For more information about adapter hardware please see the relevant
User’s Guides and Technical Reference Manuals of the hardware manufacturers.
The MikroTik RouterOS supports the PrismII chipset based wireless adapter cards for working both as wireless clients (station mode) and wireless access points (access-point mode).
Notice about PCMCIA Adapters: Currently only the following PCMCIA-ISA and PCMCIA-PCI adapters are recognized properly by the MikroTik RouterOS:
[MikroTik] > sys package print # NAME VERSION BUILD-TIME UNINSTALL 0 routing 2.4rc6 aug/06/2001 15:56:22 no 1 snmp 2.4rc6 aug/06/2001 15:56:24 no 2 ppp 2.4rc6 aug/06/2001 15:56:37 no 3 pptp 2.4rc6 aug/06/2001 15:56:47 no 4 pppoe 2.4rc6 aug/06/2001 15:56:53 no 5 ssh 2.4rc6 aug/06/2001 15:58:11 no 6 system 2.4rc6 aug/06/2001 15:56:04 no 7 prism 2.4rc6 aug/06/2001 15:58:54 no [MikroTik] >
The 2.4GHz Wireless Feature License enables only the station mode of the Prism II card. To enable the access point mode, additionally the Wireless AP Feature License is required.
The MikroTik RouterOS supports as many PrismII chipset based cards as many free resources are on your system, i.e., IRQs and adapter slots. One license is valid for all cards on your system.
[MikroTik] > system resource irq print IRQ USED OWNER 1 yes keyboard 2 yes APIC 3 no 4 yes serial port 5 no 6 no 7 no 8 no 9 yes ether1 10 no 11 no 12 no 13 yes FPU 14 yes IDE 1 [MikroTik] > system resource io print PORT-RANGE OWNER 32-63 APIC 64-95 timer 96-111 keyboard 128-143 DMA 160-191 APIC 192-223 DMA 240-255 FPU 496-503 IDE 1 760-767 serial port 960-991 VGA 992-993 PCMCIA service 1014-1014 IDE 1 1016-1023 serial port 61184-61439 ether1 64512-64519 IDE 1 64520-64527 IDE 2 64528-64639 [CS5530] [MikroTik] >
There can be several reasons for a failure to load the driver, for example:
[MikroTik] > interface print Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic # NAME MTU TYPE 0 ether1 1500 ether 1 X prism1 1500 prism [MikroTik] > interface enable 1 [MikroTik] > interface set 1 name=wireless [MikroTik] > interface print Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic # NAME MTU TYPE 0 ether1 1500 ether 1 wireless 1500 prism [MikroTik] >
More configuration and statistics parameters can be found under the '/interface prism' menu:
[MikroTik] interface prism> print
Flags: X - disabled
0 name=wireless mtu=1500 mac-address=00:03:C0:00:06:72 arp=enabled
mode=station frequency=2412MHz ssid=abc client-name=""
max-associations=250 hide-ssid=no supported-rates=1-11 basic-rates=1-2
fragmentation-threshold=2346 rts-threshold=2432
default-access-action=allow
[MikroTik] interface prism>
Argument description:
number - Interface number in the list
name - Interface name (same as for other interfaces)
mtu - Maximum transfer unit (same as for other interfaces)
mac-address - MAC address of card. In AP mode this will also be BSSID of BSS.
arp - ARP mode (same as for ethernet interfaces)
mode - (station|access-point). If station - card works as station, if access-point, card works as access point. After mode is changed from access-point to station, for station mode to activate, have to reboot (changing back to AP mode will work fine). Change from station to AP can be done without rebooting.
frequency - Frequency that AP will use to create BSS
ssid - Service Set Identifier. In station mode - ssid to connect to, in AP mode - ssid to use when creating BSS (this can not be left blank, because AP needs ssid to work, but in station mode cards hang up without ssid).
client-name - Client name
max-associations - meaningless for station. For AP means how many stations can be associated at the same time (min: 1, max: 500)
hide-ssid - meaningless for station. For AP tells that SSID should not be transmitted in beacon frames (so none can read ssid when sniffing radio), and that AP should not answer probe requests that do not have our ssid in them. Basically this means that if this setting is set to "yes", every client that wants to connect to this AP has to have correct ssid configured.
supported-rates - For both - station and AP - rates at which this node will work.
basic-rates - Meaningless for station. For AP - rates that every client that plans to connect to this AP should be able to work at.
fragmentation-threshold - for both STA and AP - bigger packets than this value will be fragmented before transmission (min: 256, max: 2346)
rts-threshold - for both STA and AP - bigger packets than this value will be transmitted using RTS/CTS medium reservation method. This medium reservation ensures that no other radios transmit at this time (min: 0, max: 2432)
default-access-action - (allow|deny) - meaningless for STA, for AP - what to do with client that wants to associate, but it is not in the access-list.
You can monitor the status of the wireless interface:
[MikroTik] interface prism> monitor 0
signal-quality: 0
signal-level: 27
noise-level: 27
current-rate: 2
status: disconnected
[MikroTik] interface prism>
Station Mode Configuration
To set the wireless interface for working with an IEEE 802.11b access point (register to the AP),
you should set the following parameters:
[MikroTik] interface prism> set 0 ssid=mt
[MikroTik] interface prism> monitor 0
bssid: 00:40:96:37:71:1E
current-frequency: 2442MHz
signal-quality: 92
signal-level: 183
noise-level: 0
current-rate: 11
status: connected
[MikroTik] interface prism>
The monitor command shows the MAC address of the AP, to which the card is registered.
