I have the following setup thats giving me trouble recently.
Model 230 Routerboard running RouterOS2.8 level 5 license. 3 prism based radio’s are installed in it. Ether1 feeds in the primary connection, as well as the POE. Ether2 connects to an E-ZY.net 802.11b bridge. This bridge in turn connects through a small panel antenna to a parabolic antenna on another E-ZY.net brridge about 0.5km away. This connection has been rock solid for the last 2 years, with a near 100% link quality. The 3 radios on the routerboard are all connected to panel antennas as well, each feeding to a different site. In January we stopped using one of the antennas, turning off the radio.
Last week the E-ZY.net bridge connected to the routerboard just up and died. When I replaced it I noticed that I was no longer getting a link light on the bridge. Opening up the routerboard’s enclosure, I noticed the link light on ether2 was blinking in a regular 1 second interval. I made the assumption the port was probably toast after checking the link cable with an ohm meter. Since I do not have an extra routerboard to install, I just decided to shutdown the EZ-Y.net bridge, and reconfigure the spare radio and antenna on the routerboard. Of note at this point should be that the replacement bridge was able to achieve the same perfect connection to my client site 0.5km away, as the blown one had been doing so for 2 years.
So after resetting the configuration to match my client .5km away, I re-aimed the antenna and matched the polarity. It is the exact same model of antenna as the one I was connecting through before, but 1 foot to the right. After a frustrating hour of not being able to connect, I was finally able to make a connection. Now heres my problem.
Through the e-zy.net bridge I was able to achieve a nearly perfect connection. Through the routerboard I can barely keep a connection alive. I have played around with the channels, with the tx-power values, with everything I can think of. I checked the aim and polarity on both antennas. Everything is setup exactly as it was before, except I am no longer running through an e-zy.net bridge at my AP, but through the routerboard directly. Does anyone have any ideas? Suggestions? Anything? I don’t have the resources to buy another routerboard right now, and really don’t think I should have to.
If it makes a difference I am running off of WLAN1, the mini-pci card slot with a prism based card. I did not purchase or origionally setup this hardware, I have come into it as an already existing system.