hAP AC^2 - slow wifi

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Recently got brand new hAP AC^2 router to remote office. Last current installed (6.42.7). As a arouter, this is perfect device, but I have a lot of complaints on it wifi. Most of these are for wifi speed.

The device is on relatively wifi clear zone (both 2 and 5 Ghz frequencies are mostly clear of other networks). I set both radios to separate bridge, assigned an IP on it, and assigned DHCP server to it, too. Another bridge and DHCP server is for LAN ports. Networks are different (that is, 192.168.5.0/24 on LAN bridge, and 192.168.6.0/24 on wifi bridge). There is a mascarade NAT rule for address list which includes both 5 and 6 subnets.

The problem is, LAN clients can use Internet on full speed, while wifi clients clain they see 200-300 bits/sec speed. Hard to tell if this is for 2 Ghz only (due to they don;t have 5 Ghz clients at all), but this appears to be wifi hardware related issue, due to very basic setup made so far.

Here is the radio setup:

/interface wireless security-profiles
set [ find default=yes ] supplicant-identity=MikroTik
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk eap-methods="" mode=dynamic-keys name=ThisOne supplicant-identity="" wpa2-pre-shared-key=keykeykey

/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] adaptive-noise-immunity=ap-and-client-mode band=2ghz-onlyn comment="2 Ghz" country=russia3 disabled=no distance=indoors frequency=2442 frequency-mode=regulatory-domain hw-protection-mode=rts-cts mode=ap-bridge multicast-buffering=disabled multicast-helper=disabled name=wlan_2Ghz security-profile=ThisOne ssid=SSID_2 wireless-protocol=802.11
set [ find default-name=wlan2 ] adaptive-noise-immunity=ap-and-client-mode band=5ghz-a/n/ac channel-width=20/40/80mhz-Ceee comment="5 Ghz" country=russia3 disabled=no distance=indoors frequency=5260 frequency-mode=regulatory-domain hw-protection-mode=rts-cts mode=ap-bridge name=wlan_5Ghz security-profile=ThisOne ssid=SSID_5 wireless-protocol=802.11

/interface wireless manual-tx-power-table
set wlan_2Ghz comment="2 Ghz"
set wlan_5Ghz comment="5 Ghz"

/interface wireless nstreme
set wlan_2Ghz comment="2 Ghz"
set wlan_5Ghz comment="5 Ghz"

What can I do to speed wifi up?

P.S. By the way, what is the nstreme interface I can see here?

2

You need to setup proper band for 2ghz network, b/g/n and channel width to 20/40. Also choose auto channel. When protocol 802.11 selected - nstream disabled.

You can try to reset configurattion to default without checking “No default configuration”. Optimal wifi settings will be selected.
Setup only internet connection and test wifi speed.

3

Did that. 20 chosen due to limit radio influence to different channels/networks, N-only to speed up the network (no per-N devices there), band was set to auto but that tooks ages to start the network (wait for analysis be done while we know neighbor devices, no need to reconfig channel that often).
All of that helped a bit but not a silver bullet anyway.

4

In 2ghz band only 3 not overlapping channels. Try to use wifi analyzer or builtin scanner to find best channel.
How many 2ghz devices registered on ap? You sure that speed is up to 300 bit/s?

5

You are using an overlapping channel on 2GHz. 2442 MHz = Channel #7. There are only three non-overlapping channels: #1 (2412 MHz), #6 (2437 MHz), #11 (2462 MHz). Choose one after using a WiFi analyzer app to check neighboring channels, to ensure you do not use the same channel as the closest APs.

Also, using WiFi radios in routers for non-residential use is sub-optimal compared to actual access points which have radio chains and antenna configurations specifically for client density, maximum average throughput, minimum latency, maximum stability and often superior roaming support.

Keep the hAP ac2 for routing, since it is awesome at it, but consider getting a cheap AP like a Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Lite or TP-Link EAP225v3 instead for WiFi. The difference in performance and wireless stability will be well worth it.

6

There are only 4-5 wifi clients, and I do know about 3 main frequencies to use ) 5 clients is too few to care about many collisions in the air so this is not a problem I suppose.

So to say, old cheap wifi router made by D-link (which was there before Mikrotik) can serve these clients without any delay and with good speed… It is disconnected now so it won’t affect the picture but sad to know that.

7

The office is quite small so can be considered as a residential place as well. One big room, actually. Wifi is not for work data, just for phones etc. But 200 bits/sec is quite not good for Facebook, too.

Tried to use these ‘main’ channels before, no good too.

Looks like hardware problem or deep misconfiguration. I’ve heard about ac^2 sub optimal wifi performance but the was something that should be fixed with newer firmware, and I expect they already did that.

8

Also you can check HT tab in wireless. All chains need to enabled for RX and TX for best performance.
You can decrease TX power for small room.

9

My hAP ac2 allowed WiFi speeds on 2GHz up to around 100Mbps using single client.

I don’t know what’s default value for channel-width, but default config has channel-with=20/40mhz-Ce. Also re-consider setting hw-protection-mode, if I understand things correctly you don’t need one in your environment where there’s no “hidden station”.