense. Spanning tree is only involved when connecting switches with multiple cables. Storms won't be there when connected via both wifi and cable. Probably only the computer is not working properly but rstp is not going to help you here.

Not sure if this is how it works or if I'm just not doing things incorrectly but I have RSTP enabled on a bridge with 4 ports. I loop two of the ports together with another switch just to test and start pinging the the mikrotik and it shutdown down all the ports in the bridge - even the two other ports that aren't looped. Am I doing something wrong or is that just how it is?

What switch are you connecting? How do you determine that all ports are blocked?

I'm using a CCR1016-12G

The mikrotik CCR is in the building MDF. There are 4 cables coming from the CCR directly connecting the vertical IDFs of the other floors. Each floor has 3 additional IDF closets and each IDF has a switch. Here's an ascii picture of what I'm working with:

Floor 5 - IDF--IDF--vIDF--IDF
Floor 4 - IDF--IDF--vIDF--IDF
Floor 3 - IDF--IDF--vIDF--IDF
Floor 2 - IDF--IDF--vIDF--IDF
Floor 1 - IDF--IDF--MDF--IDF

Each IDF either serves one of the 174 hotel rooms or an access point. The IDFs all have unmanaged netgear switches from the original install by another vendor only tasked to provide cabled connections to the rooms. If spanning tree works the way I think it works (I may be incorrect), I'd replace all the IDF switches with managed switches and turn spanning tree on for all the cabled connections and leave the wireless ports with no spanning tree.

Please clearify how the switches are connected.
If all inter-switch connections are single wire, there is no need to configure STP.
STP is a protocol in order to prevent broadcast storms and flooding of traffic.
Please do read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanning_Tree_Protocol for more STP indepth information.
If two switches are connected with multiple cable, then STP needs to be setup.