Hi guys,
Today I was called at a local school to see if I can help them get the second floor connected to their LAN, but they have one problem: Due to some internal regulations, no more penetration of the walls, so no wires, I have to do this with WiFi.

They actually need only one room (class) to get WiFi\Lan and that room is almost on top of of the room where they have the rack. I did a basic test using my smartphone and some apps and it seems that there is low-to-none interference in the building, no other wifi networks, so clean channels, I spoke with the administrator and as far as he knows the walls are old and not coated with metallic mesh.

Turning on wireless hotspot on one of my smartphones and leave it in the class with the rack on 1st floor I was able to see the network with a second smartphone, though the signal strenght was low, but I guess I can succeed and connect the two floors together, I just don't know wich way would be the best and cost-effective.

I thought about using two rb951 2hnd, or two hAp lites, but what about Mikrotik's ntream?

Have you tried to use ethernet power plug, something like "Powerline (One Tenda PA202 + One Tenda P202) Wireless Power line Adapter Extender WiFi hotspot 200Mbps Ethernet Network Adaptor" this might be an option

Have you tried to use ethernet power plug, something like "Powerline (One Tenda PA202 + One Tenda P202) Wireless Power line Adapter Extender WiFi hotspot 200Mbps Ethernet Network Adaptor" this might be an option

Hi,
I don't know what to say about these poweline adaptors, I used them in my house and though they do work and are plug and play I have to re-pair them once a week or I get limited connectivity and\or high ping sometimes. I need stability over speed.

I have a TP-Link powerline kit, no wireless.

I guess you could try using the new REP wireless package, an extend the signal from one room to another using 2 hAP lites, that way you will have wireless and ethernet in the desired room

I guess you could try using the new REP wireless package, an extend the signal from one room to another using 2 hAP lites, that way you will have wireless and ethernet in the desired room

I'll fire up two hAp lites right now and do some tests

I suggest you try, two ubnt NanoStation Loco M2 to each other on the radio, if the fear of 2.4g interference, then use loco m5, should be able to solve your problem.

I suggest you try, two ubnt NanoStation Loco M2 to each other on the radio, if the fear of 2.4g interference, then use loco m5, should be able to solve your problem.

I was just reading the specs on the Loco M2. That will be my plan B if plan A fails. I have no fear of 2.4ghz interference, as I said there are no 2.4 wifi networks there.


What do you guys think about these variants?

2 hAP lites

1 hAP as "ap bridge" near the rack on 1st floor + 2nd hAP as "repeater" using the new package on the 2nd floor
1 hAP as "ap bridge" near the rack on 1st floor + 2nd hAP as "station bridge"
1 hAP as "ap brige" near the rack on 1st floor + 2nd hAP as "station bridge" using NV2? nstreme

I can always get more hAp or cAP for providing wifi on the second floor, I just need to link the two floors reliably.

Ok I went to the location and tested some setups.

Using two hAP lites I first tried this:

One hAP I set up in the rack room as "ap bridge" on channel 11, free channel, set up WPA2 PSK, etc.
I then went to the second floor and configured the second hAP as repeater using the wireless-rep package in 6.36. I set up wlan1 as "ap bridge" with eth ports toghether, then wlan2 as "station" per instructions I found here, BUT using the scanner I can't see my 1st floor wifi to connect to, the signal is too weak maybe. If I move outside I start to get it and it connects, and works but the location is not good. I also tried with a non repeater mode, just wlan1 in station mode, but same thing, can't find the main wifi, it seems the hAP lites are too weak, or there are some settings regarding power\wifi I don't know how to do.

I also noticed that the repeater mode on the hAP lite is weaker then a TP-Link wr841n with Gargoyle. I have at home two TP-Links, one sety as main AP, the second is in repeater mode and I get 40 - 60Mbps from a 100Mbps WAN connection. With the two hAP lites, in the same room, same 100Mbps on WAN, I only get around 11Mbps at best on the repeater.

Hap lite is really weak. Try to use sxt2 (lite) in your server room pointed at the distant hap lite.

Hap lite is really weak. Try to use sxt2 (lite) in your server room pointed at the distant hap lite.

Looks interesting.

By reading the specs I guess I can use the SXT2 to "beam" a signal up to the second floor and connect to it with the hAP but also with other wireless clients that are capable, point-to-multipoint, am I correct?

Yes, that is my idea. In case of still bad reception, just put second sxt towards and make ptp link.

Yes, that is my idea. In case of still bad reception, just put second sxt towards and make ptp link.

