Setup question for WLAN repeater

zap71 · Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:30 pm

Hi,

I am not sure how I should setup my home network. I have a RB2011UAS-2HnD and a RB951G-2HnD where the RB2011 is my "core router" which connects to the internet, is the DHCP server and currently provides all LAN and WLANs (several virtual APs) access.

Layout:

                    +--> wlan nw1
                    +--> wlan nw2
                    +--> rb951 (just to extend range of wlan nw1/2)
internet <-> rb2011 +--> lan nw1
                    +--> lan nw2

Since the WLAN quality gets bad on the other end of my apartment, I want to use the RB951 to increase the range of my WLANs.

I am note sure how to configure both routers to achieve this. I read about meshed and bridged WDS and everything but the examples I found either do not use virtual APs or provide LAN access on each AP which I would like to avoid since I would probably end up with loops and a mess in my firewall rules.

Any hints would be highly welcome.

Zap.

Sat Jan 25, 2014 1:31 pm

This is what you need.

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Wireless_repeater

zap71 · Sat Jan 25, 2014 2:23 pm

Hi plisken,

thank you for your quick answer.

I already read this document but I find it very confusing. I don't have a dedicated main gateway and no dedicated repeater. Both those tasks are on AP1 and AP2 in my case.

I am quite confused how to adapt this to my 2 AP setup.

Maybe you could give me some insight in this?

Thanks alot for your help, Zap.

Sat Jan 25, 2014 4:28 pm

I will try to find out and let you now

zap71 · Sat Jan 25, 2014 5:05 pm

Plisken,

that would be great. Your help is very much appreciated!

Zap.

zap71 · Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:41 am

I did some more research about my repeater setup and seem to get more and more confused.

Here is a diagram of my network so it might be easier for you to get what I want to do. The RB951G is the new component which I want to use to extend the range of my WLANs.

Zap.

Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:49 am

Can you work with network cable connect to the 951G T
this will mean more performance

I'm not there yet on off how this repeater system works.
Is very unclear in the wiki

Repeater meant half speed

zap71 · Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:55 am

I think it might work somehow but I am anxious to mess up my network setup by creating loops and everything.
The RB2011 would suddenly see WLAN addresses of 3 networks coming from LAN3.

zap71 · Sun Jan 26, 2014 11:54 am

While playing around with all that WDS stuff, I came across one question which I could not find answered anywhere.

Is it possible to setup WDS for virtual APs or is it necessary to do this on the physical interface? All examples I could find so far are based on physical interfaces, the GUI allows to configure WDS per vAP though.

Zap.

zap71 · Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:01 am

Hi everybody, hi plisken,

I just got my setup working for the first time. The trick was the tip from rjscomms in the thread Repeater mode.

I had to insert the MAC addresses of the opposing WDS setup and all of a sudden it started working! After reconfiguring my DHCP and firewall settings my clients could connect!

After I get my setup tested and some performance tested I will provide a howto about my now working setup.

Thanks alot for your help!

Zap.

rjscomms · Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:23 pm

I'm glad it worked.

I am actually going to install a mesh setup tomorrow using four 951Ui. I will be using HWMP+ and WDS.

It automatically sets up the other units.

Anyway I look forward to your writeup.

Tue Jan 28, 2014 3:11 pm

Hé Zap, can you that more explane just how to do

Thanks

zap71 · Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:59 pm

Hi plisken, yes, I plan to write a detailed howto with screenshots and everything, probably next weekend.

Zap.

Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:06 pm

Ok Zap, great I'm looking forward to it

zap71 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:00 am

I guess, I need a little more help.

My setup seems to work as far as I can see on the routers but my clients don't connect to the repeater. I thought that they would do this automatically since it provides the stronger signal.

Unfortunately, all devices stay on the main router and ignore the repeater's signal.

Any ideas what might be wrong there?

Zap.

zap71 · Sat Feb 01, 2014 8:30 pm

Hi,

after a few days running with the new WDS configuration I regualarly get failures where the whole connection seems to stop working.

The logs look like this:

Feb  1 19:11:38 10.x.x.x wireless,info ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ@ssid1: disconnected, no beacons received
Feb  1 19:11:38 10.x.x.x interface,info swif-media link up (speed 1000M, full duplex)
Feb  1 19:11:39 10.x.x.x wireless,info ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ@ssid1: connected, is AP, wants WDS
Feb  1 19:11:44 10.x.x.x wireless,info ssid1: data from unknown device ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ, sent deauth
... repeated more than 20 times ...
Feb  1 19:11:49 10.x.x.x wireless,info ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ@ssid1: disconnected, unicast key exchange timeout
Feb  1 19:12:00 10.x.x.x wireless,info ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ:ZZ@ssid1: connected, is AP, wants WDS

After running the Scanner in Wireless/Interfaces everything goes back to normal for a few hours.

The two devices are just about 10m apart from each other, separated by a thin sheetrock wall.

The signal is somewhere between -50 and -60, noise is around -100.

Any idea why the connection stops working after a few hours?

Zap.

Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:18 pm

Hé Zap,I have it not for repeater systems
I have too little knowledge of

rjscomms · Sat Feb 01, 2014 11:30 pm

Hi Zap,

can you post the output of

export

command from the top level.

