It does ask for where it's been installed during set-up so one assumes it sets the maximum power correctly but yes, difficult to know for sure.
EDIT: to be totally accurate, it asks for time zone. Not country.
Yes, I'm using a hAP ax2... this isn't my first rodeo with Mikrotik Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi in general. I've installed Cisco, TP-Link, UniFi and Mikrotik in many different scenarios. There are simply too many "poor Wi-Fi" posts on this forum for it all to be bad configuration or environment.
Just inspect the IEs included in the beacon frames.
Flat snoop should give you the country it's using!
We have done all this to death, yes we know the days of the Wild West 5G WiF5 are dead now and most accept that with WiFi6 More devices are required for the same job. We also know that external Antennas are better because i walked around my house with a laptop (nope dragged a PC around) with external antennas 3 separate types in fact, and we also noted that circular radius antennas did better all-round. I've also showed you the same laptop with external antennas connected with receive signal -67 @237Mbps upstairs on my ceiling. Gigabyte091 Had TP-Link and compared it, if I recall it wasn't all that. I've yet to be convinced U6 side by side is any better. Also you can't compare expensive gear with cheap. So please do take apart one of those antennas, pop the top off for example and show us etc what type maybe. I've used it every day since day one.... I know!
p.s I forgot the 45 degree antenna as well with hap ax2 that also makes a difference.
This..
I have somewhat hijacked the original posters thread so I'll bow out now. So maybe try and solve why their 5GHz signal strength and/or throughput is so slow relatively close to the hAP ax3?
I have both MikroTik hAP ax3 and a GL.iNet Flint 2 and the signal strength is nearly identical between them, but the hAP ax3 seems unable to sustain MCS 11. Even with the phone placed directly next to the access point, the link rate constantly fluctuates between roughly 1.1 Gbps and 864 Mbps. The Flint 2, under the same conditions, consistently negotiates the maximum possible rate.
These results were measured from approximately three meters away using an iPhone 15 Pro. Both units were placed at the same position for testing.
hAP ax3 80 MHz
Flint 2 160 MHz
I suspect the MikroTik radio is not strong enough or the RF design is just messed up on this model.
PS: Both setups are otherwise identical, including VLANs and bridge filtering. IMO the 5GHz bandwidth is irrelevant as the Flint 2 performance is also excellent at 80MHz.
Thank you everyone for the suggestions, test references and comparisons.
Following @mkx suggestion, I tested the hAP ax3 around 5500 MHz.
Channel: 5500 MHz
- Width configured: 20/40/80 MHz
- Chains: 0,1
- Reported transmit power while active: 20 dBm
- RSSI measured by the phone at approximately 1 meter: -64 dBm
- RSSI at approximately 5 meters: in the low -80 dBm range
At 1 meter, the phone reported approximately 680 Mbps from the phone to the AP, but only 6 Mbps from the AP to the phone at the captured moment.
During a local ping test, RouterOS showed:
- Client signal received by the AP: approximately -49 to -57 dBm
- AP to client rate: approximately 144-288 Mbps
- Client to AP rate: approximately 648-1080 Mbps
- Average local latency: approximately 3.4 ms
The same directional difference was previously observed on 5745 MHz. At approximately 5 meters, the AP received the phone at around -57 dBm while the phone received the AP at around -87 dBm.
Testing 5500 MHz did not improve the range or the asymmetric link. I have now tested 5180, 5500 and 5745 MHz, different channel widths, both chains separately and swapped the supplied antennas.
Thank you again for taking the time to help.
This is much too low ... so it might mean that Tx power amplifier is actually toast. Or that antennas are somehow damaged (or both, damaged antenna might cause amplifier damage).
Unless you somehow managed to do the measurements in the "deaf" area of antenna radiation diagram (the higher antenna gain, the smaller spatial angle of nominal signal coverage). In case of "stick" antennas (as used on hAP ax3), the "deaf" areas are generally along the antenna axis, the highest signal strength is in direction perpendicular to the antenna axis.