hAP ax2 - 2.4GHz unusable with CAPsMAN

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

My setup is an RB3011 as a wifi-qcom CAPsMAN controller, and the hAP ax2 as one of the CAPs.

I noticed recently some trouble with 2.4GHz-only devices, and turned off 5GHz across my network to see what was going on, and found the 2.4GHz network provided by the hAP to be just about unusable - some devices can’t connect full stop, and the rest are very intermittent and can take quite a bit of time to connect.

I’ve tried disabling WPA3, FT, going back to 802.11n, etc. Nothing makes a difference, on an otherwise completely basic configuration. However, if I configure the hAP ax2’s 2.4GHz interface for local configuration, it works absolutely fine.

hAP ax2 (set manager to local and the local configuration works perfectly):

[admin@br-hapax2] > /int/wifi/print detail                
Flags: M - master; D - dynamic; B - bound; 
X - disabled, I - inactive, R - running 
 0 M BR ;;; managed by CAPsMAN 2C:C8:1B:EC:6B:09%bridge, traffic processing on>
        ;;; mode: AP, SSID: haptest, channel: 2437/ax
        default-name="wifi2" name="wifi-2ghz" l2mtu=1560 
        mac-address=D4:01:C3:12:A3:63 arp-timeout=auto 
        radio-mac=D4:01:C3:12:A3:63 
        configuration.mode=ap .ssid="haptest" .country=Australia .tx-power=15 
        .manager=capsman 
        security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk 
        datapath=cap-datapath 
        datapath.bridge=bridge 
        channel.frequency=2437 .band=2ghz-ax .width=20mhz

CAPsMAN:

[admin@home-edge] > /int/wifi/conf pr from=main-2ghz-ax detail
Flags: X - disabled 
 0   name="main-2ghz-ax" mode=ap ssid="haptest" security=security-main 
     security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk .wps=disable .ft=yes 
     .ft-over-ds=yes 
     channel=channel-2.4ghz-ax 
     channel.frequency=2437 .band=2ghz-ax .width=20mhz
2

You haven’t stated what RouterOS version you are running - but from my testing there are some devices having connection issues with some AX devices on the stable firmware, more on 2.4ghz but 5ghz as well on some clients.

Try the current RC version as this has some WIFI fixes that vastly improves the connectivity with some devices.

3

7.21rc1 on both the 3011 running CAPsMAN and the hAP ax2. Both were on 7.20.x when I noticed the issue, so I tried updating to 7.21rc1, no change.

4

7.19.4 or 7.19.6?

5

i would unset tx-power

6

@jaclaz I can’t remember exactly, sorry.

@infabo I’ve set tx-power per the usual advice to not run maximum txpower. In any case, no change when not setting tx-power.

7

Config for capsman controller and ax2 would be useful.

Not those print statements.

8

So, new development is that this seems to occur regardless of capsman or local configuration, so I’ll focus on local for now:

# 2025-12-07 20:46:06 by RouterOS 7.21rc1
# software id = < removed >
#
# model = C52iG-5HaxD2HaxD
# serial number = < removed >
/interface bridge
add admin-mac=D4:01:C3:12:A3:5E auto-mac=no name=bridge port-cost-mode=short
/interface ethernet switch
set 0 cpu-flow-control=no
/interface list
add comment=defconf name=WAN
add comment=defconf name=LAN
/interface wifi datapath
add bridge=bridge disabled=no name=cap-datapath
/interface wifi
set [ find default-name=wifi2 ] channel.band=2ghz-ax .frequency=2437 .width=\
    20mhz configuration.country=Australia .manager=local .mode=ap .ssid=test \
    .tx-power=15 datapath=cap-datapath datapath.bridge=bridge disabled=no \
    name=wifi-2ghz security.authentication-types=wpa2-psk
# managed by CAPsMAN 2C:C8:1B:EC:6B:09%bridge, traffic processing on CAP
set [ find default-name=wifi1 ] configuration.manager=capsman .mode=ap \
    datapath=cap-datapath disabled=no name=wifi-5ghz
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge edge=yes interface=wifi-5ghz internal-path-cost=10 \
    path-cost=10
add bridge=bridge edge=yes interface=wifi-2ghz internal-path-cost=10 \
    path-cost=10
add bridge=bridge interface=ether1 internal-path-cost=10 path-cost=10
add bridge=bridge interface=ether2 internal-path-cost=10 path-cost=10
add bridge=bridge interface=ether3 internal-path-cost=10 path-cost=10
add bridge=bridge interface=ether4 internal-path-cost=10 path-cost=10
add bridge=bridge interface=ether5 internal-path-cost=10 path-cost=10
/ip firewall connection tracking
set enabled=no udp-timeout=10s
/ip neighbor discovery-settings
set discover-interface-list=LAN
/interface list member
add comment=defconf interface=bridge list=LAN
/interface ovpn-server server
add mac-address=FE:B5:21:C3:7D:8B name=ovpn-server1
/interface wifi cap
set certificate=request discovery-interfaces=bridge enabled=yes \
    slaves-datapath=cap-datapath
/ip dhcp-client
add interface=bridge
/ip dns static
add address=192.168.88.1 comment=defconf name=router.lan type=A
/ip ipsec profile
set [ find default=yes ] dpd-interval=2m dpd-maximum-failures=5
/ip service
set ftp disabled=yes
set telnet disabled=yes
set www disabled=yes
set api disabled=yes
set api-ssl disabled=yes
/ipv6 nd
set [ find default=yes ] advertise-dns=yes
/system clock
set time-zone-name=< removed >
/system identity
set name=br-hapax2
/system logging
add topics=wireless,debug
/system package update
set channel=testing
/system routerboard settings
set auto-upgrade=yes
/tool mac-server
set allowed-interface-list=LAN
/tool mac-server mac-winbox
set allowed-interface-list=LAN
9

Ended up solving this issue. Wasn’t even an AP/CAPsMAN issue – turns out an Nv2 network I had set up nearby was causing interference.

Given that the Nv2 network was on Channel 1 (AP on 6), I’m not sure why it was interfering exactly, but I’ve taken down the Nv2 network and the hAP ax is working fine again.

10

Nv also 20mhz?