My situation: Living in an RV full-time. I need reliable internet for email communication, at a minimum, but having the ability to watch Netflix on my Roku would be great! We have a Verizon MiFi which is really nice, however with my work, we can eat up $150 worth of bandwidth in about 5 days.

The park we're at has terrible wifi; so bad, in fact, the owners don't even use it. There are 3 coffee shops and bars within 100 feet of the park that have fast wifi, which I would love to use during the day, from the comfort of our RV. Since the closest bar is closed until 4pm and the wifi is always on, I think I could get some great signal while there is no load on their router.

In order to do this, I've purchased the following:
+ hAP ac
+ 52ac Metal

The hAP arrived today and the 52ac arrives tomorrow. I'd like to build a WifiRanger.com-style setup. I'm familiar(ish) with networking and work with some smart IT professionals who owe me a favor. I think I can do this!

So some initial questions...

1.) Is this hardware setup correct? I assume I need a ~25-30' ethernet cable to connect the two.
2.) I've been able to log into the hAP via WinBox and 192.168.88.1 and look at the settings. Once I receive the 52ac, I don't know what to do next... Is there a guide to setting up a bridge network (I believe that's what I need)?
3.) Is there a way to broadcast the same SSID from the hAP ac inside the trailer (TrailerNet), but have the router connect to either available wifi (bridge), the MiFi, or our T-Mobile hot-spot? It would be a dream to have just one SSID that operated everything!

Thank you for any direction or links you're able to provide!


- Casey

I've actually been planning to do something similar, as WiFiRanger is ridiculously expensive for what it is...since I am a technical professional I can't justify the premium for their "make it easy" software. I think the hardware you have have selected is fine, since you are stationary in an RV park you can power it however you want. If you were trying to run off of the battery system in your RV I'd suggest not using the included power injectors, but instead to hardwire (with fuses and a switch, of course) directly to power from the 12VDC distribution.

You are going to want to operate one (Metal-52) as a client, and then the one in your trailer (hAP) as an access point (AP bridge?). You may be able to use a quickset mode on the Metal-52ac to set it as a CPE device, this is the mode for the client device in a wireless service provider environment, and then connect it to the wireless network. You may then be able to use the quickset mode on the hAP to put it into a "Home AP".

You will, no doubt, end up having to reset to the factory defaults a few times as you work through it. You will need to make sure that your 2 devices are configured for different IP addresses and ultimately determine how secure you wish it to be. Make sure that you don't leave the default passwords in place.

Good luck, unfortunately my travel trailer is parked in storage for the season...when I get it back out I plan on doing a full blog write up on doing just this.

BTW, I won't speak to the legality/ethics of using "free" WiFi that you don't have a business relationship with. If you are truly permanently fixed in a location you could check into getting your own Internet service delivered, or you could volunteer some of your time to improve the service the RV park provides to make it useable.

Thanks for the help. Regarding using the WiFi from a local shop, I asked a neighboring coffee shop and he said he didn’t care. I’ve been going there for lunch and have enough rapport, I guess.

Do you have any links to blogs on how people set up what we are talking about? I’ll take anything I can get!

The configuration is probably pretty common for any WISP, you have a CPE (customer premise equipment) that connects to the service provider, and then you have the hardware that provides network services to the customer itself.

Perhaps this will get you on the right path: https://mum.mikrotik.com//presentations/US12/uldis.pdf

Hi. I am embarking on this same project and will be happy to share what I learn as I go. I have already done this with a package from another company but I didn't like the interior portion of what they offered so I am trying Mikrotike as well. While I was impressed with what WifiRanger had done with the product, Im a geek and would rather control the router and software myself. I purchased a Metal52AC and hAP AC. I am waiting for them to arrive and even though the Coach is winterized for few months I will set it up here at home then venture out in the snow. We are heading south for Christmas so I will get a chance to put it through some real world tests.

To answer one of your questions, the hAP will use your ssid "trailernet" and you won't have to change your interior devices ever again. I also concur that I would change the ip address on the hAP but keep it in the same schema as the Metal. That way you can mess with it if you need to.

