Hi all,
I have an old device RB2011UAS-2HnD and have huge speed difference between Download/Upload (download is ~2-3 times lower than upload) on wireless.
It does not seem normal for me as I don’t have such difference on wired connection. Where should I look for the problem (config/hardware/software)? Thank You.
Routerboard firmware: 6.45.7
In such scenarios I recommend to check these options:
TX power: your w/l interface has a lot of power. Make sure you’re running in regulatory-domain mode for your country. It’s not unlikely that your router just saturates your client’s RF interface. Adjust TX power downwards in 3dB steps if still necessary.
RF spectrum: perform a scan and see if the spectrum is clean and you’re using the least utilized channel
Avoid 40MHz channels on 2.4GHz.
-Chris
It is quite normal that wireless download speed is higher than upload speed.
When you pay any attention to wireless speeds, RB2011 is not the device to choose. It is old and supports only 2 GHz B/G/N modes.
Get a modern router with 5 GHz and dual-chain AC.
Yes, that’s why he’s posted asking for help.
Aha I have misread that, I thought he was asking the question merely because these speeds were different.
All history is a little big longer, but I guess I found the problem (at least on my side). I have this device for few years and was pretty happy with it - it was working like a charm. I can’t remember now, when I decided to play a little bit with it’s config, but after that I started to get wireless disconnection on all devices (phones, laptops). I remember I updated RouterOS to the newest version and played with config - so was not sure what broke wireless. Thanks everyone for help. At least for few hours already, but it seems I solved my problem with huge speed difference (unstable ping and wireless disconnection were present problems too). The solution to the problem was “Make sure you’re running in regulatory-domain mode for your country” hint by cdiedrich, just opposite to it. I had my country selected in settings and after removing it (setting from lithuania to no-country-selected) everything went back to as it was (stable ping, equal speed and no disconnections of devices). Can someone more familiar and experienced with Mikrotik explain what’s done in the configuration background while setting country? I only noticed, that antenna gain changed from 4 to 0 after removing country (it was not allowed to set 0 when lithuania was chosen). I will try to set antena gain to 4 without setting country tomorrow to check if it brakes wifi or not.
The main difference when you set proper country is that ROS limits Tx power to meet country regulations with regard to EIRP. EIRP takes into account also antenna gain.
You can see limitations, built into ROS, by executing command /interface wireless info country-info lithuania … and compare that to output of /interface wireless info country-info no-country-set. If we limit ourselves to 2.4GHz one can see that Tx power is quite severely limited in Lithuania (on my RBD52G running ROS 6.45.7 it’s 20dBm versus 30dBm with no_country_set) … if you add the antenna gain setting (4dBi for Lithuania, 0dBi for no_country_set), the difference becomes 14dB and if you’re using client devices some distance from router itself (e.g. a few metres away, possibly around the corner), this difference does make DL crawl … probably UL is not affected by country regulations (specially so if you didn’t update wireless drivers on client device in a while).
Before you start to complain (certain level of kidding here): if you operate your wireless AP with improper setting of country, you’re probably breaking some local law … and wireless vendors (Mikrotik included) are trying not to be responsible for it. By setting country=no_country_set you’re accepting full responsibility.
That is true, but when you are limited in speed by TX power on an indoor WiFi installation you must have serious issues of interference or signal loss.
This whole TX power thing manifests itself mainly on outdoor links, where the antenna gain is a lot higher but the TX itself can produce the max EIRP with 0dB antenna gain.
So in that case, you can exceed licensed power by 20-25dB easily, which of course makes a lot of difference. With later firmware that is more limited, and rightly so.
When you have such problems indoor on an RB2011 I would advise some experiments like trying it closer to the router, try to relocate the router to a spot where there is less attenuation between router and user device, choosing a different channel (1, 6 or 11 fixed channel instead of automatic), adding a second access point e.g. in a larger home, and buying a newer access point that can do 5 GHz.
(which is much quieter but also has more attenuation due to in-house walls etc)
Not necessarily … WiFi in a quiet (no considerable interference) home can decently work with signal strengths of -75 dBm (which is around the first corner) … but at -90 dBm (which is around the second corner) it starts to suck. So the difference in Tx power of 14 dB can explain the observed behaviour.
But anyway, the recommendations how to enhance things by @pe1chl, are the ones to follow.