Best single AP for wireless range?

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

I’ve been slowly replacing a couple of older non-MikroTik APs with MikroTik APs, but I’m getting disappointing WiFi performance with the results.

I’ve found that I’m getting a poorer signal using a cAP XL ac in the same location (a closet where the broadband comes in near the center of the apartment) as the AP that I’ve replaced.

In the main living area WiFi works well enough most of the time, but I sometimes get buffering and/or severely degraded video quality when watching YouTube videos, for example, which wasn’t an issue with the older APs. Using WiGLE to measure signal strength, I’m getting about 9 dB lower signal on the cAP vs. my older gear (-63 dB vs. -54 dB).

I see that the cAP XL ac seems to have one of the best combinations of TX power, RX sensitivity, and antenna gain, at least among other devices in the similar price range.

I’m living in a rented apartment, so I’m very limited in where I can run wires and put equipment. I don’t see any option to get an AP any closer to main living area.

Are there any other MikroTik APs that would be expected to perform better under the same constraints?

What is the antenna gain pattern is on the cAP XL ac? Maybe it’s just oriented poorly.

The cAP XL ac is mounted horizontally to the ceiling of the closet, where I was able to attach it using magnets on some existing screw heads.

I was looking at the L009UiGS-2HaxD-IN but was surprised to see that its huge external antennas have lower gain (4 dB) than the cAP XL ac’s internal antennas (6 dB on 2 GHz), not to mention the L009 having no 5 GHz. The L009 would take up a lot of space on the vertical panel I have most of the gear mounted on, but I like how I could have its antennas come out the top with the wiring, buttons, and LEDs on the bottom (so the wiring doesn’t interfere with the antenna signals).

The hAP ac3 also has external antennas, but it’s gain is no better than the L009 and I don’t like how all the cables and controls are on same side as the antennas.

2

Problem is, that it doesn’t work as you imagine it… And be prepared, it’s really deeeeeep rabit hole…

http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/hap-ax3-wireless-problem/172468/97
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/hap-ax3-limits-5ghz-tx-power-to-8/169147/21

After that you can start to search for more topics about this… There are plenty of them…

Btw, you can check your country limits by:

/interface/wifi/radio/reg-info country="United States" 1

Happy hunting!

Btw, be aware that L009 are not suited for higher internet speeds.. (that you can check on product test result page, 512b 25 fw rules)

3

Oh I know how antenna gain works. That’s why I asked about the gain pattern of my cAP XL ac so I could (try to) put the problem location into one of the main lobes of the pattern.

I did find slides from a presentation that indicated that the ceiling-mount APs usually have horizontally-polarized antennas, which is good to know. Since most user devices have vertically-polarized antennas (depending on how they’re held, anyway), I should expect mounting my cAP XL ac vertically (as on a wall) to work better than horizontally (as on a ceiling) at least in a theoretically perfect world . But again without having a clue what it’s antennas gain pattern is, it’s just guessing.

I did try a few different orientations of my cAP and didn’t see any notable improvements.

That’s good to know. I don’t have super-fast broadband here so I doubt I would run into that bottleneck. And again I like how you can wall-mount the L009 with the antennas on top and clear of all its cables.

4

I always put my phone on speaker and throw it in the closet.

It’s weird how I can’t really hear the caller and they keep yelling “WHAT?”

5

Funny, I migrated away from MT WIFI, for the most part.