I noticed SXT 2 Lite has a Leve 3 license wich can do "CPE, PTP" and SXT 2 has a level 4 wich can do "CPE, AP, PTP". Does that mean I would not be able to set the SXT 2 Lite as a regular AP? Only as a PTP? What exactly CPE includes?

Thanks

P.S:

I found out, according to the license levels here - http://wiki.mikrotik.com/index.php?titl ... edirect=no
I can only use it as a wireless client or bridge and CPE. Still did not fully understood what CPE includes.

You do not need to worry about the licence level in this case. Expecting you will set the hap in ap bridge mode with local forwarding enabled and connect the sxt from the bottom as ordinary client. The sxt will be in station bridge mode. In case you will need to put another sxt on the top to make ptp link, the level 3 license will be enough also.

You would need level4 license in case the device should act as ap accepting more than one client at the time.

CPE means client station.

You do not need to worry about the licence level in this case. Expecting you will set the hap in ap bridge mode with local forwarding enabled and connect the sxt from the bottom as ordinary client. The sxt will be in station bridge mode. In case you will need to put another sxt on the top to make ptp link, the level 3 license will be enough also.

You would need level4 license in case the device should act as ap accepting more than one client at the time.

CPE means client station.

Let's see if I understand:

In the rack room I will set up the SXT pointed to the room on second floor. The SXT will be set in "station bridge" mode and connected via ethernet in the switch in the rack. The internal LAN is in 192.168.0.1/24 class.

Up on the second floor, I will have one hAP on wich I will set the wifi interface as "ap bridge", then go down to the SXT and try to find the hAP wireless and connect to it? Something like the drawing I attached?

Exactly. Actually you don't even need to assign any ip address, everything will be in bridging mode so it will act like a wire running from switch to switch. You can use vlans if you need.

Exactly. Actually you don't even need to assign any ip address, everything will be in bridging mode so it will act like a wire running from switch to switch. You can use vlans if you need.

That is awsome!

I'll order the SXT 2 Lite in the morning!

Exactly. Actually you don't even need to assign any ip address, everything will be in bridging mode so it will act like a wire running from switch to switch. You can use vlans if you need.

Ok, the SXT2 Lite came today and I got to play a little with it. Its awsome!

Can you please guide me a little bit in configuring the SXT correctly at the location.

So I have the hAP lite at the second floor, the office to wich I want to give internet access. On that hAP lite I will configure a bridge, "bridge1", with "wlan1" and eth2 3 4 as ports, then I will set the main wlan1 as "ap bridge" mode on the cleanest channel possible, secure it with WPA2 and set NO IP adresses, DNS, DHCP? Then on the first floor where the rack is, I will firs configure the SXT2 to connect to the wifi network on the second floor (the hAP lite one) as a "client bridge" mode? But what IP, DNS, DHCP settings do I have to make on the SXT if I want the local LAN DHCP server to give IPs, DNS to clients connected both wired and wireless to the hAP Lite on the second floor?


Thank You very much.

Exactly. Actually you don't even need to assign any ip address, everything will be in bridging mode so it will act like a wire running from switch to switch. You can use vlans if you need.

Hi,
Can you please help me out?

So I have set up the devices as follows:
The SXT2 Lite
- wlan1 as station bridge on channel 1 bgn with name "MAINBASE"
- created a wpa2 psk
- I have created a bridge called bridge1 with STP set as None and added ports eth1 and wlan1
- no IP, no DNS settings at all as you suggested
- default forward in Wireless settings appear checked but greyed out

The hAP Lite
- eth3 and 4 slave for eth2
- bridge1 with STP none and eth2 and wlan1 added as ports
- wlan1 as ap bridge, channel1, bgn, security profile with the same password as SXT2 Lite, and default forward checked in Wireless settings
- no IP, no DNS settings at all

Now, the wifi link works, I can see it connects and I can also see my main RB951G router, the SXT Lite2 and the hAP lite in Winbox under Neighbors BUT the SXT2 Lite and the hAP doesn't get an IP adress and Internet is not available, I can connect to each of them via MAC.

What am I missing?

Thanks!

Sorry for delay, it was in long queue of unread posts...
What is actual situation?
Looks like everything should be bridged so if you connect the pc to the ether1 of sxt you should get normal connection to the main router like you would use direct cable. Is that so?
For management of the devices put administrative mac address to the bridges and set dhcp client on the bridges. Then the devices will get ip from your main router and you will be able to easily manage them.

