What is your recommendation for 5GHz channel list? Would you go for all Ceee or eCee?
I have set my hAP ax3 to the following which for me works well:
/interface/wifiwave2/channel
add band=2ghz-ax frequency=2412,2437,2462 name=2ghz-1_6_11 width=20mhz skip-dfs-channels=disabled
add band=5ghz-ax frequency=5500,5520,5540,5560 name=5ghz-no_dfs width=20/40/80mhz skip-dfs-channels=disabled
I took the non-restricted channels my country(south africa) is supporting for 5ghz from here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels
So far so good and I can maintain 750+mbit on 5ghz and with 2.4ghz i can reach to end of my house which is all I wanted to begin with. This wasn’t the case with the defaults.
Edit: just to add - I pointed the top round edge of the antenna in the direction I wanted the best signal(perpendicular). sounds crazy but it made a difference for me.
The way @pe1chl showed actually allows to have different channel parameters depending on selected centre frequency. When simply listing frequencies in single statement all the rest of properties have to be the same. So the new way is not as flexible as the old one … sigh, I guess we’ll have to get used to new reality with much reduced flexibility.
Re. 5GHz channel list: I guess the most straight forward (and proper) way of doing them is to select some channel layout (perhaps @bpwl knows how other vendors do it, but I guess Ceee would be a good starting point) and then set frequencies to those which should according to standard. If one takes channel list from wikipedia … then proper frequency for Ceee channel (with maximum backward compatibility) would be e.g. 5260 … because 5260 is fine for single 20MHz channel (number 52) and for Ce 40MHz channel (number 54) and for Ceee 80MHz channel (number 58). If one throws in 160MHz (or 80+80), then it should be e.g. Ceeeeeee with frequency 5180.
I guess that when setting channel layout to XXXX it should be possible to use any of (5260, 5280, 5300, 5320) as frequency and ROS will (hopefully) select right channel layout which goes with selected frequency. But there’s room for bugs here and in worst case some wireless clients won’t like it.
In the “old” wifi driver there is a bug that means that your channel list will fail to work after export/import when its name starts with a digit.
The export fails to put the list name in quotes, and the import assumes it is a literal frequency list (like 2412,2437,2462) when it starts with a digit, then errors out with a syntax error.
I don’t know if this has ever been fixed, but after having been bitten by this I use the name ch1_6_11 instead.
Good tip !
Thanks for that. I will change the name just in case.
Hello!
I also want to do a firmware downgrade on a hap ax2 from 7.8 to 7.6 (also, I have signal problems). Please tell me, step by step, the downgrade steps (because there are two firmware files and wifiwave2). I don’t want to use Netinstall!! Only downgrade.
Thank you very much.
A side tip. On 2.4ghz band you should use ch 1,6,11, as they don’t overlap, but in real life, your neighbors, most likely, will not follow this practice. As result, it does not matter if you use 1,6,11, if you neighbor is using ch2, 40mhz wide. You should use the cleanest channel you have in your environment. At work I have full control over APs, so there I can use 1.6.11.
It is like saying “you should not dump trash in your public park. but in real life, your neighbors will do it anyway. so you can just as well dump your trash in the park!”.
- Make backup
- Download RouterOS https://download.mikrotik.com/routeros/7.6/routeros-7.6-arm64.npk and https://download.mikrotik.com/routeros/7.6/all_packages-arm64-7.6.zip
- Unzip all_packages-arm64-7.6.zip
- Upload routeros-7.6-arm64.npk and wifiwave2-7.6-arm64.npk to File list (Winbox menu: Files)
- System > Packages > Click Downgrade
Instead/besides a backup, you can also perform an export which will save your configuration:
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Configuration+Management#ConfigurationManagement-ImportandExport
On Ubiquiti there is a band steering option and it’s working excellent, on Mikrotik when 2.4 and 5 GHz radios are given same SSID phone reports this network as dual band (it says 2.4/5 after SSID) but for me, this just mean that device will connect to the 2.4 GHz and even ACL will not force it to stay connected to 5GHz on ax2.
When I tried to force clients to stay connected to 5 GHz with ACL devices just keep trying to connect to 2.4 GHz.
I reduced channel width to 20/40 for 5GHz as i really don’t have need for 1200 Mbps speed (internet is 170/150 so even 40 MHz channel is never fully saturated)
And 2.4 GHz channel is 20 MHz. Frequency is fixed, i scanned my area and set WiFi to free channels. ( I live in a house and there really is no other networks other than my that could interfere with my WiFi, only one very weak 2.4 from neighbour, and no 5 GHz)
I ended up simply separating 2.4 and 5 GHz bands but on ax2 i experience wifi “crapout”, less now that 7.8 is out… And i have few other issues as upload is at max spees but download is half that speed…
Successfully downgraded to 7.6!
Thank you.
Is ROS 7.6 still better than 7.8 in terms of wifi stability and signal strength? …surely not.
For me, acl on Wireless rejecting mac from 2.4 interface worked without issues.
In my case, as a hap ax2 user, in ros 7.6 the signal strength is about 20% better than 7.7 and 7.8. As for stability, in 7.6 I had two situations where I found all devices disconnected from the wireless router. I don’t know the reason for the disconnection. I am a basic user of these Mikrotik routers.
From 5Ghz radio only or from both? A radar detection events trigger a disconnection on 5Ghz DFS channels… Next time check the log.
What does the support say?
7.8Beta and 7.8RC there was no improvement
The decrease in signal strength is manifested in both 2.4 and 5Ghz channels
Decreasing signal strength after installing an update (any manufacturer!) can sometimes be caused by the restrictions in the country where you live.
When the law specifies a lower max power than the usual defaults over the world, and the manufacturer did not know about that, they may change the country table once they hear about it, and from that time on you will have less power in the same access point.
Another issue is that for some bands (this should not affect 2 GHz but it does affect 5 GHz) the max power is not the same for all channels.
When you have set the frequency to “auto” the access point selects a channel based on current occupation and it may be that after an upgrade it selects a different channel (either randomly or because of changed detection rules), and now it has a channel with lower power limits. Then it will reduce the power.
You can work around this by changing the installation “indoor/outdoor/any” settings and/or by setting a fixed channel frequency instead of “auto”.