I recently replaced a ubiquiti unifi router with a MikroTik RB5009UPR+S+IN. I have multiple AP’s, one of them being a repurposed technicolo wifi-router/switch that I got from my ISP - nothing fancy but it gets me some signal in the far end of my property. Or at least it did. Since I got my microtik router the wifi from the technicolor is horrendous if I cross a few walls. It’s great when I’m in the same room.
The technicolor is configured as a dumb ap and there’s no interference from neighbors. Again: This used to “just work” with the ubiquiti, so it must be a router thing. I’m guessing I am having some problems on the 2Ghz channel that I weren’t having before, but I honestly don’t understand how the router would affect that. I am no network expert by any measure so I may well be missing something obvious!
What’s the transmit power of the dumb AP? If it works (as in if you get close you access internet) probably it’s power issue, either you can fix it in config by increasing the tx power or get something new.
Are you connecting LAN to LAN and not LAN to WAN? What are the relevant IP addresses and net masks? Have you mad sure you have only 1 DHCP server active?
I doubt it's a routing problem if they can access the internet, OP if you still got the old Ub AP try comparing the signal strength from a specific point in your place, behind a wall or two using signal analyzer app
On one hand I’m glad you say it isn’t a routing problem because I also couldn’t make it make sense. On the other hand it leaves me completely baffled, because the only thing that changed was the router. I didn’t even disconnect the Ethernet cable from the technicolor and the router is on the other end of my property so there’s no way the build in WiFi of the old ubiquity could make a difference.
Gemini suggests a more aggressive policy against package loss is at fault, but I suspect this is pure hallucination..?
Of course it would not work automatically. Ubiquiti and RoS have different ways of handling such things in defaults, such as management vlans.
Without showing us the config setup on the Router, and the APs, any advice given here is useless and correct very premature to sell equipment that would work just fine. The only difference between non MT and MT APs, is that capsman ( an MT protocol ), ensures a bit better roaming experience between APs.
I don't know where 'routing problem' came from. It's unlikely. But you don't start by ruling things out without proving them not relevant. I still think we are at the stage of proving connectivity between the 2 devices without extraneous effects.
Thanks for the helpful reply. I did not expect this to work automatically, in fact I have spend extensive time trying to fix this before posting here. What I am surprised about is that the wifi performance at good vs poor signal strength is affected by the router. An yes, it was probably premature to sell the other router, but I have had the MT for a few weeks and am very happy with it. I had verified that it worked with both my ap’s (a mikrotik cAP ax and the one mentioned here), but it wasn’t until a few days ago I noticed the completely deterioated perfomance under conditions that the AP performed fine under before.
I think I may have replied to you post with a reply that was intended for another user, sorry about that. I don’t know which 2 devices you refer to? There is a very good connection between the router and the ap, and if I am right next to the ap the wifi is awesome! But moving to the next room reduces it to 10% download speed and behind a cupboard to 1%. These obstacles did not affect wifi strength significantly before, hence my surprise.
The router doesn't affect the signal strength of your AP. There's something else going on. Finding out what is not always easy, but starting off with a wrong assumption doesn't help.
People often change multiple things at once, and either discount some of them as having no effect or being minor, or change things without realizing it. And coincidences do happen.
My first thought would be whether there was some sort of manager-managed relationship between the two devices, which may now be severed.
My guess is there is something else that changed between the last time you were able to get the signal from the Technicolor AP "through a few walls".
Given your symptoms, works "great from within the same room", I can't think of a reason that replacing the router with the RB5009 could have had any affect, assuming that you were not previously getting your wif connection from the unspecified ubiquiti unifi router, since at least some of them do have integrated wifi (the edgemax edgerouters do not have wifi built in, but you specified unifi).
How long ago did it last "work" through multiple walls?
I see that lurker888 has posted since I started this (because I got interrupted by something else). I agree with his "coincidence" hypothesis.
Are you using the same mobile device you were using before?
Something may have caused the use of the 5GHz band instead of 2.4, and 5GHz signals don't penetrate as well as 2.4GHz.
Ok, I am actually glad that no one else can figure out a way the router could cause what I am seeing. I’ll admit that I didn’t do a great job of A/B testing the two setups so I guess I’ll just move some things around physically to see if I can optimize, and then file my experience under ghosts or psykokinetics…
I'm actually somewhat annoyed by this kind of setup, if you have a Mikrotik just set the downstream AP to be dumb (and DHCP client, set to static on the server to ease management), at most VLAN tagging on each VAPs.
Now if we have truly on-spec 802.11r/v/k in theory any mix of brands should work
Granted I'm only in a SOHO so no enterprise level setup BUT in my experience even with full single vendor deployment I've yet to find properly roaming setup (the kind where you can walk anywhere across floors while doing video call and experience zero drop off, trying them is a fun pastime tbh)
I successfully connect TPLINK smart APs, to mikrotik without issues.
Trunk port to the AP.
Create vlans for the wifi and one for mgmt ( this is the subnet the AP gets its IP address from ).
All vlans are tagged on the port going to the AP ( ingress filtering yes, frame types - admit only vlan tagged )
If the AP is ubiquiti, it may need a hybrid port, pvid of management vlan, untagged for port going to AP ( ingress filtering no, admit all frames ).
The mikrotik has nothing to do with the wifi coming from the device, if thats screwy thats another issue.
The mikrotik is only supplying an IP address for mgmt and sending traffic back and forth to the internet.