RB2011UiAS-2HnD-IN but no wireless access point?

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

I recently purchased two RB2011UiAS-2HnD-IN routers, they shipped with RouterOS v6.36.3 but neither show up as available wireless networks, no SSID broadcast, no wireless connectivity.

Fairly new to RouterOS but a quick learner and gone from newbie to fairly confident on a couple RBxx (non-wireless) routers over the last six+ months, one in a data centre has been flawless!

I thought out of the box with default settings the wireless adapter would broadcast and be available to connect, I tried changing various basic config., changed to Home AP in quick settings, checked SSID broadcast settings, manually set frequency etc.

At v6.36.3 one of them showed only wireless-cm2, the other had both wireless-cm2 and wireless-fp (enabled by default), I tried enabling the other wireless library but the result was the same, I also tried upgrading one to latest v6.37.3 which now only shows ‘wireless’, same result, no SSID broadcast and no connectivity.

Also tried resetting entire router to factory default OS and config. on both RouterOS versions, I haven’t tried downgrading further than what was supplied.

If I run various wireless scanning on the routers they pick up an existing access point and various other data, so the wireless radio works to a degree, one of them also showed up very briefly on my MacBook (which can be reliably slow in finding new networks and then realising they are no longer available), but I had turned the router off by the time it showed up and haven’t been able to “see” it since.

I haven’t tried connecting without the SSID showing, just manually specifying the network, but this is not acceptable in the install environment anyway, the SSID needs to be broadcast.

If you disable and enable the adapter, the WebFig wireless shows ‘initialising’ ‘searching frequencies’ etc and ‘running ap’ within only a second or so, but the LCD status for that interface stays on either ‘initialising’ or ‘searching frequencies’ and never changes from that, it changes back to disabled if you disable the adapter, but when re-enabled doesn’t progress past the initialising stages, this could be just an LCD display thing, but it is inconsistent with WebFig and the LCD status is inline with no SSID available so I thought worth mention.

Just wondering if I’m missing something obvious..?

Or is there a problem with these routers and I should send them back..

Strange that two would both be DOA purchased new, but given the inconsistencies I’m just not sure - these are my first wireless MikroTik products, but I also have an OmniTik 5 which out of the box shows up as expected, I thought these RB2011 units should be the same as far as basic wireless access being available and broadcasting straight out of the box with factory defaults.

It’s like they work, but not completely.. Any help, advice, etc would be greatly appreciated.

2

please post your wireless configuration.

3

This is default on the v6.36.3 RB2011 router which hasn’t been upgraded..

/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] band=2ghz-b/g/n channel-width=20/40mhz-Ce
disabled=no distance=indoors frequency=auto mode=ap-bridge ssid=
MikroTik-51EF14 wireless-protocol=802.11

I checked the upgraded v6.37.3 RB2011 and it’s exactly the same with exception of SSID having different partial MAC address at the end of course. And also the OmniTik 5 is very similar with different SSID and the band is 5GHz-a/n, of all three at these factory defaults only the OmniTik shows as an available wireless network.

4

Maybe a screenshot from Winbox Wireless menu?

What you posted seems to show the AP is running fine. Is your laptop supporting 2GHz at all? OmniTik is 5GHz only.

5

Apologies for the tardy responses, I appreciate all feedback just a little busy at the moment..

The WinBox screen shot doesn’t really show up much more as it’s just default config. at this point without any tweaks, given the following I didn’t post it at this stage.

I am mainly testing from MacBook Pro and iPhone app that scans for and shows info. on any available wireless networks - they both support 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless.

What I have found out through some trial and investigation is that if the frequency is set to ‘auto’ or any of the first few manual settings (2412, 2417, 2422, 2427) the wireless network just doesn’t show up!

However if I change it to the higher frequencies (2432, 2437, 2442, 2447, 2452) it shows as available, I can connect, traffic works, etc.. Also (referring to my original notes) the LCD status for the wireless interface now changes to ‘running ap’ rather than being stuck on ‘searching for frequencies’.

The OmniTik doesn’t seem to care, on ‘auto’ or any (I tried a few but not all of them) random manual frequencies it works fine.

So excuse my lack of knowledge, having worked with a lot of network technology this is the first time a wireless access point has offered so much control!

Any pointers on what ‘auto’ tries to do, and why would certain frequencies be completely unavailable like that?

I do have other equipment operating in that range, but I would expect some conflicts to reduce signal strength etc, not completely disable transmission, and I have tried it with most of the other devices turned off (those that I can) to avoid conflicts (they include a Netcomm 2.4Ghz WAP, a cordless phone system - Uniden “network” of R055 handset boosters, and a Sonos music system wireless “mesh”), but that made no difference.

Happy to do some more research but any pointers on where to look, what terms to Google, in order to move in the right direction and learn more about what is happening would be very much appreciated.