I am seeing a really odd issue/conflict between the new iPhone XS and the Mikrotik WAP ac (RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD) currently running 6.43.2.
The iPhone XS does not work well with the Mikrotik on 5GHz, the problem seems worst on 80MHz channels (Ceee) and the absolute worst is in the higher frequency channels. In general the iPhone XS does not work reliably with the Miktorik in the 5GHz, the only other access point I have to test with is an Asus RT-N56U that only supports 40MHz channels. The phone works “fine” on the Asus, but most of the time on the Mikrotik it fails to communicate.
It is odd that none of my other devices have this issue, including iPad Air, iPhone SE, iPhone 8, iPhone X…those all work fine. So it is either something about the Mikrotik is out of expectation or the iPhone XS is, but it is odd that the iPhone XS works fine on the ASUS as well.
I notice you don’t have a country set for your wireless interface. You should set that, otherwise the interface may be able to select a frequency that is not allowed in your country and the phone may then refuse to connect. There are other potential issues, but that jumps out as a possibility.
This model is hard coded to “united states3”. I have 3 of these, but oddly one does allow country selection (even though it is supposed to be hard coded).
It is really odd that if I use 2.4GHz with all settings “similar” between the two networks, the 2.4GHz works every time (within the bandwidth constraints of 2.4GHz). I prefer to not use 2.4GHz due to performance and interference in the urban environment.
To make this even more unusual, it works for “local” network traffic (e.g. the phone can open up the Webfig of my router) but fails for anything over the Internet…even though all other devices work fine. To test locally I open the Webfig splash page for my router (RouterBOARD 750G r3) and for the Internet test it is as simple as using the whatip.me site.
Noise floor using the “Frequency Usage” report on the AP I am actively connecting to shows -104 to -100, with the highest frequencies (that I am attempting to use in this AP location) having the lowest usage.
This problem gets even more unusual, as it really seems to be something about the IPv6 tunnel I have from Hurricane Electric. Which even makes less sense when it works over 2.4GHz.
Whatever the problem is, it only affects 802.11AC connections. “N” works perfectly. Really odd. Experiencing these exact symptoms when connected via “AC”.
I don’t believe the phone is at fault as I use Unifi AC Pros on 80MHz channels at work and a test one at home and the phone works fine when connected to them.
OMG… I cannot believe I just stumbled actress this link.
We are having the exact same problems as mentioned by @effndc.
We have 9 MK APs of various types. All running 6.43, with matching 6.43 firmware. All running multiple SSID 5Ghz/80MHz channels (along with 2.4GHz service) with the same SSID name (plus a bunch of virtual channels of various SSID names). Been stable for a very long time. We have a number of iPhoneX, iPads, MacBook Pros, etc and for the past month, some iPhone Xs and iPhone XsMax. Everything works perfectly EXCEPT the “s” models. These units are barely usable on the MK framework. As mentioned, the “s” models work good on the local LANs, but Internet usage is a constant nightmare. Browsers don’t connect, iCloud and other services report “unable to connect,” email reports unable to reach servers, etc, etc, etc.
We have been working with Apple tier II and III to solve this problem, supplying them with logs and such. We have exchanged one Xs and one XsMax to make sure we are not dealing with defective hardware. We have groomed apps in the event one or more was causing a problem. We have done “restore to new iPhone” more times than I can remember. I have checked every MK config, including the “wireless”, “bridges” all firewalls (IPv4 and IPv6) to the point that I am have bad dreams about them. The iPhoneXs and iPhoneXsMax are unusable on the MK framework at this time…
However, I did find a totally unacceptable workaround. As I was going through the settings of an iPhoneXsMax and wanted to see if I could get to our remote network on the East Coast (I am out West). I established a L2TP VPN connection to our Boston location (which also has MK) and it connected just fine. The interface is configured to send all traffic via the tunnel. I noticed after a few mins that I no longer had issues… it was totally working for everything. So, I dropped the VPN and established a new VPN to my local router (which is generally only used for inbound connections.) Again, working 100%…yup 100%… when I dropped the connection, back to not working again.
This is an urgent problem that need to be addressed asap. The new iPhones are not viable on the MK framework at this time. If MK believes this is an Apple issue, I have a way to get it to the appropriate people, but I must have details of what needs addressing… but given these new Apple devices seem to have no issue on other frameworks, I think this is a MK issue.
@philamonster I can confirm that IOS 12.0.1 does fix the disconnct problem contained in the release notes link you suggested. However, it does not fix the issue being discussed in this topic.
Xs models are still seeing issues using when attached to Mikrotik 5GHz 80MHz AC configurations.
I agree with @harvey: 6.44beta does not fix this problem.
Only workaround right now is to configure your radios to any of the 5GHz-A/N settings. No “AC”. This impacts all 5GHz users, but lets the new Xs models at least function.
I don’t have an iPhone Xs to test with but does knocking the 5Ghz down to a 40Mhz channel width make any difference? I could see this potentially being an issue for some of our customers. I do run the 2.4 and 5Ghz on separate SSIDs so can just tell them use the 2.4Ghz radio for now.
Any of the “AC” bands are a problem at all channel widths. We see it on both 20/40/80MHz and 20/40MHz channel widths (regardless of center channel config). The Xs models will work if you use any of A/N bands and any channel width. AC is the problem.
Our config uses the same SSID for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, so our users do not have a choice of radios.
I have exactly same problem with my iPhone XS (bought from official european distributor). Problem exists on iOS 12.0 and 12.0.1.
My Mikrotik cAP AC is running 6.43.2 - software and firmware, and previously was running one of the recent 6.43 release candidates.
This is specific problem of Mikrotik and iPhone XS, as my other phones (iPhone X, iPad Pro) running same iOS version (12.0.1) are working fine with this Mikrotik AP, also my ASUS RT-AC86U is working properly with iPhone XS.
This setup (cAP AC) was stable for months and only iPhone XS is having problems here.
I’m using:
5GHz-A/N/AC
20/40/80MHz XXXX
5180
L2MTU 1600
MTU 1500
Yup… You are seeing exactly what we have been discussing… only the Xs and XsMax impacted. And the problem seems to exist across all of the Mikrotik platforms. Although it seems to strongly suggest this is a MIkrotik problem, I am not 100% certain that Apple may also be doing something that is out of spec. My other office is 100% Cisco, and the Xs and XsMax works fine.
Until they fix it, trying setting your radio to:
5GHZ-A/N
20/40MHZ XX
<any frequency, etc will work>
-or-
I have found that if you create an L2TP VPN service on your router, and connect the “Xs” to it, that seems to work even on AC setups… but that is totally unacceptable to me.
I did set 802.11A/N with 40MHz channel width as a temporary workaround.
I believe I have noticed that connecting iPhone XS via VPN over Mikrotik router on 802.11ac radio also “workarounds” the problem. I cannot prove it as I don’t have time for this now, but it seems like some MTU/Packet size related issue to me, especially that websites don’t work properly but SPEEDTEST app shows ~ 300Mbps in download.
MIKROTIK support should easily reproduce this problem.