hAP AX3 5G range troubleshooting

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

I’m starting a new thread because the previous one is marked “Solved” - and it degenerated slightly. Please let’s focus on the particular issue here - at least some hAP AX3 units appear to have extremely limited range. I’m operating on the assumption that MT designed, tested, and produced working product - but some units have problems so let’s try to figure out the cause.

My particular two units are:
Model C53UiG+5HPaxD2HPaxD
Serial HER09CFZ59Y / HER09DGXRFS
Factory Firmware 7.8
Upgraded Firmware 7.14.2
United States

The two units are located in two different houses in different parts of the city - and both have generally unusable 5G. 2G is great. I’m in the US so I’m using US settings. I’ve started with defaults and kept desperately trying other combinations of security, channel, and anything else I remotely understand to try to improve. Nothing.

The one thing I’ve found that’s unusual - I have a windows PC with built-in WiFi 6 that does connect from another room with moderate success. But that’s the only device that does. None of the various IoT appliances nor any of my Android phones, from multiple vendors, will connect at ranges more than 5-10 feet from the AP.

I’ve just received an RMA from my vendor, and I’m considering using it, but since I didn’t keep the packaging (why would I? New MT product always works!..), and I’ll be paying for shipping multiple times, if there’s any magical software fix that will work I’m all for trying.

So - anyone with similar issues, who’s willing, please share your info. There have been multiple posts indicating problems - and multiple posts indicating flawless operation. Maybe we’ll find a pattern of serial numbers that will indicate something?

mAntBox 15ax superchannel is missing...
2

Let’s start by sharing your config.

3

Sure. This is not a CAPSMan issue, not a firewall issue, not a queue issue. Again - for me 2G works fine while 5G has no range. The Android devices that can’t connect 20 feet away do connect 6 feet away.
hapax3.rsc (10.6 KB)
capsman.rsc (2.04 KB)

4

I downloaded and ran the hapax3.rsc config on my hAP ax3, only two changes being: (1) I set the password explicitly on wifi interfaces because it complained and (2) I ran it without CAPsMAN.

It worked well, and TX power was at 28 dBm in winbox status tab.

Can you please try and replicate my setup and use (1) winbox status tab and (2) “WiFi Analyzer” app on one of your Android devices to register (1) the tx power hAP ax3 thinks it’s transmitting at and (2) the power registered by the client device, respectively?

5

Winbox status shows TX 28.
Sitting in my usual chair, about 50 feet away, through a wall or two, the 2G network shows a fairly constant -46db, 5G shows a fluctuating -60 to -70db.
Moving out of the far room, down the hall, to within 10’ open line-of-sight, I see -30db@2G, -45db@5G.

6

Default config, country=US, tx-power, antenna-gain unset. 2G/5G: TX 27/28. At 10’, WiFi Analyzer shows both networks at -33..38 dBm. About 40 ft away on the other side of the flat, 5G is around -60 dBm with 2G being 5 decibels higher.

7

Is it just me, or do the power numbers appear to be numbering?

8

Have the same router model. Same problem with 5Ghz wifi.

Quick prehistory. Carrier is Orange Polska Sp. zoo. All was good, router from them was super (stable link with 2.4 Gbit/s link), but they deployed a spyware on router and backdoor. I was told a lot of stuff how good MikroTik is, so decided to try. No spyware not, but wifi link is awful, really awful. So if support/dev team is here I need help. Later firmware 7.15 Beta 9. First of all channel select settings are crazy complicated. Need instead a list like channel 1 up to whatever is there possible and manual select of channel (enforced mode). It always tries to stick to some 5.68 GHz and then only 300mbps max, so had to set allowed below that to avoid. So the problem is, technical specs state as warranted 1200mbit/s, is fact max I get 960 Mbit link, and actual speed below that. And by tech specs it’s declared as AX1800, which means it should support up to 1800mbit/s link, but probably locked by firmware, which is time to unlock then.

Problem is I have 1Gbit fiber and it was max like that (stable) on previous carrier router, but problem was spyware.

This router is better as no spyware, but worse due to router being at maximum 5-6 meeters away from router and fails to get even stable 1200 mbit link. Test results are here https://www.speedtest.net/result/16086764065 .
I need at least 950 mbit/s link, as I am working with servers (mean work remotely with servers) and whole link needed for backup downloads etc. If that don’t get fixed it’s a first and the last time I’ve ever tried MirkoTik. Promotion from friends about this vendor and expectations were much higher that it acts in fact. And no option to manually chose channels from list and force routed pick what I want, not what it decides is good.
Screenshot_20240403_022003.png
. Screenshot of wifi settings attached. I need stable minimum 1200 mbit link and minimum 950 mbit/s actual transfer speed. Wifi card shows power jumping and link speeds jumping from 800 to 960 mbit/s link, but never gets maximum 1200mbit. Also on screenshot you can see newly added field some “reselect interval” and I don’t know what it wants but prevents from saving settings. Jumping from channel to channel is also not good. It must allow manually select from some drop down menu precise channel on my own choice and lock it, so that I can take something not used by neighbors. And minimum 15 meeter coverage for whole flat is also mandatory.

Thanks for any help and firmware fixes in advance.

As already told in terms of privacy router seems good, in tems of speed and link quality average, which is not enough.

9

Got the same problem. Through a bit of discovery and forum diving I’ve reached the same conclusion some others have in that the regulatory domain for some countries are wrong.

