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dpdt
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Bridging 3 NetMetal ac²

Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:30 pm

I need to connect 3 buildings. One (A) has internet connection, another (B) has line of sight to the other two (A and C). Using the quick setup I have A and C setup as PTP Bridge AP and B as PTP Bridge CPE. Everything has static IPs. When I do an initial setup of B it shows both A and C. Then if I connect to A or C, the other is no longer an option for connection. How do I connect all 3?

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Rugx
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Re: Bridging 3 NetMetal ac²

Tue Oct 19, 2021 2:36 pm

Check if you have enabled default-forwarding within the (B) access-points wireless interface
 
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mkx
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Re: Bridging 3 NetMetal ac²

Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:52 pm

B should be AP and A and C should be CPEs.

A CPE can not connect to multiple APs. Even if B was running virtual wlan interface the whole setup would not run if A and C don't use exactly the same frequency and channel layout.
 
dpdt
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Re: Bridging 3 NetMetal ac²

Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:09 pm

Thank you for your comments.

The default is set.

As you and MIkrotik pointed out, I flipped everything and have B as PTP Bridge AP and the other 2 are PTP Bridge CPE. I can have A and B connect or C and B connect. Bur I cannot have A to B with C to B all at the same time. What other important setting is hidden in all the menus to get B to concurrently connect to A and C so I can everything connected to them interoperate?

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mkx
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Re: Bridging 3 NetMetal ac²

Tue Oct 19, 2021 10:14 pm

The most important thing is to select correct wireless mode for all 3 devices. B should be set as "ap-bridge" (if it's set as "bridge", then it only accepts single client) and A and C should be set as "station-bridge" (any other station-* mode will not allow properly transparent bridging between wired islands).

Not sure what would be proper selection in "quick set" (if there is one at all), so I suggest you to abandon "quick set" mode and start using the "normal" webfig/winbox mode. And never ever go back to quick set mode again. I guess for B anything mentioning PTP is not right (because B is strictly speaking not point-to-point but rather point-to-multipoint or PtMP).

Keep in mind that A and C will not be available as wireless APs (while it is possible to add virtual AP interface, this would greatly reduce the A-B-C bridge throughput which will be hindered already because packets passing between A and C will consume air time twice).
 
dpdt
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Re: Bridging 3 NetMetal ac²

Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:01 am

mkx,

This really helped. But before I dumped the easy Quick Set approach on B, using WebFig, I went into the Interfaces and selected the wan for 5ghz (wlan2). From there changed the Mode from bridge to ap bridge. Both A and C started immediately streaming data. I will try a few tests to confirm all is well but for now I can go out to the internet from devices connected to the switch connected to C as well as the switch connected to B.

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