Thanks, Dave.

zap71 · Sun Feb 02, 2014 12:58 pm

Hi Dave,

here is my export.

I hope my beta export-anonymizer script did not destroy anything important.

Zap.

# feb/02/2014 08:30:18 by RouterOS 6.9
# software id = 3TJK-VHYR
#
/interface bridge
add arp=reply-only l2mtu=2290 name=BRIDGE_1
add arp=reply-only l2mtu=2290 name=BRIDGE_2
add l2mtu=2290 name=BRIDGE_3
/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] band=2ghz-b/g/n default-authentication=no default-forwarding=no disabled=no frequency=2442 l2mtu=2290 mode=ap-bridge name=WIRELESS_1 ssid=SSID_1
/interface ethernet
set [ find default-name=ether1 ] comment=ether1 name=ETHERNET_1
/ip neighbor discovery
set ETHERNET_1 comment=ether1
/interface ethernet
set [ find default-name=ether5 ] comment=ether5 master-port=ETHERNET_1 name=ETHERNET_2
set [ find default-name=ether3 ] comment=ether3 master-port=ETHERNET_1 name=ETHERNET_3
set [ find default-name=ether2 ] comment=ether2 master-port=ETHERNET_1 name=ETHERNET_4
set [ find default-name=ether4 ] comment=ether4 master-port=ETHERNET_1 name=ETHERNET_5
/ip neighbor discovery
set ETHERNET_2 comment=ether5
set ETHERNET_3 comment=ether3
set ETHERNET_4 comment=ether2
set ETHERNET_5 comment=ether4
/interface wireless security-profiles
set [ find default=yes ] authentication-types=wpa-psk,wpa2-psk eap-methods="" supplicant-identity=MikroTik wpa-pre-shared-key=KEY_1 wpa2-pre-shared-key=KEY_2
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk eap-methods="" management-protection=allowed mode=dynamic-keys name=SECURITY_PROFILES_1 radius-mac-authentication=yes supplicant-identity="" wpa2-pre-shared-key=KEY_3
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk eap-methods="" management-protection=allowed mode=dynamic-keys name=SECURITY_PROFILES_2 supplicant-identity="" wpa2-pre-shared-key=KEY_4
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk eap-methods="" management-protection=allowed mode=dynamic-keys name=sec-profile-WIRELESS_2 radius-mac-authentication=yes supplicant-identity="" wpa2-pre-shared-key=KEY_5
/interface wireless
add arp=reply-only disabled=no hide-ssid=yes l2mtu=2290 mac-address=XX:XX:XX:XX:AA:52 master-interface=WIRELESS_1 name=WIRELESS_2 security-profile=SECURITY_PROFILES_3 ssid=SSID_2 wds-cost-range=0 wds-default-bridge=BRIDGE_1 wds-default-cost=0 wds-mode=static
add arp=reply-only disabled=no l2mtu=2290 mac-address=XX:XX:XX:XX:AA:50 master-interface=WIRELESS_1 name=WIRELESS_3 security-profile=SECURITY_PROFILES_1 ssid=SSID_3 wds-cost-range=0 wds-default-bridge=BRIDGE_2 wds-default-cost=0 wds-mode=static
add disabled=no l2mtu=2290 mac-address=XX:XX:XX:XX:AA:51 master-interface=WIRELESS_1 name=WIRELESS_4 security-profile=SECURITY_PROFILES_2 ssid=SSID_4 wds-cost-range=0 wds-default-bridge=BRIDGE_3 wds-default-cost=0 wds-mode=static
/interface wireless wds
add arp=reply-only disabled=no l2mtu=2290 master-interface=WIRELESS_2 name=WDS_1 wds-address=XX:XX:XX:XX:3C:DB
add arp=reply-only disabled=no l2mtu=2290 master-interface=WIRELESS_3 name=WDS_2 wds-address=XX:XX:XX:XX:3C:D9
add disabled=no l2mtu=2290 master-interface=WIRELESS_4 name=WDS_3 wds-address=XX:XX:XX:XX:3C:DA
/interface bridge port
add bridge=BRIDGE_3 interface=WDS_3
add bridge=BRIDGE_3 interface=WIRELESS_4
add bridge=BRIDGE_1 interface=WIRELESS_2
add bridge=BRIDGE_1 interface=WDS_1
add bridge=BRIDGE_2 interface=WIRELESS_3
add bridge=BRIDGE_2 interface=WDS_2
/ip address
add address=xxx.xxx.3.11/24 interface=BRIDGE_3 network=xxx.xxx.3.0
add address=xxx.xxx.1.11/24 interface=BRIDGE_1 network=xxx.xxx.1.0
add address=xxx.xxx.1.11/24 interface=BRIDGE_2 network=xxx.xxx.1.0
/ip dhcp-client
add default-route-distance=0 dhcp-options=hostname,clientid disabled=no interface=ETHERNET_1
/system clock
set time-zone-name=Europe/Berlin
/system identity
set name="IDENTITY_1"
/system ntp client
set enabled=yes

rjscomms · Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:39 am

Hi zap,

it might take me a while to go through your export.

I will try to get back to you soon.

zap71 · Fri Feb 21, 2014 8:28 pm

I wrote a little howto about WDS repeater configuration, which can be found here:
RouterOS WDS Repeater Configuration Guide.

Zap.

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