MikroTik

Hi guys from Malaysia,

I've made a video about the disabled by default on CAPsMAN datapath option client-to-client-forwarding. It needs to be enabled for devices like a Sonos to work on your network.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVyj7N6O1kk

I wish this wasn't the default, but I am told it's the default because CAPsMAN is first and foremost an "Enterprise product".

I personally find setting up and managing a wireless network at home at CAPsMAN easier than setting up anything else, er... once you are versed in setting your devices up in CAP mode.

I have made several videos about Mikrotik and the playlist is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7KcZs2wLXx

Enjoy and I appreciate the feedback.

I wish this wasn't the default, but I am told it's the default because CAPsMAN is first and foremost an "Enterprise product".

For most home networks and small businesses you'll also want to enable local forwarding as well as client-to-client which would be the default case of something like a generic TPLink AP. I always delete the default configuration on a Mikrotik coz I know what I am doing <cough>.

• Local forwarding for speed. If you don't all traffic will go encapsulated via the bridge on your CAPSMAN controller rather than direct as you would otherwise expect. Unless you have a beast like an RB4011 this could be problematic when you want to copy lots of data from your local file server or are screen casting. You may not notice any problems if you are predominantly using a relatively slow ADSL/VDSL connection where that speed can be handled by a slower CPU and bridge in a CAPSMAN controller.

• Client to client to make sure broadcasts get to where they are needed which is important these days for discovery protocols used by printers, Bonjour, AppleTV, Chromecast, Sonos etc.

• Multicast helper set to full to guarantee (well almost) broadcasts get to the clients reliably and that the channels isn't using the slowest possible speed for broadcast.
  Enable wireless multimedia (WMM) and add the following mangle rule to make sure WMM really works properly. Read about it in the badly written Wiki-cum-manual.
  /ip firewall mangle add action=set-priority chain=postrouting comment="Set priority for WMM" new-priority=from-dscp-high-3-bits passthrough=yes
  If you are using local forwarding this rule must be set in all the access points using local forwarding. If you are not using local forwarding you only need to put this rule in the CAPSMAN controller. Confused yet?

• For some older devices like earlier Sonos make sure 802.11b/g is enabled. Using only 802.11n will stop them from working. Infuriating! Sonos is already enough of a turd to set up.

If you are screen casting make sure your casting receiver, like an AppleTV is plugged into your LAN for the smoothest experience. I am getting an after market ethernet adapter next week for my Chromecast to try improve stuttery screen casting from a laptop.