Hi,
I recently bought Chateau 5G ax (S53UG+M-5HaxD2HaxD-TC&RG502Q-EA) and I am not able to force it to use 80 or 160MHz wide channels for 5GHz WiFi. No matter the channel frequency configuration, it always uses single 20MHz channel. Or, simply tells me “no available channels”.
I’ve had similar issues with MikroTiks in the past, and always resorted to simply buying dedicated UniFi APs and turning off WiFi on MikroTik completely. I hope I can manage to fix MikroTik WiFi this time though… It’s extremely finicky, but it would be nice to have everything in a single device.
I would like to use purely 5GHz AX (WiFi 6) ir at worst AC (WiFi 5), no 2.4GHz.
Any ideas?..
NOTE: I live in a fairly isolated garden-house and 5GHz utilization is not an issue: I cannot see any other SSIDs/APs in the spectrum other than my own.
If you do a export config and remove sensitive info you will probably get an answer. Can’t guess what is wrong with config if we can’t see your current config.
Same wireless chip is in ax2, ax3 and cap ax. This chip supports 80 MHz channel width max.
Export your configurartion here so we can have a look.
Of course, sorry for my tardiness, config export is mandatory with such issues. Attached.
Same wireless chip is in ax2, ax3 and cap ax. This chip supports 80 MHz channel width max.
OK, 80MHz would also be fine… Just please not 20MHz.
config.txt (7.71 KB)
I’ve also just added a custom channel configuration like this:
Still running only 20MHz wide…
Try to set your frequency to 5180MHz (CH36) as this channel supports 80 MHz width and it’s not DFS.
Why your 2.4 GHz radio doesn’t have SSID ?
Still shows up as 20MHz in scan (5170-5190)
I want to completely disable 2.4GHz radio, thus I disabled the interface and removed SSID from it.
What happened if you set your channel to 40 MHz ?
The same: in scan, I see one 20MHz channel present. Although, help me understand: while scans show single 20MHz-wide channel occupied, the MikroTik itself says it is running on eeCe channel, for example 5220/ac/eeCe (if I set AC mode). By all means, eeCe should mean 80MHz, right? Then which should I believe: radio scans or MikroTik?
My devices negotiate 780Mbps link speeds under -62dBm signal strength conditions.
What radio scan are you using?
I think your device is not completely configured. I.e. you didn’t specify country code on the 5GHz radio.
With a rate of 780 Mbps your device is using 80MHz width…
In regards to getting 160MHz (bigger is not always better, I prefer to use 40MHz on the 5GHz radios myself), you can only use channel 36 (5180) or 100 (5500).
Currently a simple WiFi analyzer software on Windows PC with Intel AX200 160MHz adapter.
True. I have temporarily removed country from configuration just to remove any possible restrictions (in the past, MikroTik allowed me to do more with "NO_COUNTRY_SET" than what was possible with contry configured). Is this still the case?
Thought so... It means my concerns are not based on reality, but rather on false reporting of certain scan tools.
Yep, but since I have nothing ruining the picture on 5GHz band, I wish to utilize it to the max., and avoid running additional cables between rooms and devices.
On the 2.4GHz band, however, I have a security system with 14 devices (3 more planned), some of which are surveillance cameras, and that is why I want to avoid putting anything else in that range. Not to mention few more devices such as wireless headset are also in the same 2.4GHz range.
So, 2.4GHz dedicated for security system and few other things.
5GHz for high-speed data transfers, such as 4k streaming from NAS to TV, large file transfers between laptops and NAS etc.
As @erlinden stated, with 780Mbps you are using 80 MHz channel width.
I always scan with android app, never used windows apps. As far as i know no ax device from mikrotik supports 160MHz channel (i think all devices uses same wireless radio except ax lite, ax lite lte)
So leave on 80 MHz channel width if you wish.
OK, great, thanks for your insights, I like learning stuff like this.
Will leave it like this and test with all my devices. Maybe I will be able to sell my UniFi AP 6 Pro if this config proves to be stable and performant enough.
BTW, anyone else here had serious experience comparing various high-end MikroTik and UniFi wireless devices for SOHO? What is the general consensus?
My experience so far is that UniFi usually works absolutely flawlessly right out of the box, while MikroTik can be just as good, but you often have to tinker with it quite a lot to reach that point.
That’s because with Ubiquiti you have OS that does a lot of things “behind the scene” and it’s much more user friendlier than ROS where when you f*ck something up you can have a lot of trouble diagnosing the problem. (Talking about someone who is new in networking)
I myself didn’t believe how wireless can be tricky, all because I used “home” routers with fancy GUI, heck I had ubiquiti, click click network is up… want guest network ? Click, done. But with Mikrotik is more about click, of f*ck i locked myself out experience at the begining 
Oh yes 
I work mostly with Fortinet gear and their WiFi APs, which I would say are not really beginner level, but MikroTik is another cosmos entirely… It’s not that MikroTik is so much more complicated or so much more difficult… It’s the way things are put together and the way they are presented to you — oh my that particular level of crazy I have not found anywhere else so far 
Which is not a bad thing in itself, you just have to be ready for the experience and know what you are getting into.
Like the fact that they ship a router with external antennas unscrewed, and then put giant warnings to not power on the device without connecting the antennas first. I realize there probably is a good reason for that, for example this may be helpful for small ISPs and other customers who immediately connect their own external antenna anyway (I did the same thing), but again, coming from more of a “plug and play” experience of consumer-oriented Ubiquiti line or some other brands, this requires a mental shift.
Yea, they put warning because there is a very high chance that you will fry radio electronics onboard because all that RF energy won’t have anywhere to go. Actually really good thing from Mikrotik to put warning up.
My first real touch with networking is with Mikrotik as networking is not my profession (electronics is) and my opinion is that if you really want to learn something about networking Mikrotik is a way to go.
I fully agree. I’m just saying in this case maybe they would want to ship the device with antennas already attached, rather than unscrewed and bouncing around in the same box
Yea, I agree, but i would still left warning on, just because it’s possible to remove antenna from the router. And you can bet that 99% of the people will unscrew them if they want to add another antenna while the router is on.
Yep, completely agree.
Sorry if this is getting too off-topic, but I don’t know if creating new topic just for this question would make any sense…
So as I said, I connected an external LTE antenna to Chateau 5G AX (it’s this one: https://www.quwireless.com/product/QuPanel-LTE-HP-MIMO-2x2). Should I set the antenna gain anywhere manually?
And in general, somehow I remember having much more settings regarding wireless stuff in previous high-end (consumer oriented) MikroTik models than I can find in this new one. Maybe some settings were shuffled around in GUI? Or is it because of the new WiFi and LTE chipsets?