I wish I knew that WiFi 6 from Mikrotik really is

Hardware
1

I’m sick of hearing how Wi-Fi 6 is supposed to be the next big thing. I spent a small fortune on MikroTik’s latest “flagship” gear—an RB5009 router, three hAP ax² units, and a cAP ax ceiling AP. I even backed it all with two separate 1 Gbps fiber links. The glossy brochures promised multigig speeds and “up to 40 % faster” everything. Reality? Under perfect conditions I never see more than about 800 Mbps to any client—exactly what my ten-year-old Apple AirPort Extreme and Express could already do.

The hAP ax² radios are stuck at 2×2 streams and max out at 80 MHz channel width. There’s no working 160 MHz, so the theoretical top rate is only 1.2 Gbps in the air. Worse, each AP’s uplink is plain old Gigabit Ethernet, so even if the radio could go faster the wire strangles it. And let’s talk power: MikroTik forces you into their quirky passive PoE at 24 volts, or you dangle wall warts everywhere.

I should have gone Ubiquiti from the start. For roughly the same money a UniFi U6 Pro gives four spatial streams, real 160 MHz channels, and a clean 802.3at PoE input. Step up to a U6 Enterprise and you get Wi-Fi 6E with proper 6 GHz, plus a 2.5 GbE uplink so the backhaul isn’t a bottle­neck. No passive-PoE circus, no feature flags that pretend to enable 160 MHz while doing nothing.

All MikroTik’s shiny marketing about “Wi-Fi 6 performance leap” is just off-the-shelf ac hardware wearing a new badge. I wish I hadn’t been fooled. If anyone wants a barely-used RB5009 and three hAP ax² units, make me an offer; I’m ripping them out and replacing the whole mess with UniFi gear that actually delivers the speeds Wi-Fi 6 promised.

2

Okay!

3

I use an RB5009, two Unifi U6 Pro access points and a HAP AX3 device.

After updating the HAP AX3 to router OS 7.19.2 (now .3) I have had no issues and decent speeds.

Personally I would keep the RB5009 and then you are free to use the Unifi access points.

I was in the verge of getting another U6 Pro and to remove the HAP AX3 but the latest router OS update came in the knick of time

4

Hi,
yes, there are many better WiFi routers on the market. You can buy Tp-Link WiFi 7 but after 3 years there will no support and updates. I have 15 years old SXT and guess what? Im running ROS 7.19.3. So HW has 15 years support…
I have Hap AC3 as capsmanager and two AX2 as AP. This is my WiFi speed with 11 clients on 2,4 and 3 clients on 5,4 on the one AP.

So download is as fast as 1Gbit LAN…Do you need more? Buy WiFi7…

So you must know that Hap AX2 has only 1Gbit LAN and now you are crying? Firstly read the specification of the product and there will be no crying aferwards…

5

pls embed image directly and not via external image service. it does not show.

6

I’m not sure who advised you to buy five MikroTik devices - four of them just access points - before even trying one first. But no criticism of the RB5009 here?

For example, I tested a UniFi U6+ for a while, switching between it and a cAP ac. In the end, I returned the UniFi. In my home, with a few walls in the way, I couldn’t get better throughput. No access point can manage MCS11 through a perforated brick wall without clear line of sight.

I was looking for solid wireless and reliable management - without needing to “boot up” a Java service or rely on the limited UniFi Android app that doesn’t even support WPA3. In flent tests, the cAP ac beat the UniFi U6+ in my case. It had everything I needed. Even a 802.3af/at PoE input.

7

It’s WiFi 6, not WiFi 6E, same available spectrum and same lack of “real” 160 MHz channels.

Unfortunately there is a lot of misleading marketing and vendor must play this game. Most of the warnings outline in https://www.wiisfi.com/#wifi6 apply.

9

Creating an account just to share this respons…

10

The name of the account is already an indication for me what will happen next …