Universal Client Interface

Document revision:	2.2 (Fri Mar 05 08:39:12 GMT 2004)
Applies to:	V2.8

General Information

Summary

Universal Client Interface allows to work with clients regardless of their IP addresses, translating these addresses to the ones the router is able to work with. It gives a possibility to provide a network access (for example, Internet access) to mobile clients that are not willing to change their networking settings. The feature is intended to use with HotSpot, but may be useful even without HotSpot.

Specifications

Packages required: system
License required: Level1
Submenu level: /ip hotspot universal
Hardware usage: Not significant

Description

Universal client accepts any incoming address from a connected network interface and does one to one network address translation so that data may be routed through standard IP networks. Clients may use any preconfigured addresses. If the Universal client feature is set to translate a client's address to a public IP address, then the client may even run a server or any other service that requires a public IP address. It is possible to add static entries, so that some clients will get the specified addresses.

Universal client is changing source address of each packet just after it is received by the router (even mangle 'sees' the translated address).

Note also that arp mode must be enabled on the interface you set Universal Client Interface on.

Universal Client Interface Setup

Submenu level: /ip hotspot universal

Property Description

interface (name) - interface to run universal client on

address-pool (name) - IP address pool name

arp (all-arp | no-arp; default: all-arp) - ARP handling mode:

use-dhcp (yes | no; default: yes) - do not translate the addresses assigned by DHCP server

idle-timeout (time; default: 5m) - idle timeout (maximal period of inactivity) for client added dynamically

addresses-per-mac (integer; default: 2) - maximal amount of IP addresses assigned to one MAC address

Notes

Setting arp in all-arp is generally a good idea because in most cases you cannot know what is the gateway's IP address configured on the clients, but it can potentially disturb some network protocols.

Example

To enable Universal Client Interface on ether1 interface that will take the addresses to translate to from the exp pool:

[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal> add address-pool=exp interface=ether1
[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid
  #   INTERFACE    ADDRESS-POOL ADDRESSES-PER-MAC ARP     USE-DHCP IDLE-TIMEOUT
  0 X ether1       exp          2                 all-arp yes      5m

[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal> enable 0
[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid
  #   INTERFACE    ADDRESS-POOL ADDRESSES-PER-MAC ARP     USE-DHCP IDLE-TIMEOUT
  0   ether1       exp          2                 all-arp yes      5m

[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal>
      

Universal Host List

Submenu level: /ip hotspot universal host

Description

The list shows the current translation table. There are three ways a client may be added to the table:

Property Description

mac-address (read-only: MAC address) - client's MAC address

address (read-only: IP address) - client's IP address

to-address (read-only: IP address) - IP address to translate the address to

interface (read-only: name) - interface name the client is connected to

idle-time (read-only: time) - inactivity time

uptime (read-only: time) - how long the client is active

bytes-in (read-only: integer) - the amount of bytes received from the client

bytes-out (read-only: integer) - the amount of bytes sent to the client

packets-in (read-only: integer) - the amount of packets received from the client

packets-out (read-only: integer) - the amount of packets sent to the client

Example

To check the current translation table:

[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal host> print
Flags: I - invalid, H - DHCP, D - dynamic
  #   MAC-ADDRESS       ADDRESS         TO-ADDRESS      INTERFACE
  0 D 00:05:5D:5F:4E:34 10.1.0.144      192.168.0.254   int

[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal host>
      

Universal Access List

Submenu level: /ip hotspot universal access

Description

You can specify manually what IP address will a given IP and/or MAC addresses get.

Property Description

mac-address (MAC address) - client's MAC address

address (IP address) - client's IP address

to-address (IP address) - IP address to translate the address to

interface (nameempty) - interface name the client is connected to

Example

To add an entry specifying that IP address 10.20.30.40 should be translated to 10.0.0.20 for packets coming from ether1 interface:

[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal access> add address=10.20.30.40 \
\... interface=ether1 to-address=10.0.0.20
[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal access> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, H - DHCP, D - dynamic
  #   MAC-ADDRESS       ADDRESS         TO-ADDRESS      INTERFACE IDLE-TIME
  0                     10.20.30.40     10.0.0.20       ether1    1s
[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal access>
      

Service Port

Submenu level: /ip hotspot universal service-port

Description

Just like for classic NAT, the Universal Client Interface 'breaks' some protocols that are incompatible with address translation. To leave these protocols consistent, helper modules must be used. For the Universal Client Interface the only such a module is for FTP protocol.

Property Description

name (read-only: name) - protocol name

ports (read-only: integer) - list of the ports on which the protocol is working

Example

To set the FTP protocol uses bot 20 and 21 TCP port:

[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal service-port> print
Flags: X - disabled
  #   NAME                                                                PORTS
  0   ftp                                                                 21
[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal service-port> set ftp ports=20,21
[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal service-port> print
Flags: X - disabled
  #   NAME                                                                PORTS
  0   ftp                                                                 20
                                                                          21
[admin@MikroTik] ip hotspot universal service-port>