John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTbTeQ4QYrk

This covers the metal end of things.

Hi fellow travelers. I'm in the same boat (pun intended.) I will be working through this as I just received the hardware myself. I will share my success/failures as I go.

Thank you,

GinoRP

I wouldn't use the Metal52ac, reasons:

- You need an antenna for it. Forget about using a omnidirectional antenna to pick on distant signals, that's the worst option possible.
- only 1 chain.

I would use LHG2 To "pick" on the distant signal, advantages:

- 1/3d of the cost vs Metal52ac + antenna
- Better radio specs (double the receive sensitivity)
- Lighter Weight than Metal52 + Antenna
- dual chain
- Self-contained
- No pigtails nor antenna junctions exposed to outdoors weather.

I would setup a sat dish rig to mount it, it should allow you to move to fine tune alignment on the picked signal, as this antenna is directive. If you use (or already have) a motorized one, you'd be able to "sweep" around looking for signals or fine tune alignment while inside the RV.

If you have already purchased the Metal52ac, pick a suitable directional antenna for it, you should be able to find 1 chain N grid used antennas cheap:

Hey, all. Trying to do the same thing here for my RV. Just checking to see if there have been any updates of setting this combination.

Best,

I think the hardware you have have selected is fine, since you are stationary in an RV park you can power it however you want. If you were trying to run off of the battery system in your RV I'd suggest not using the included power injectors, but instead to hardwire (with fuses and a switch, of course) directly to power from the 12VDC distribution.

hAP ac can power the CPE device (metal52, LHG2 or SXT2) straight with just an ethernet cable from PoE out on hAP ac ether5. The plus: you can power on or power off the CPE straight from hap Ac configuration, neater installation too. ether5 will be your WAN on hAP ac.

hAP ac: power it straight from your battery DC circuit. It works from 11 to 57VDC, so no worries there (guess you have 24DC circuit).

All mikrotik devices can be managed without IPs, by using winbox neighbors tab and clicking on the MAC addresses, or by using RoMON, so I wouldn't complicate myself with different IP address ranges, etc. It can be made really simple.

Regarding configuration if I were in this situation I would:

Hardware install
Wire LHG2/Metal52 to hAP ac ether5. Any Cat5e outdoors ethernet cable wire, better if it has drain wire, will do. Use metal-jacket RJ45's if possible, and make sure drain wire is securely connected to jacket.

Power hAP ac straight to DC socket from RV DC circuit. You can use a typical "car stereo" wire harness with built-in inline fuse if concerned. A > 500mA < 1A fast fuse will be fine. I'd try first with a 500mA fast fuse, should be more than enough to protect both devices.

CPE (metal52 ac, LHG2, SXT2... whatever)
- Upgrade ROS, and RouterBoard > Firmware.
- Reset it to no defaults.
- System > Users: change default admin username to something else, and set a good password.
- Setup Wireless mode: station-pseudobridge-clone.
- Setup Wireless > Security profile: Mode dynamic keys, Authentication Types: check WPA and WPA2 PSK, Unicast cyphers: aes ccm, Group Cyphers unicast ccm. You will only need to change the password to the specific SSID you're connecting to.
- Create a bridge, and add wlan1 and ether1 to it.

done.

With this, we "convert" external antenna to Wireless to ethernet "adapter", "converting" the wireless SSID to ethernet. From hAP ac perspective it's exactly the same as if you plugged a ethernet cable straight from you hAP ac ether5 to an ethernet port on the remote internet router.

hAP ac
- Upgrade ROS, and RouterBoard > Firmware.
- Reset it to no defaults.
- Use Quickset to set it up as a "Home dual Ap": ether5 is your WAN interface.
- System > Users: change default admin username to something else, and set a good password.

done.

will be around to give a hand on configs, and further security or management enhancements, just one condition post pics!

Great stuff pukkita,

I just finished going through the same exact process. If it helps anyone here another forum post with a little more guidance.
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=121980&p=631264#p631264

Best,

pukkita - great right up, will try soon.... I do also have the wifiranger version - but can't us winbox to do anything advanced too it.