the nanobeam-ac as a wireless bridge
This tutorial will cover how to initially program your NanoBeamAC and connect it to your RocketAC radio/antenna. We'll also be demonstrating a manual firmware update.
The NanoBeam is a very powerful PTMP wireless bridge. If used correctly should be able to achieve gigabit links to its access point antenna. These can be tricky to get dialed in correctly, So we only use these at very long distances on directional antennas when an OMNI directional antenna cannot reach the required distance.
1. Begin by connecting the LAN port on the 24v 0.5A POE injector to your switch or router.
2. Connect the POE port on the injector to the port on the back bottom of the NanoBeamAC.
3. Navigate a computer on the same network's browser to the default IP of 192.168.1.20
4. Add the security exception
5. Confirm the security exception
6. Initial login for the NanoBeam is ubnt/ubnt like all unifi devices come from the factory.
7. Click the change password like we have in the past
8. Change it
9. Click the system tab in the left column
10. If you have a current internet connection on your NanoBeam try the check now button. NOTE: unless your bridge has DHCP enabled and has received DNS information, or you have manually entered the DNS servers in the network settings, CHECK NOW will fail. We will set the network settings later, so you can come back to this step later and click the CHECK NOW button. We're going to do it manually however, just in case you need to go tech support Mcgyver.
11. If the check fails for any reason, you can manually update your firmware. Navigate to the link below to download the firmware, or you can use our direct download links below too.
https://www.ubnt.com/download/airmax-ac/nanobeam-ac
12. Browse to the file location of the firmware downloaded
13. Clicking open uploads the firmware
14. After the firmware has successfully uploaded, click the update button at the top of the screen.
15. It will start the upgrade process
16. This part takes up to 5 minutes. Grab a coffee or perhaps some fish tacos.
17. Upon completion you will be automatically redirected to the new log in screen. Unless you changed your user name, it should still be ubnt and the password you changed it to earlier. Log in when youre ready
18. Welcome to the updated dashboard. Now that our upgrade is set in, we can connect our bridge to the Rocket antenna. Click the settings tab on the left side of the screen
19. In the drop down menu, select station PtMP. Next to the SSID box, click the "select" button.
20. Your NanoBeam will scan the surrounding networks. Scroll up and down to find your Rocket antenna like in the example over. After you've selected it, click LOCK TO AP. This tells the NanoBeam to only talk to the antenna we've selected and nothing else.
21. After you've selected LOCK TO AP, it will ask you to fill in the WPA2 password you set on the antenna eariler. In our case it was "FreeLynkTutorial". NOTE: Under the advanced settings in this window, notice the airmax station priority. You can set the priority level of the bridge and make a that device get front of the line privileges on congested days. Leaving it as base is fine and changing it is unncessary unless you need that network device to run just a little quicker than the others.
22. Once the bridge has authenticated with the correct WPA2 password you should be able to see network stats on the dashboard page. From this screen you can check signal strengths, align your bridge with the antenna and generally troubleshoot network hicups. Very useful screen indeed.
23. Changing the IP address of the NanoBeam is recommended. make sure you dont assign it an address inside your DHCP pool
24. DNS servers to google and you're all set to start passing data through the bridge!
25. NanoBeams only have a single port on the bottom of them, so you can't run an access point directly off of it. Instead, you'll need a setup like above. Run the open LAN port on the NanoBeam's injector, into another POE injector's LAN port. Plug the open POE port on the second injector, into your access point. This will allow the NanoStation to be used by the access point for its internet connection. Later on we'll explain how to run this kind of setup without injectors while using solar panels, but for now this is a good place to start your understanding. Congrats on setting up your NanoStationAC wireless bridge.