Here is my set-up:
Basement: DSL modem wired with hAP ac to ethernet1 port. hAP ac set in "Home AP Dual" mode and it works great as such; some devices are running on ethernet ports some on Wi-Fi,
The Wi-Fi signals from hAP ac (both 2.4GHz and 5GHz) cover the basement and the main floor pretty well. However the signal starts dropping off badly on the 2nd floor.
I've had an ethernet patch running to one of the rooms upstairs, so I did connect it to the ethernet5 port in hAP ac (the one with PoE) in the basement and then the other end was connected to wAP ac - which is supposed to help with the Wi-Fi signal issues upstairs.
The wAP ac device is set to "PTP bridge AP" mode and it works okay, but I'm seeing weird issues:
- both devices have DHCP Server enabled so some devices on the network get their IP address from hAP ac and some from wAP ac
- some devices (e.g. my Netgear v108Tv2 smart switch connected to ethernet2-master port) do not appear in the ARP list

Both devices are running v6.41.2 of RouterOS.

Should I just disable DHCP server on wAP ac?

Am I running the proper network set-up here or should I change the way I have these devices set-up?

Thank you in advance.

PtP Bridge AP is definitely a wrong QuickSet. It is meant for a central wireless hub.

I'm not all familiar with the QuickSet modes. If you want to use one, use the Home Dual AP, but give it a different IP range to use for DHCP. Then you would have two subnets (e.g. 192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.2.0/24) and routing between them. You would need to set the default gateway to the basement AP.

The single subnet solution would be to set up the wireless in AP-Bridge mode with the same SSID and password as your first AP and then bridge the wireless to the Ethernet. That way the basement AP would server DHCP addresses to the whole network and there wouldn't be any need for routing inside the house. I couldn't find a QuickSet that would set it up automatically, though.

Thank you for a quick reply.
So it looks like I will have to change the configuration of wAP ac in this case. I was hoping I could keep both devices on the same 192.168.88.0/24 subnet.
I will play with the configuration to see if this is achievable.
BTW: I have created the same 2.4 and 5 SSIDs on both hAP ac and wAP ac to allow for easy roaming (and yes I have selected different frequencies/channels between the two devices).

Yes, you can keep both APs on the same network.

I would set up a Capsman server on the main router, add the wireless interfaces from the main router as a Capsman client then set up the second device as a Capsman client as well. There are several guides and HowTo's around. Be sure to enable client-to-client forwarding otherwise some devices will have some issues.

CAPsMAN is good, but overkill if @lewekleonek is just adding another AP. To me, it sounded like he had only used QuickSet configurations. Learning the ropes of setting up the wireless, creating a bridge and adding the necessary ports to it is enough of a challenge already. CAPsMAN would add another layer of complexity to a simple setup.

Caps man isn’t overkill at all for 2 AP’s, it’s the right way to do it. It actually makes roaming work correctly.

Try to set up the wAP ac under Quick set as below to see if it works:
1. Select WISP mode
2. Use the same SSID and password as hAP ac
3. On the right side, select ‘bridge’ instead of ‘router’
4. Select address acquisition as ‘static’ IP address instead of ‘automatic’
5. Assign IP address ,eg, 192.168.88.2, netmask as 255.255.255.0/24

By now, your hAP and wAP will be on the same subnet and mobile device can roam between two devices.

Caps man isn’t overkill at all for 2 AP’s, it’s the right way to do it. It actually makes roaming work correctly.

For me it does not. I have no difference in roaming behavior if I do it with capsman oder with two standalone mikrotiks using the same ssid, different channel etc.

Caps man isn’t overkill at all for 2 AP’s, it’s the right way to do it. It actually makes roaming work correctly.

Could you please elaborate a little. How does CAPsMAN affect roaming?
(AFAIK it only centralizes management.)

Caps man isn’t overkill at all for 2 AP’s, it’s the right way to do it. It actually makes roaming work correctly.

Could you please elaborate a little. How does CAPsMAN affect roaming?
(AFAIK it only centralizes management.)

With the CAPsMAN forward option enabled all you're wireless traffic comes from one interface. It doesn't matter which acces point you're connected to. This works great with multimedia devices such as Sonos and Chromecast that needs to be controlled with iPhones and iPads. When roaming from one point to another they can not find each other instantly.

I'm afraid we have a different definition for roaming.

