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Problems setting up LHG XL 52 ac (client/bridge)...

Mon Mar 27, 2023 8:23 pm

Hi all,
I have pretty poor internet connectivity to my wireless router (I have to go from one building to another, via several brick walls) and I got annoyed at USB wireless sticks so I bought an LHG XL 52 ac. I would like to set it up so that it connects to my internet modem via wifi, and so that I can connect my pc via ethernet to the ethernet port on it.

I've updated RouterOS to 7.8 and reset the configuration. I set the regulatory country. But I'm really lost on what to do next. I can get to the WebFig interface.

If I go to Interfaces, and then into one of the wlan interfaces, using Scan or the snooping tool I can see the networks I am interested in.

In Scan, I clicked on the network I want to connect to, and that put the SSID in the config for wlan1. But it didn't ask me for a password. So I assumed you need to enter it manually. I scrolled down and checked "Security" and entered the right PSK in the box below. Is this correct? I clicked "apply" but I didn't see any particular information about wlan1 connecting to the network.

I'm not sure how to check if this interface connects to the AP it's supposed to connect to.

I also don't know how to then forward the connection I've got to my computer.

I've seen some forum posts that say you can bridge wlan with ethernet, and some other posts that say you can't.

I would appreciate if someone could tell me what to do exactly in this case - using WebFig, not the terminal - so that I can finally get off my mobile phone's tether!

Thanks.
 
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Re: Problems setting up LHG XL 52 ac (client/bridge)...

Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:40 pm

Just wanted to post the solution I arrived at. I hope this helps someone.

So the solution to setting up an LHG XL 52 ac as a bridge towards an existing WiFi network (AP) was to:

1. Download WinBox
2. Download the latest arm version of RouterOS (version 7.8 in my case)
3. Connect the antenna to my computer via an ethernet cable (with the PoE injector)
4. Make it WinBox detect the antenna. If it doesn't, you can either (a) look in the "Neighbors" tab or (b) set your computer's ethernet port's ipv4 address to a static address such as 192.168.88.100 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 so that it is on the same subnet as the device, and then try again
5. Under Files, upload the RouterOS npk file `routeros-7.8-arm.npk`. Wait for it to finish uploading.
6. Under System -> Reboot, reboot the device. It may take a while. After that, it should have the new version of RouterOS (7.8 in my case)
7. Under System -> RouterBOARD, flash the new firmware (it'll tell you you have a new version available. For me it said I had 7.8 while the current firmware was 6.4). Reboot again. It'll take another while.
8. Once rebooted, it'll probably ask you to change your admin password if it hasn't done that before. Do it and write down the password.
9. Under System -> Reset Configuration, reset the configuration, including users.
10. Once rebooted, it'll ask you to change your admin password again. Do it. You can use the same password as before in step 8.
11. Under Quick Set, select CPE
12. Go to Wireless. You are now in the "Wireless Tables" window. Click on the two different antennas (wlan1 and wlan2). Disable them both using the X button and only enable the one you want to use using the checkmark button next to the X button. In my case, I'm only using the 2.4 GHz one, that's wlan1.
13. Make sure the antenna is pointed at your AP.
14. Double click your selected wlan interface. Now you are in the properties of the interface. In the Wireless section, under Mode, set "station-pseudobridge". Click the Scan button. Click Start. It'll start scanning for APs. (note you can set it to "station bridge" if your AP is also MikroTik, but I haven't done that, so I don't know what else you'd need to configure for that to work; however, if you can, the docs say that's preferable).
15. Double-click (or was it single click?) on the AP of your choice. Select "connect". It might give you an error. Doesn't matter. In the wireless interface's properties, in the Wireless section, check that the SSID is entered correctly. If it isn't, enter it by hand.
16. Next up we need to tell the MikroTik device the PSK (Pre-Shared Key, aka the "wireless password" or "wifi password" or "wlan password"). At first I thought it was done under the NV2 section (easy mistake to make, especially in the web interface), but it's not! NV2 is something completely different and unrelated. What You really need to do is to enter the PSK in the Security Profile.
17. Check what security profile is selected. If you didn't mess around after resetting the configuration in step 9, then the profile will be called "default".
18. Go back to the Wireless Tables window (you can select Wireless on the left). Click the Security Profiles section. Double click on `default`.
19. Under General, set it like this: Mode - dynamic keys; Authentication types - check only WPA2-PSK (unless you know for a fact your AP only uses WPA-PSK and not WPA2-PSK, but that's ancient). Enter your PSK below where it says WPA2 Pre-Shared Key. Press OK.
20. Now you should see your wireless card try to connect to the AP. in the Wireless Tables window, scroll to the right to the Tx and Rx columns. You should be seeing some activity there.

Once that's done, you should be able to set your computer's ethernet port to use DHCP and acquire an IP address from your AP. That's all.

As an extra you can try to set up a DHCP client on your LHG XL 52 ac, so it gets an IP address from your AP, but I've tried that and it didn't work so *shrug* I just connect to it with WinBox via the mac address protocol.
 
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Re: Problems setting up LHG XL 52 ac (client/bridge)...

Mon Apr 03, 2023 8:13 pm

I have created a separate thread about the DHCP issue here:

viewtopic.php?t=195007
 
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Re: Problems setting up LHG XL 52 ac (client/bridge)...

Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:15 am

It's not a bug, just read the manual...

Mode station-pseudobridge

[…] MAC address translation limits access to station device from AP side to IPv4 based access […]

This mode […] should be avoided when possible […]

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