Wireless AP Setup

**BillS** · 03-07-18, 08:26 AM

I have an older Highgain Antennas 8186 CPE/AP/Router that I would like to setup as a wireless AP. I need to take advantage of the POE feature since I am locating it on my rooftop. The POE only functions in the WAN port, none of the LAN ports are POE. I have done this type of setup before using other router/AP’s but those did not employ POE using only the WAN port. Normally I would attached the Ethernet cable to a LAN port and assign a static IP and kill DHCP but now I am not sure how to setup this device because of the WAN port connection requirement.

My first decision is the operation mode and those choices are:
Gateway
Bridge
WISP Client
Router (WAN Ethernet)
Router (WAN Wireless)

I have tried setting it up in Bridge mode but I can’t get it to allow other devices to connect and be assigned an IP address.

Can anyone give me some guidance?
Thanks

**Philip** · 03-07-18, 10:31 AM

Theoretically, bridge mode should work. You may want to setup a client with a static local IP in the correct block, and look into the bridged router's admin interface to find out what's going on. You could also look at the client list on the main router to see what local IP the bridged router is getting, if any?

You are right to turn off DHCP server, and NAT should be off as well in bridge mode. That said, some routers may not support it well, it depends on the firmware. You may have to set up some type of static IP on the bridged router. You shouldn't have to set static routes, but maybe something to look into if nothing else works.

Setting it up as an AP you would have to use the LAN ports.. Could you run two Ethernet cables, one for the network, and a second for the WAN port just for POE using injector or whatever?

**TonyT** · 03-09-18, 07:57 AM

You should also be able to set it up using Router (WAN Wireless).
Connect the poe cable to the wan port.
Prior to that, connect the router directly to a comp and set it up using a static ip in the same block as the initial router.
Set the gateway and dns to the main router ip.
Then disable dhcp and nat, let the main router handle those.
This way, in essence, you are adding just an access point to the existing lan.
Set up the wifi using a different ssid.

**BillS** · 03-09-18, 02:26 PM

Thanks all, I finally gave up and used the WAN port POE but ran another Ethernet cable to one of the LAN ports and used that to setup the device as AP.