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Request for advice

Posted: Thu May 11, 2023 4:24 pm
by echoblue
Hi all :-)

I am a novice Mikrotik and RouterOS user and only have a little networking experience from a few years ago.
I'm not sure what terminology to use to find an answer to my question, so please feel free to educate me on that aspect too.

A friend has asked me to help improve WiFi coverage at their holiday home. There are three buildings on the property, all within line of sight of each other. The furthest distance between the furthest apart points is roughly 40 meters.

The ISP enters building A where there is a Tenda router. I'd like to mount a wAP ac to the exterior of building A and supply it with an ethernet connection from the Tenda router. the wAP should then cover building B & C.
Building B & C will each have a cAP ac installed internally. This is to ensure guest devices don't have connectivity issues within the building.
  • will the cAP units be able to extend the WiFi network supplied by the wAP? I know the cAP radio's support repeater mode, but does that mean that they can extends any network that they can reach?
  • how significant is the performance impact (if any) when the cAP units are mounted onto a wall and not a ceiling?
Thank you in advance!

Re: Request for advice

Posted: Thu May 11, 2023 7:04 pm
by anav
I would upscale the solution and also what would be line of sight angle between building A antenna location, source and Receiver building locations, B, C??

Consider 60Ghz with 5ghz backup.
At location A, with sector antenna to cover both B,C
https://mikrotik.com/product/cubesa_60pro_ac

At location B,C
https://mikrotik.com/product/cube_60pro_ac

$497
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Similar approach but less $$ could be had (without 5ghz backup)

At location A
https://mikrotik.com/product/wap_60g_ap

At location B,C
https://mikrotik.com/product/wap_60g

$367
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Another expensive approach would be to use two separate ports from main router to TWO 60ghz kits with 5ghz backup!
https://mikrotik.com/product/wireless_wire_cube x2 A to B kit and A to C kit.

$540 (or $596 for pro)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Re: Request for advice

Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 11:17 am
by echoblue
Thank you for your thoughts, anav.
I think more details on context are needed.

The angle of coverage between B & C is quite narrow, probably around 20ยบ. That said, I'd like to use an AP like the wAP so that the rest of the property (including "behind" the wAP) is covered with a WiFi signal too.
Next, I'm not planning on supplying 300 guests with WiFi, nor are our guests going to be needing high performance, low latency network speeds. It's a small holiday home in a small and quiet surfing community. A little bit of Netflix and YouTube is probably all that will be used, with a maximum of 10 devices connected at any given time.

I have a wAP in operation at home and I know it's capable of the performance that I need. I'm uncertain of the specific ability to extend a WiFi network using two cAP ac units in conjunction with a wAP.

I should have been clearer with my question - my apologies.

Re: Request for advice

Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 1:37 pm
by timotei
My suggestion is to try with wAP as accesspoint and cAP as repeater, and if not working good enough you could add outdoor client on B and C.
Use https://mikrotik.com/product/sxtsq_5_ac as client connecting to wAP, and with cable to the cAP indoor.

Re: Request for advice

Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 2:12 pm
by anav
I disagree you are starting to introduce conflicting requirements regarding point to point to locations and now area coverage
I would use 60Ghz to connect buildings and then use an outdoor rated omni antenna driven Access Point for for local 2 and 5ghz coverage.
You will probably need two of these depending upon a site survey.

Maybe something like this -- https://mikrotik.com/product/rbomnitikpg_5hacd

although I would be tempted to ask if they are coming out with an Wifi 6 version.......... or find a vendor that is selling an omni outdoor antenna with built-in AP based on WIFI6.