Mon Feb 27, 2023 9:13 pm
Well BAM you can do this. The wifi-repeater setup depends on the brand of that repeater.
There are some different setups possible .....
1. The best ... another Mikrotik.
Reason is that Mikrotik - Mikrotik is a 4-address-mode connection, and you have then just one network, with the functionality like a cabled network with 2 bridges (switches) in between.
The wifi modes used are "AP bridge" and "Station bridge" , these WLAN interfaces are connected to the bridge in their Mikrotik device
The added Mikrotik can be an AP on the other radio (eg 2.4GHz and 5 GHz) , but even on the same radio (Virtual WLAN interface as slave AP, station is the master).
The station and slave AP function (virtual WLAN) will have to share the air-time if on the same radio!
In both cases you just have one bridged L2 network.
2. A wifi extender/repeater like the TPLINK RE450.
That device is named 'extender' if send and forward are on different bands (they call it turbo mode) , as 'repeater' if the same band is used. (What's in a name?) The TPLINK will have 3-address mode standard 802.11 connection with the hAP ac. All client devices will speak with the same (repeaters) MAC address to the hAP ac. This might confuse the voucher system, even if the IPv4 address for each client will be different. MT DHCP on the hAP ac might fail to work for the clients behind the extender/repeater.
3 The Mikrotik as repeater could use "station pseudobridge" mode , and act just as the TPLINK under nr 2. NOT recommended, even when using the 2 radio's.
"Setup repeater" is just a button in the WLAN interface menu, for a setup with common station and AP on that radio. (Using different radio is better)
4 If both wifi AP devices (hAP ac and that other device) have a compatible L2 VPN (tunnel) possibility, then that 3 address-mode wifi connection can be used as a full 4-address-mode connection, through that tunnel. For Mikrotik EoIP, MPLS/VPLS, "BCP bridge mode for PTPP, L2TP, SSTP" exist, but is not needed here.
5 The other option is to use WDS. It will work with another Mikrotik (but not really needed, see 1, performance can be reduced). It might work with other brands, or not.