Access Point Mode Configuration
To set the wireless interface for working as an IEEE 802.11b access point (register clients),
you should set the following parameters:
All other parameters can be left as default. To configure the wireless interface for working as an access point with ssid "mt" and use the frequency 2442MHz, it is enough to enter the command:
[MikroTik] interface prism> set 0 mode=access-point ssid=mt frequency=2442MHz
[MikroTik] interface prism> monitor 0
bssid: 00:03:C0:00:06:72
current-frequency: 2442MHz
status: ap-mode
[MikroTik] interface prism>
To see the list of all clients currently registered to all configured APs,
[MikroTik] interface prism> registration-table print # INT MAC-ADDRESS SIGNAL SILENCE RATE UPTIME 0 wir 00:40:96:37:71:1E 183 0 11 00:03:32 1 wir 00:40:96:29:02:88 00:01:15 [MikroTik] interface prism>
Argument description for the registration-table entry:
mac-address - mac address of the registered client
interface - interface that client is registered to
signal - signal level
silence - silence level
rate - current rate
uptime - how long the client is connected
The monitor command gives additional per-client statistics:
[MikroTik] interface prism> registration-table monitor 0
packets: 13,2
bytes: 0,616
bps: 0.0bps/0.0bps,0.0bps/4.10kbps
pps: 0/1,0/1
signal: 171/186/195
silence: 0/0/0
rate: 11/11/11
last-update: 00:00:02
uptime: 00:09:01
[MikroTik] interface prism>
Ta add an access list entry for MAC address 00:40:96:37:71:1E, use command:
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list> add allow=yes interface=wireless \ mac-address=00:40:96:37:71:1E [MikroTik] interface prism access-list> print Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid # MAC-ADDRESS ALLOW INTERFACE 0 00:40:96:37:71:1E yes wireless [MikroTik] interface prism access-list>
Argument description:
allow - (yes|no) - accept this client when it tries to connect or not
interface - AP interface
mac-address - MAC address of the client
If you have default access action for the interface set to 'allow', you can disallow this node to register at the AP's interface 'wireless' by changing the 'allow' argument value to 'no':
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list> .. print
Flags: X - disabled
0 name=wireless mtu=1500 mac-address=00:03:C0:00:06:72 arp=enabled
mode=access-point frequency=2442MHz ssid=mt client-name=MT_Prism
max-associations=250 hide-ssid=no supported-rates=1-11 basic-rates=1-2
fragmentation-threshold=2346 rts-threshold=2432
default-access-action=allow
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list> set 0 allow=no
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid
# MAC-ADDRESS ALLOW INTERFACE
0 00:40:96:37:71:1E no wireless
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list>
Thus, all nodes except this one will be able to register to the interface 'wireless'.
If you have default access action for the interface set to 'deny', you can allow this node to register at the AP's interface 'wireless' by changing the 'allow' argument value back to 'yes':
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list> .. print
Flags: X - disabled
0 name=wireless mtu=1500 mac-address=00:03:C0:00:06:72 arp=enabled
mode=access-point frequency=2442MHz ssid=mt client-name=MT_Prism
max-associations=250 hide-ssid=no supported-rates=1-11 basic-rates=1-2
fragmentation-threshold=2346 rts-threshold=2432
default-access-action=deny
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list> set 0 allow=yes
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid
# MAC-ADDRESS ALLOW INTERFACE
0 00:40:96:37:71:1E yes wireless
[MikroTik] interface prism access-list>
Two possible wireless network configurations are discussed in the following examples:
Let us consider the following point-to-multipoint network setup with CISCO/Aironet Wireless Access Point as a base station and MikroTik Wireless Router as a client:
The access point is connected to the wired network's HUB and has IP address from the network 10.1.1.0/24. The minimum configuration required for the AP is:
Reminder! Please note, that the AP is not a router! It has just one network address, and is just like any host on the network. It resembles a wireless-to-Ethernet HUB or bridge. The AP does not route the IP traffic!
The minimum configuration for the MikroTik router's prism wireless interface is:
[MikroTik] interface prism> set 0 ssid=mt
[MikroTik] interface prism> monitor 0
bssid: 00:40:96:37:71:1E
current-frequency: 2442MHz
signal-quality: 92
signal-level: 195
noise-level: 0
current-rate: 11
status: connected
[MikroTik] interface prism>
The IP addresses assigned to the wireless interface should be from the network 10.1.1.0/24, e.g.:
[MikroTik] ip address> add address=10.1.1.12/24 interface=prism1 [MikroTik] ip address> print Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic # ADDRESS NETWORK BROADCAST INTERFACE 0 10.1.1.12/24 10.1.1.0 10.1.1.255 prism1 1 192.168.0.254/24 192.168.0.254 192.168.0.254 ether1 [MikroTik] ip address>
The default route should be set to the gateway router 10.1.1.254 (not to the AP 10.1.1.250 !):
[MikroTik] ip route> add gateway=10.1.1.254 [MikroTik] ip route> print Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic, R - rejected # TYPE DST-ADDRESS GATEWAY DISTANCE INTERFACE 0 static 0.0.0.0/0 10.1.1.254 1 prism1 1 D connect 10.1.1.0/24 0.0.0.0 0 prism1 2 D connect 192.168.0.254/24 0.0.0.0 0 ether1 [MikroTik] ip route>
Note! You cannot use the bridging function between the prism and ethernet interfaces, if the prism interface is in the station mode. The bridge does not work in this case!
