I’ve been running CAPsMAN with RB3011 and 2 cAP AC and 1 wAP AC. There is an unmanaged TP Link PoE Switch that powers the CAPs. I have 300/300mbps connection with 100/100 backup link. I’ve tested all the cables and none seem to be causing the problem. I’ve also tried using the included PoE injector directly to RB3011 but there is no difference in performance. I’ve been having weird speed dropouts across the network. From what I’ve read so far, CAPsMAN is known to cause some speed drop but my situation is kind of absurd. If I connect directly to the RB3011 through an ethernet cable, I get the full 300/300 speed test. However, when I connect to the wifi, I am only getting like 60/70mbps speed test. Sometimes, after a reboot, the speed may occasionally shoot up to 160/140mbps but after a few minutes of the system being on, it again drops to 60/70mbps. I suspected that a cable might be bad but all CAPs and RB3011 report the link as 1Gbps and hence, It is beyond my understanding.
Here is an export of my CAPsMAN config. can share other config if required.
I’ve tried enabling local forwarding and Client to Client forwarding to no avail. I hope to get a better understanding of what is wrong with my config and if it is possible to get at least half of the speed that I pay for over wifi.
Local Forwarding Seems to have no affect on performance at least when the devices are connected through the PoE Switch
In my area, 5G is a noman's land and hence, the entire spectrum is available, 2.4G is highly crowded so we avoid using any 2.4 devices and rather use ethernet wherever possible. However, i've pinned 2.4 to 2437 (Channel 6) as this one seems the least crowded of all.
I don't know how to lower the power of 2.4G radio, kindly enlighten me.
I skipped the legacy channels in capsman config, it seems to have improved the situation to some extent, now I at least get consistent 160/180 on mobile and 100/110 on desktop/laptop devices.
Thanks for all your help, any additional pointers are highly appreciated.
On the 2.4G radio only use channels 1, 6 or 11. Those are the only non-overlapping channels (because of adjacent channels).
From the client overview it seems that the 2.4GHz channel is set to 40MHz (extension channel), though your config looks fine. Can you please check that?
I would always advice to set fixed frequency and fixed extension channels. That is the only way to ensure what is happening in your wireless network (apart from channel swaps caused by radar detection).
Everyone asks the auto frequency list question but nobody answers it.
In frequency, enter a frequency and click the down arrow and enter more frequencies. That’s it.
I should state that capsman allows frequencies to be constructed in a separate frequencies panel. You tie all the panels together at the highest level through the reference name
ACv1 on really basic radios. The proprietary driver also brings about other “quirks”.
Unless you have very very few clients and a completely empty radio spectrum… You should really change wifi vendors.
It pains me to admit it. But it also cost me thousands of dollars to pretend it wasn’t “that bad”.
The new ACv2 driver that is in the development channel, (For WifI 5) has been able to give me the “best wireless performance I have seen from a Mikrotik radio.” Or to put it more succinctly, it gives me the performance of a 2016 radio from other cheap vendors at that time.
With today’s WiFi6 and 6e looming… I really can’t grasp the Mikrotik “apologists” stance on radios. It’s called ROUTEROS for a reason.
So that’ll mean I set up multiple DFS frequencies under the “frequency” option in CAPsMAN > Configurations > Channel tab and that’s all? I’m sorry if I sound stupid, I really have no clue about this.
It makes me sad that I trusted mikrotik (ignoring the advice from vendor and not choosing ubiquiti) for the home network upgrade. If I had known all of this earlier, I’d have gone for some other vendor for the access points and the controller while still using something like 4011 for routing and other uses. I guess I’m among those unfortunate ones who are stuck with it for the time being until I could provision to just scrap all the cAP ACs and buy something else. lesson well learnt, never gonna ignore what vendor says.
Whatever whichever vendor says is always biased (at least a little). So the best is to learn the whole lot and then make own educated decission. Which is impossible feat by itself because you’d have to know far too much about far too many possible solutions. The next to best is to get a vendor you trust and go with their advices regardless your own dilemmas. Because vendor knows their stuff, right?
If I was a vendor, I’d advise to use Mikrotik gear And I, as a user, would not follow that advice for all types of equipment.
Pretty sure the company I work for, qualifies as a Vendor.
And as a vendor… I will very much advise AGAINST THE USE OF MIKROTIK WIRELESS. As it has caused a lot of problems for us, and clients. Which has lead to Financial Losses.
This ain’t my idea of fun. So paying a customer to do the job for him… Does not appeal
but what to do if the vendor says. If you’re buying mikrotik anyway, I won’t accept a return for the reason “wifi performance is not good”. I still thought it was just due to someone not being able to configure their 'tik properly and whining about it. I was wrong to have thought that way I guess?
To apply that logic…
LG makes a fantastic looking TV. Would you even pretend their speakers don’t sound like crap?
Every piece of your car is not made by the same manufacturer.
I would have a serious conversation with the vendor… And let him try.
And when it falls apart I would show him the emails from Mikrotik that told me that they could not deal with the “environment” I work in. Yet as soon as I yanked the caps and went back to my other manufacture all my problems vanished.
As @gotsprigns writes (and I also mentioned in the part you chose not to quote): not everything from single manufacturer is perfect. And … as I also hinted: it all boils down to whether you can really trust your vendor on their advice or not. And sometimes one finds out that the hard way (paying for mistake of trusting the vendor). Generally I’d trust more to vendors who will accept returns not only for warranty but also for unfitness for particular use. Not many do.
There are also other possibilities: a friend whom you praise to be an expert on networking … specially so if (s)he agrees to cover your back if things go south.
The worst possibility is to seek advice from total strangers on random internet forums. This possibility is not as bad if you do have pretty good general knowledge about the topic you’re researching (so you can do educated assessment whether the input you’re getting is good or bad) and/or you have history on forum and you’re sure about expert level of certain forum members.
Either way, if you make a mistake, then most of times it’s you who’s paying for it.
And I, as a user, would not follow that advice for all types of equipment.