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matteomaz
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hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Sat May 07, 2022 11:57 am

Hi! I have 3 hAP lite configured in station-pseudobridge that connect to the cAP AP (managed with capsman). I need the two hAP lite to connect to 3 desks that have no way of connecting to the wired network. On each desk there is a printer and a voip telephone.
The voip phone has no problems, it is always connected and always works perfectly. I encounter problems with printers that are offline every 6/8 hours and with no PC on the network I am able to print.
Even the 3 hAP lite are not reachable from the winbox.
Suggestions? Similar cases?

Thanks for the support.
 
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mkx
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Re: hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Sat May 07, 2022 4:07 pm

Since your main AP is ROS as well, you should set your hAP lite's to wireless mode "station bridge" ... which offers the most transparent mode, but only works if both devices (AP and client) are ROS devices.

Read more about wireless station modes.
 
fragtion
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Re: hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Sat May 07, 2022 4:29 pm

Sounds like you may be having an issue with an intermittent connection (how's your signal quality and noise levels?). You could try add a netwatch script on the main AP which monitors the station mikrotiks via their IP address (or wireless registration table) and sends you an E-mail/telegram notification (or outputs to device log) if one of the clients become unresponsive. The regular pings from the AP to the client may also help "keep the connection active" although I'm not aware of any reason why a mikrotik wifi connection should ever go to sleep on its own, so signal intermittence is probably the most likely culprit if you ask me

You could also add a script to each of the station mikrotiks to ping (netwatch) their local network printer. Some printers may prevent their network interface from going to sleep if there is network activity such as regular pings to the printer

This should be a good & simple starting point for troubleshooting your problem and identifying where the problem lies
 
matteomaz
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Re: hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Sat May 07, 2022 5:39 pm

Since your main AP is ROS as well, you should set your hAP lite's to wireless mode "station bridge" ... which offers the most transparent mode, but only works if both devices (AP and client) are ROS devices.

Read more about wireless station modes.
Thanks for the suggestion, but the "station bridge" mode is not usable with capsman AP.
 
matteomaz
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Re: hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Sat May 07, 2022 5:41 pm

Sounds like you may be having an issue with an intermittent connection (how's your signal quality and noise levels?). You could try add a netwatch script on the main AP which monitors the station mikrotiks via their IP address (or wireless registration table) and sends you an E-mail/telegram notification (or outputs to device log) if one of the clients become unresponsive. The regular pings from the AP to the client may also help "keep the connection active" although I'm not aware of any reason why a mikrotik wifi connection should ever go to sleep on its own, so signal intermittence is probably the most likely culprit if you ask me

You could also add a script to each of the station mikrotiks to ping (netwatch) their local network printer. Some printers may prevent their network interface from going to sleep if there is network activity such as regular pings to the printer

This should be a good & simple starting point for troubleshooting your problem and identifying where the problem lies
Now I have set up a ping with netwatch, hopefully it solves the problem!
 
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Ca6ko
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Re: hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Sat May 07, 2022 9:26 pm

1st WiFi Rule - Give up WiFi wherever you can!
2nd WiFi Rule - A device that the user does not carry with them at all times should be connected by cable!!!

There is a crutch solution. Deactivate CAP mode on the cAP. Create a virtual wlan2 on the cAP and set it to AP Bridge mode. Set a different SSID on wlan2. Switch on CAP mode only wlan1. Connect Hap lite to the new SSID.
But the best solution is to connect with a cable.

Electronic Translation
 
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bpwl
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Re: hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Sun May 08, 2022 12:39 pm

As @MKX and @Ca6ko told you: don't use "station pseudobridge" for this setup. And if CAPsMAN is not supporting "AP-bridge", then don't use CAPsMAN. (Extra WLAN interface is one possibility as per @Ca6ko, but I see no reason to use CAPsMAN here, Just for one CAP AC? Set CAP AC to Quickset 'WISP AP, bridge mode', to start, adjust other WLAN interfaces as needed)

Limitations of "pseudo bridge"
- maintains a table with IP addresses to distribute the wifi received packets to the proper device. That Table must be filled in, by traffic coming from those devices. After 8 hours idling I would not be surprised to find this Table to be empty)
- multicast and broadcast from the CAP AC may not arrive. Typical problem is DHCP staying in 'offered' status, not getting to 'bound'.
 
matteomaz
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Re: hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Sun May 08, 2022 7:05 pm

As @MKX and @Ca6ko told you: don't use "station pseudobridge" for this setup. And if CAPsMAN is not supporting "AP-bridge", then don't use CAPsMAN. (Extra WLAN interface is one possibility as per @Ca6ko, but I see no reason to use CAPsMAN here, Just for one CAP AC? Set CAP AC to Quickset 'WISP AP, bridge mode', to start, adjust other WLAN interfaces as needed)

Limitations of "pseudo bridge"
- maintains a table with IP addresses to distribute the wifi received packets to the proper device. That Table must be filled in, by traffic coming from those devices. After 8 hours idling I would not be surprised to find this Table to be empty)
- multicast and broadcast from the CAP AC may not arrive. Typical problem is DHCP staying in 'offered' status, not getting to 'bound'.
No, the CAP ACs are 3 for now. And I still have to install 2.
However, I will follow the suggestion to disable capsman and add a wlan3 in addition to the two managed.
 
hecatae
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Re: hAP lite - station pseudobridge

Mon May 09, 2022 11:11 pm

Here's my hap lite config if it helps:
# may/09/2022 21:07:55 by RouterOS 7.2.3
# software id = 
#
# model = RB941-2nD
# serial number = 
/interface bridge
add name=bridge1 protocol-mode=none
/interface wireless security-profiles
set [ find default=yes ] authentication-types=wpa2-psk eap-methods="" mode=dynamic-keys supplicant-identity=MikroTik
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk mode=dynamic-keys name=wlan1-repeater supplicant-identity=MikroTik
/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] band=2ghz-b/g/n disabled=no frequency=2472 mode=station-bridge security-profile=wlan1-repeater ssid=
add disabled=no mac-address=76:4D master-interface=wlan1 name=wlan2 security-profile=wlan1-repeater ssid=
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge1 interface=wlan2
add bridge=bridge1 interface=wlan1
add bridge=bridge1 interface=all
/ip dhcp-client
add interface=bridge1
/system clock
set time-zone-name=Europe/London
This is a station bridge to a Chateau, I'm only on v7 as the Chateau cannot do v6.

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