Mikrotik RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN wifi performance issues

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

I’m experiencing very poor wireless performance, especially clients uploading to the router/Internet.

If I sit with my laptop in the same room, a few feet away from the router, I get pretty good performance - 40Mbps down/12mbps up.

However, if I so much as move 10 feet away, the speeds drop to 20Mbps down/0.25Mbps up.

I’ve literally gone in and tweaked every single setting there is to tweak, and plugged in every number I can think of to the wifi config page on my router, and none of it seems to make all that much of a difference. The “best case” scenario I came up with is getting 15Mbps down/2Mbps up, from about 30 feet away. This is not related to the client I’m using either, with laptops, phones, tablets all getting similarly pathetic performance.

I’ve got an old Linksys E4200 that very much blows this Mikrotik out of the water, easily getting 60-70Mbps in both directions on both 2.4/5Ghz in identical situations with default settings.

Is the RB2011 just a lost cause when it comes to its wifi performance or is there something obvious that I’m missing?


Here’s the config:

[admin@MikroTik] /interface wireless> export
# jan/18/2015 17:25:29 by RouterOS 6.24
# software id = UWEU-1MD4
#
/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] ampdu-priorities=0,1,2,3 antenna-gain=4 band=2ghz-b/g/n basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=\
    1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps bridge-mode=disabled country="united states2" disabled=no distance=indoors frequency=2462 frequency-mode=regulatory-domain ht-basic-mcs=\
    mcs-0,mcs-1,mcs-2,mcs-3,mcs-4,mcs-5,mcs-6,mcs-7,mcs-8,mcs-9,mcs-10,mcs-11,mcs-12,mcs-13,mcs-14,mcs-15,mcs-16,mcs-17,mcs-18,mcs-19,mcs-20,mcs-21,mcs-22,mcs-23 l2mtu=1600 mode=ap-
    multicast-helper=full preamble-mode=long wireless-protocol=802.11
/interface wireless security-profiles
set [ find default=yes ] authentication-types=wpa2-psk eap-methods="" mode=dynamic-keys wpa-pre-shared-key="password" wpa2-pre-shared-key="password"
2

No answers in over a week? I guess that’s an answer in itself.

Guess I’ll be steering people away from Mikrotik WiFi gear then.

3

For what you have set “antenna-gain=4” ? Do you know that you set to lose signal? People, dont make decision about MT products, if you dont know how to set your MT router. Please reset your configuration to factory, and dont edit confs, that you dont know for what is using.

4

Thanks for the “helpful” condescending reply. I guess you missed the part where I said I’ve tried tweaking every setting that’s available to be set without any difference in results. Furthermore you also neglected to read the part where even sitting in the same room only a few feet away from the router also results in poor performance.

As a matter of fact, the built in RB2011 antennas are documented as having a 4dbi gain and this setting is intended to be set to the actual value of the antennas attached to the device in conjunction with the regulatory domain/country setting to keep transmit powers within local regulations. I’m not interested in creating undue wireless interference when a lower power can do the job.

This is all moot however, considering I’ve set this value to any number of digits, including leaving it untouched and the end results are always nearly the same - very poor performance.

5

I dont know why but my RB2011 works great without any wireless cut the speed. Watch mine Speedtests, tested now with the same disatances from the router.

From MikroTik bridged to SpeedPort router

Directly to Main Router, from where i get the internet:

As you see MikroTik has better performances from my main SpeedPort router.

And again, setting the field “Antenna Gain=4” as you do will cause to cut the wireless signal for 4dbi, and cause probably poor wireless speeds. Tnx for negative reputation anyway. :wink:

6

OK, I took your suggestion and removed the antenna gain setting, as well as set the transmit power back to “manual-txpower”

Both of these tests were ran about 10 meters away from the routers, and the routers are sitting practically next to each other:

Here’s the Linksys E4200:

MikroTik RB2011:

7

Both tests are made via Wireless conecction right? Why first and second speedtests are made with diffirent server? Test with the same server, This is mine Wireless configuration.

8
  1. servers are diferent
  2. you can’t obtain 120mbps with 20mhz channel so switch to 20/40Mhz an find a central channel (or switch to auto)
  3. make sure you have both chains active.
9

  1. Correct - I let the speed test auto choose the server. You might notice that the Mikrotik test is to a server which is actually much closer geographically, so if anything it should be FASTER.

  2. This is besides the point - I can’t even obtain 1Mbps in the upload direction!

  3. Have tried toggling the chains - no difference to speak of. They’re currently active, yes.

Please stop arguing with me about minor semantics. I have ran over 100 speed tests to all kinds of servers with all kinds of settings and the result is always the same - PISS POOR UPLOAD PERFORMANCE of 500kbps or so if I move more than 10ft away from the router.

There are about a half dozen other posts in the forum with RB2011 wifi performance issues and no one from Mikrotik has chimed in whatsoever.

