Proper way to set up switching and basic Wifi in US

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

I have a 751G with wireless configured as follows:

# jun/24/2012 11:37:15 by RouterOS 5.17
# software id = IF88-3FIN
#
/interface wireless
set 0 antenna-mode=rxa-txb band=2ghz-b/g/n bridge-mode=disabled channel-width=20mhz country=\
    "united states" dfs-mode=no-radar-detect disabled=no distance=indoors \
    frequency=2462 ht-rxchains=0,1 ht-supported-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" \
    ht-txchains=0,1 l2mtu=2290 mode=ap-bridge preamble-mode=short ssid=\
    "Popular Street" wireless-protocol=802.11
/interface wireless security-profiles
set [ find default=yes ] authentication-types=wpa2-psk mode=dynamic-keys \
    supplicant-identity=MikroTik
/interface wireless align
set receive-all=yes ssid-all=yes

When transferring large files from wired server to wireless devices it barely manages 2.0MB/sec. Should it not be much faster than this with G/N devices? Are there recommended settings for a basic home AP in the US with regards to channel width, protocol, etc?


With regards to switching, it is my understanding that it is more efficient to use master/slave ports and the switch chip vs bridging the ports?

With a 450G and two gigabit connected hosts it manages 24MB/sec transfer rate (using scp, both hosts with SSD). Am I doing something wrong? There is no bridge setup.

# jun/24/2012 11:45:11 by RouterOS 5.17
# software id = ZVZM-1FV7
#
/interface ethernet
set 0 name=ether1-wan
set 1 name=ether2-switch-master
set 2 master-port=ether2-switch-master name=ether3-switch
set 3 master-port=ether2-switch-master name=ether4-switch
set 4 name=ether5-apnet
/interface ethernet switch
set 0 switch-all-ports=no

Using the Bandwidth Test between the two routers, using the 450G as server and 751G as client, the UDP receive throughput is 210Mbps. Again, this seems slow, but I am not sure.


Thank you for any advice!

2

“G” should do at least 3 MB/s

“N” should do at least 10 MB/s or 20MB/s, depending if you are doing 150 or 300

So, if you are getting 2MB/s with G, then it is pretty close to the max. If you are getting 2MB/s with N, then something is definately wrong.

3

If you don’t need the B/G functionality switch it off - i.e. select N only - often yields a throughput increase.

Have a look at the channels in use around you first using something like inSSIDer:

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssideR-wifi-scanner/

You can either select a single 20 MHz channel (say channel 1 - 2412 MHz) or a 20/40 MHz combination. e.g. if you select the frequency to 2412 MHz and select 20/40 MHz HT Above then the system will use 2412 MHz as the primary channel for both 20 & 40 MHz clients and will use 4 channels above (Channel 5 - 2432 MHz) as the secondary channel for the 40 MHz clients. inSSIDer gives a visual representation of that which helps.

Try to avoid doing any speed tests with the WiFi client right beside the AP. Consumer gear often shows non-linearity on the RF side at such high signal strengths. Keeping the client say 10’/3m away should avoid the worst of that.

4

+1. The max with 802.11g is, of course, 54mbit but typically you only get just over half that due to overhead. I usually average no more than 2.6MB/s over G.