Roaming is when a client associates with another AP within the same ESSID. This association typically involves authentication and key exchange for encryption. With WPA2 PSK (a.k.a. WPA2 Personal) this is fast enough not to cause any service interruption. With WPA2 EAP (a.k.a. WPA2 Enterprise) this involves contacting the RADIUS server for authentication. The delay can be up to half a second, which will cause lost connections. There is very little CAPsMAN could do.

Another cause for roaming problems are coverage holes where there is no signal between the APs. CAPsMAN can't help there either.

Finding other devices in the same subnet is accomplished with ARP and it doesn't matter if the devices are on the same interface or not. ARP is broadcasted to the whole subnet.

I'm afraid we have a different definition for roaming.

Roaming is when a client associates with another AP within the same ESSID. This association typically involves authentication and key exchange for encryption. With WPA2 PSK (a.k.a. WPA2 Personal) this is fast enough not to cause any service interruption. With WPA2 EAP (a.k.a. WPA2 Enterprise) this involves contacting the RADIUS server for authentication. The delay can be up to half a second, which will cause lost connections. There is very little CAPsMAN could do.

Another cause for roaming problems are coverage holes where there is no signal between the APs. CAPsMAN can't help there either.

Finding other devices in the same subnet is accomplished with ARP and it doesn't matter if the devices are on the same interface or not. ARP is broadcasted to the whole subnet.

That might be. For me roaming is all services work flawless when moving around and connect from one access point to another. With CAPsMAN forward option enable that is the case. Without CAPsMAN forward enabled I cannot control my multimedia devices instantly. You can?

That might be. For me roaming is all services work flawless when moving around and connect from one access point to another. With CAPsMAN forward option enable that is the case. Without CAPsMAN forward enabled I cannot control my multimedia devices instantly. You can?

if your sonos etc are connected by wire (not wireless) this should not make a difference. this is just about arp.
reall raoaming as defined with 802.11 k r v does afaik not happen.

your situation with sonos should work in booth setups: either done with capsman oder with two standalone aps, same ssid, (connected via a wired backhaul allowing arp then)

That might be. For me roaming is all services work flawless when moving around and connect from one access point to another. With CAPsMAN forward option enable that is the case. Without CAPsMAN forward enabled I cannot control my multimedia devices instantly. You can?

if your sonos etc are connected by wire (not wireless) this should not make a difference. this is just about arp.
reall raoaming as defined with 802.11 k r v does afaik not happen.

your situation with sonos should work in booth setups: either done with capsman oder with two standalone aps, same ssid, (connected via a wired backhaul allowing arp then)

Hi, thanks. All multimedia devices use wireless. The same for the controller app (iPhone, iPad).

When using the same SSID and passwords, two standalone accesspoints don't work seamless. When my controller connects to another AP, it cannot find the Apple TV or Sonos. The app says there is no device. After a while the app finds the Sonos or Apple TV.

With CAPsMAN forward it works instantly, no matter on what access point it's connected. This gives a much better roaming experience, just as bds1904 said.

Try to set up the wAP ac under Quick set as below to see if it works:
1. Select WISP mode
2. Use the same SSID and password as hAP ac
3. On the right side, select ‘bridge’ instead of ‘router’
4. Select address acquisition as ‘static’ IP address instead of ‘automatic’
5. Assign IP address ,eg, 192.168.88.2, netmask as 255.255.255.0/24

By now, your hAP and wAP will be on the same subnet and mobile device can roam between two devices.

Should I also disable DHCP server on wAP ac in this case?

Try to set up the wAP ac under Quick set as below to see if it works:
1. Select WISP mode
2. Use the same SSID and password as hAP ac
3. On the right side, select ‘bridge’ instead of ‘router’
4. Select address acquisition as ‘static’ IP address instead of ‘automatic’
5. Assign IP address ,eg, 192.168.88.2, netmask as 255.255.255.0/24

By now, your hAP and wAP will be on the same subnet and mobile device can roam between two devices.

Should I also disable DHCP server on wAP ac in this case?

It appears to be working after:

• switching wAP ac to WISP AP in a "bridge" mode, manual IP: 192.168.88.2, netmask 255.255.255.0/24, gateway 192.168.88.1
• disabling DHCP server on wAP ac

Thanks for all suggestions. Once I figure out the queues and firewall, I'll come back to it an then I may try the CAPsMAN set-up.