At this point I am convinced this is a hardware issue - it’s highly unlikely that a software configuration issue is causing this considering I’ve tried everything there is to try. Ideally someone from Mikrotik would actually chime in and provide an update - if there’s a known issue with the RB2011s then just ADMIT TO IT.

10

I have 5 different RB2011UAS routers in the field, I’ll have to take a look at my wifi configs, but I do remember having a lot of trouble getting wifi to perform decently with these routers. I’m actually about to troubleshoot one in a few minutes. Its definitely not a dumb admin issue. I use a lot of UBNT wifi gear and have far fewer issues with it than I do with microtik wifi gear. However, I like everything else about Microtik routers other than how they handle traffic shaping.

11

Verified that the upload speed on one of my new ones is also about the same. (.6 mbit) I’m wondering if this is a firmware issue and not a hardware one since I don’t remember my older ones being this slow. I think our plan is to go back to the RB750GL and separate non-microtik WAPs. The only reason we moved to the 2011s was to combine hardware to simplify our deployments.

12

My RB2011 managed 1Mb upload with no problems over wifi. Your config looks fine to be honest.
Hate to ask but the network is silent when you’re doing the tests?

13

Some tips:

  • update your routeros to newest
  • enable cm2 package
/interface wireless set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] ampdu-priorities=0,1,6 antenna-gain=4 band=2ghz-b/g/n basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=\
    1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps bridge-mode=disabled country="united states2" disabled=no distance=dynamic frequency=auto frequency-mode=regulatory-domain ht-basic-mcs=\
    mcs-0,mcs-1,mcs-2,mcs-3,mcs-4,mcs-5,mcs-6,mcs-7,mcs-8,mcs-9,mcs-10,mcs-11,mcs-12,mcs-13,mcs-14,mcs-15,mcs-16,mcs-17,mcs-18,mcs-19,mcs-20,mcs-21,mcs-22,mcs-23 l2mtu=1600 mode=ap-
    multicast-helper=full preamble-mode=both wireless-protocol=802.11
14

Export your device settings and post them here. Change IP Addresses and passwords please.

Run /export verbose file=MyFile.rsc

Go to “Files” and copy the above to your desktop to edit.

15

I am experiencing the same problems with my hAP AC. I only achieve an upload speed of 10 Mbps on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels.

What solution did you find? Or isn’t there a solution?

Btw. my old RB950 router had a much better wireless performance.

16

Same wifi performance problems as the first poster. I’m very disappointed. I’ve purchased this router couple days ago and it’s driving me crazy.

17

Check the signal levels and ccq values and correct the settings of you wifi card in notebook. Be sure you have right and fully working driver installed and all important features enabled. All chains, wide channels, short guard interval and so. Make spectral scan to be sure there is no interference and adjust the frequency if necessary according to the scan results.

18

Check the CPU usage.
I’ve found that having the LCD display enabled on some models of the 2011 consumes a lot (50+%) of CPU. This would limit all kind of traffic.

  • Try disabling both LCD and Touch.


    Band: 2GHz-OnlyN ( /int wi set 0 band=2ghz-onlyn )
    HT: All chains enabled ( /int wi set tx-chains=0,1 rx-chains=0,1 )

  • Dont use too much power - or too Little.
    Using too much TX Power can sometimes limit speeds. Usually on 2011’s, 411’s and other routers with 4DBI Antennas I am using TX-Power=All rates fixed, tx-power=10 (or lower if in same room).
    Set antenna-gain back to 0 - it’s just another way of lowering the power.

  • At 2,462 MHz You can only use 20 MHz channel Width. For greater speeds, consider using 20/40MHz Ce. You would need to set frequency to 2412 for that to Work. Will double the speed - IF the signal is good enough

  • Also speed-test frequencies 2412 and 2437

  • Check the signal of the client connected in Wireless/registration - it should be -60’ish or higher for any kind of good speed. This will also change af diff. frequencies (see above)

  • Make sure to get as much line-of-sight as possible. Optimal router height placement I’ve found to be around 2 meters, making it go above most indoor furniture

  • Important, rule out the low speeds, to prevent idle clients to consume radio-time by using too low speeds:
    On the Wireless interface:
    Data Rates:
    Configure
    Supported Rates-B: 5,11 checked
    Basic-Rates-B: 5 checked. Will prevent clients going down to 1/2Mbit speeds when idle.

  • WMM: Enabled. Will provide support for power-saving on mobile devices

  • Important: Wireless interface - Advanced - we need some kind of flow control to better handle multiple clients;
    Hw. protection Mode: Cts to self
    Hw. Protection threshold: 1024

19

Can you set up a LAN speed test? I have to say I’m using an RB2011 now to send this and wirelessly over my iPhone I max my 55/5 connection over wireless.

Can you iperf to really stretch it to its maximum and see how far up it goes?

Once I’m on a laptop I’ll dump my config for you to compare but in general on a dual chain laptop I get burst rates to 300Mb (20/40 Ce with both chains 20dB total output power)