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ChrisFre
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Configure dual band interface on cAP manually

Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:58 am

I have two cAPs and a 5009. I don't use CAPSMAN. I have manually set up "guest" access on one cAP using the 5 GHz band, leaving the 2.4 GHz band on that cAP for private use.

1. How do I extend guest access to both bands on that cAP ( preferably with the same SSID and security profile )?

2. What is the effect of letting band default in the /interface wireless set .... instruction?

Thanks in advance
 
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mkx
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Re: Configure dual band interface on cAP manually

Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:01 pm

  1. assuming 2.4GHz radio (probably interface wlan1) is provisioned and running ... create new wireless interface which will be virtual and will use wlan1 as master interface. Something like this:

    /interface wireless
    add master-interface=wlan1 name=wlan1_guest ssid=<guest SSID> security-profile=<guest sec. profile>
    
    so pretty much the same as you configure existing physical wireless interfaces, but create a new one with master-interface set to name of physical interface that the new one is piggy-backing on. You can copy most of settings from the configuration of 5GHz interface you're already using for guest wireless network.
    After that, connect the newly created wireless interface to the rest of network (again copy setup of existing guest wifi interface ... including VLAN settings if you use VLAN in the setup).

    Note that if master interface is disabled (because you don't need its SSID for a while), also all related virtual interfaces get disabled (implicitly)
  2. if you don't set the band property, then default will be used. Default depends on physical radio and wifi chip properties, but usually it'll be the widest supported. For ac hardware (e.g. cAP ac), default for 2.4GHz radio is "2ghz-b/g/n" and for 5GHz radio is "5ghz-a/n/ac". You can set it to something more restrictive (e.g. omitting the ancient standards, such as a and b) and tweak things so that a few % of air-time is saved for user payload.

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