Sorry for delay, it was in long queue of unread posts...
What is actual situation?
Looks like everything should be bridged so if you connect the pc to the ether1 of sxt you should get normal connection to the main router like you would use direct cable. Is that so?
For management of the devices put administrative mac address to the bridges and set dhcp client on the bridges. Then the devices will get ip from your main router and you will be able to easily manage them.

Hi,

This is what I did for now and it works.

Main router ---- Switch ---- SXT Lite2 pointed at the hAP Lite on second floor ----- hAP Lite

You're right, I was not seeing any IP on the devices by looking in winbox, but connecting to the wifi of the hAP Lite did gave my devices (smartphone, laptop) an IP via DHCP from main router. My mistake was expecting both the hAP Lite and the SXT2 Lite to have an ip address but I guess since they act as "a wire from switch to switch" they dont't get one.
You're saying that I should put a DHCP client on the bridge1 on the hAP Lite and bridge1 on the SXT2 lite? That way, each device will get an IP from the main router's dhcp pool? Clients connecting to the hAP Lite will not be affected. Is there an advantage to this instead of using the MAC address in winbox to manage the devices? I don't use the web interface, only winbox.

I managed to get a wireless link between the hAP Lite on the second floor and the SXT2 Lite on the first floor pointed at the room of about 29.9Mbps max in Wireless page, but I did that by just pointing the SXT2 Lite in different directions as I thought it would be right. Is there a "procedure" of aligning the SXT2 Lite, or you just move it bit by bit untill you get the best link and signal values?

You did it right. Having management ip on the devices allows them not only to be managed with winbox over tcp (which is much more stable than over mac), but also provides ability to get the time, to download updates if you want, to send the log messages to your central syslog, to answer snmp and winbox (or telnet or api) type probes and messages from network management system and many other things that are not possible on L2 but only on L3. If you do not need them, you do not have to put ip address to the devices. If you do so, it will not influence their bridging ability.

Like any other panel antenna, it needs to be aligned well. Your problem is that it is indoors and through the walls/ceilings. Generally the best alignment would be to face it directly, but there can be some attenuations and reflections from the obstacles, so none can tell you what placement and what orientation could be the best in your case. You just need to try and see the signal level and its quality numbers. Note that too hot signal is as bad as too weak and you need to check both ways levels. To manage them, you can individually set the tx values on both sides to get as much as the same values on both sides and ideally keep them around -50dbm till -60dbm level.

If you will not be able to get better throughput values, you can think to add second sxt on the other side, move the frequency out of the normally used. Then nothing will interfere and the link should be nicely clear. You can do the same with hap lite too, if you do not need the hap lite for connecting other clients also. At least, make spectral scan by both devices while the second one is off to find the cleanest frequency range you should use.

You did it right. Having management ip on the devices allows them not only to be managed with winbox over tcp (which is much more stable than over mac), but also provides ability to get the time, to download updates if you want, to send the log messages to your central syslog, to answer snmp and winbox (or telnet or api) type probes and messages from network management system and many other things that are not possible on L2 but only on L3. If you do not need them, you do not have to put ip address to the devices. If you do so, it will not influence their bridging ability.

Like any other panel antenna, it needs to be aligned well. Your problem is that it is indoors and through the walls/ceilings. Generally the best alignment would be to face it directly, but there can be some attenuations and reflections from the obstacles, so none can tell you what placement and what orientation could be the best in your case. You just need to try and see the signal level and its quality numbers. Note that too hot signal is as bad as too weak and you need to check both ways levels. To manage them, you can individually set the tx values on both sides to get as much as the same values on both sides and ideally keep them around -50dbm till -60dbm level.

If you will not be able to get better throughput values, you can think to add second sxt on the other side, move the frequency out of the normally used. Then nothing will interfere and the link should be nicely clear. You can do the same with hap lite too, if you do not need the hap lite for connecting other clients also. At least, make spectral scan by both devices while the second one is off to find the cleanest frequency range you should use.

Thank you for such good info!

I will probably set DHCP clients on the bridges and then in my main router set those assigned IPs as static DHCP, this way I can port forward and winbox to the devices from WAN, maybe I'll need that feature someday.

I'm using the hAP Lite on the second floor as an access point also currently (wireless is in ap bridge mode). I will try next week to get better values, and try different channels. There is no interference on the first floor where the SXT2 Lite is, but on the second floor in the room with the hAP Lite, there are some wireless signals coming from the building across the road, I'll try and find the cleanest channel and see if I can get better results.

Thank you very much!

OK, come back with the results. you need to expect that other clients connected to the ap will affect the speed between the hap lite and the sxt too...