Details on my hAP ax3 are in the attached config.

Here are the hard facts I’ve gathered:

I’m set up in Australia, which should have a regulatory target of 23 Tx power on 5180/Ceee - I instead get 17 Tx power, a bit lower. When set to the United States, which has a regulatory target of 30, it reaches 23 Tx power, which Australia should theoretically be able to reach on this antenna.

This becomes more pronounced on 2.4ghz. I transmit 27 Tx power on 2437/ax/ce when set to the United States (regulatory target of 30), but only transmit 16 Tx power on 2437/ax/ce when set to Australia (regulatory target of 36, incorrectly set to 20 with a reg-info printout).


[admin@MikroTik] > interface/wifi/radio/reg-info country="Australia"
number: 1
  ranges: 2402-2482/20
          5170-5250/23/indoor
          5250-5330/23/indoor/dfs
          5490-5590/30/dfs
          5650-5730/30/dfs
          5735-5835/36

[admin@MikroTik] > interface/wifi/radio/reg-info country="United States"         
number: 1
  ranges: 2402-2472/30
          5170-5250/30
          5250-5330/24/dfs
          5490-5730/24/dfs
          5735-5895/30

With a couple of particularly loud broadcasting neighbours, a Tx power of 16 has severely reduced the range of my wifi in parts of my home. It’s pretty much made owning it a bit of a nightmare, I can’t believe I didn’t notice the significantly lower broadcast power in all my troubleshooting. I’ve attached my config, though I’ve currently set my regulatory domain to the United States for now for my own sanity.

Here are some less hard facts, so take with a pinch of salt:

This would pretty clearly establish some of the range issues certain individuals are having, particularly in regions where the regulatory domain is particularly out of whack (Australia, Poland). The responses of “mine works fine” is probably because it does, your regulatory domain isn’t mangled.

Another thing, a mate of mine owns a cAP ax that shares the same chip model as the hAP ax3, the QCN-5022/5052. He has noticed similar issues with Tx power output, though this is purely anecdotal. I’ll encourage him to post some findings if he can, otherwise maybe someone else owns one and can corroborate the issues.

Let me know if there is any testing I can do or more info to provide to help, I’ll try get to it when I can.

Hope MikroTik can provide a response at some stage, it’s clear that something is not right on the hAP ax3.
myconfig.rsc (6.86 KB)

10

Just installed 7.15B9. It seems like it’s actually, if only slightly, improved the TX. Where before I never saw better than -60db in my chair I’m now seeing it reach -55db.

Something I didn’t state previously - while watching in a wifi analyzer the 5G network will periodically disappear. Don’t know if that’s an announce/beacon thing or if it indicates an issue.

I still can’t connect at any distance. My android devices show they’re attempting to connect, display “Authenticating…”, and give up. When I move close enough to the hAP to connect, and then go check Winbox, I see the RX signal from my device is quite weak.

11

Please start a new thread if you need help with basic Mikrotik wifi config - I want to keep this one focused on a specific issue. I will tell you that you can get the channel configuration you want, if not necessarily the performance, by making the right changes.

12

Huh… Interesting. So it may indeed be the receive side that is to blame. I would presume that the microvolt-level signal that is actually received by the antennae is amplified prior to being processed. If that amplifier is somehow borked, the AP won’t be able to actually receive packets from devices attempting to connect to it, except for ones that are very close to it.

13

There’s also another possible explanation, which is high noise floor. Please try and measure it with frequency scan tool.

14

I posted a 3-page PDF with two 5 GHz ranges tested for over a hundred countries in another topic. The regulatory domains are indeed completely and totally out of whack, at least in my experience. MikroTik apparently already knows this. I did also file a bug report with my findings though, but no response yet. So yeah. A bit of a nightmare, agreed. But it seems to be only half the issue, and it is not what this particular topic seems to be about, as @dalami has explicitly stated they set country to United States, which works fine as far as I’m aware.

15

Apologies, don’t mean to derail the topic then - a lot of these topics have seemed to have melded due to the shared issue of the ax3 and it’s range.

If it’s at all helpful to the other half of the issue dalami is facing, the Tx power output I was getting for my US set config was seven db’s lower than the thirty target on 5180/Ceee.

16

This topic is already hijacked by others.

@phoenix91140
I don’t like how you make demands. Complain to your friends who gave you the recommendation. It is not Mikrotik to feel sorry. And this is a user forum and we all can sleep well, even this is your last Mirkotik (!) device. :joy:

Regarding AX1800: this is the accumulate of all bands this device supports. see explained https://superuser.com/questions/1616283/what-do-ax1800-ax3000-etc-mean-within-wifi-6-802-11ax

Lookup technical specifications of your former ISP wifi AP and see if this is a fair comparison.

17

Ah. Then I should be the one apologizing. And I do apologize. I misremembered my testing.

18

Within 2m connecting and 6m away not? that’s odd indeed

19

Not sure what I’m looking for. Are there lots of other networks visible from my neighbors? Yes.

Which makes it all the more annoying - I can see my next door neighbors’ 5G networks (from detached houses over 100’ away through multiple exterior walls) while my mighty hAP AX3 can’t speak to my phone more than 10’ away. I purchased these units as upgrades for existing competitive units. I’m not seeing the upgrade though I really want to.

20

As you say yourself: speak and see is a difference. So you can’t tell if you could successfully connect to your neighbors AP due to being protected by a passphrase isn’t it?