MikroTik

Full disclosure; moving from Meraki AP's to what I have already realized is a far superior product - though im still new to this and ask for patience with some of my questions. This is a home installation which I am hoping to build upon over time.

My desired end state;
- 2 Managed AP's (already have purchased 2 hAP ac lite tower's). Home is quite long with both 2.4 & 5Ghz networks required to run home automation devices on the legacy frequency. Ethernet available through the home and the AP's are cabled onto the LAN.
- tbc device to extend my LAN to a home 60m away (2 homes over) to share network services across (NAS access, potentially internet access). Wireless Wire looks good but open to alternate suggestions
- Eventually swap current 'dumb' 24 port switch to a Mikrotik switch for greater monitoring and control

Questions/clarifications I would love to get assistance with;
- If I want to manage all configurations through a single RouterOS instance, say via a VM (available on the network), do I need to purchase an L6 licence to have full capabilities (SSID & wireless management included)?
- I want (NEED) to have a single SSID across all APs; I assume CAPsMAN is the way to go to achieve this or is there an alternative?
- Are there any alternatives available to the wireless wire to achieve sharing the between 2 homes wireless-ly? Line of sight is available and I have cabling running at both ends to where the termination points will be installed. Assume a simple switch will be plugged in at the other end and DHCP will be managed by the 'source' network.

Thank you all in advance

In order of question -

1 - I'm not sure what you are trying to do. I'm not a ROS expert myself, but there are a couple of options if you are using Winbox that would help. RoMon allows you to use one instance as a master and then connect to it and from that master instance you can connect to any of the other instances. It doesn't allow you to manage all of the instances in one place, but does make it easy to get to the others. Another option for wireless control only is CAPsMAN which does fully centralise onto a single instance the control of all wireless settings (security, station names etc) across all of the AP's. Both of these options are available with an L4 licence and without spinning up extra hardware. Unless your partner is reading and you need a reason to buy, in which case my advice is that you need at least 4 new servers and lots of expensive new hardware to make sure the wireless signal stays up and running for his/her facebook use

2 - You can use the same station ID on all of the access points and roam between them both with and without CAPsMAN. Roaming between stations is better on some end devices than others, but I've had no problem with it at all. I recall there are config options you can play with to force a disconnect from an AP when the signal strength falls below a certain level to force the device to connect to a better signal, but I've not needed to touch it at all. I have an old (1856) house with solid stone walls that means I need to run 6 hAP's to get signal throughout the house and devices roam between them on the same station id with no issues.

3 - This is really not my area, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along shortly

Thank you for responding and apologies for the delay in responding.

To answer your first point, what I am looking to setup is a single, central interface that allows me to administrator policies for all current and future appliances; 2-3 AP's (now) and future proof for upgrading to smart switches & potentially a wireless wire. I've just had an 'experience' in configuring the 2 AP's as AP bridges (including obtaining DHCP from my ISP router rather than handing it out itself) as I have a number of Google Home's & Chromecasts which were not playing nicely together (unable to reach/intermittent experience when phone is not connected to the AP that the Chromecasts). I am mirroring settings across both AP's and KNOW there is a better way. If it is worthwhile information, all the AP's are Cat6 cabled onto my physical network (rather than being configured in repeater mode)

With the number of devices about to explode on my home network (looking into home automation/IoT devices) along with wife's home business, I need to be able to monitor what is going on from a single pane. I am not home during the day and to maintain a high WAF factor (Wife Approval Factor) and keep my blood pressure down so not to have to constantly maintain the network, having a central location is a must!

With regards to your 6 AP's - how are you managing these?; individually through Winbox/WebFig or have you setup CAPsMAN or RoMon per your suggestion? I assume you have a single SSID across the home/property so your devices are able to roam without user intervention?

I can only assume this is quite a different topic from what I originally posted and am happy to close this and open anew if this is expected.