Kind of new with mikrotik here so im turning to you for some feedback about some products.
At the moment im migrating from dd-wrt and using an RB1100AHx4 as my primary router and would like to know wich of these devices would you recommend.
I have two routers acting as access points in my house. One is an Asus RT-AC68U and the other is a Linksys WRT160NL. The asus was the primary for a few years till now. However due to the house being at least 100 years old it has thick old brick walls. Im talking 1m thick. The 5dBi antennas on the 68U do penetrate till some point so i had the 160NL installed on the other side of the house to mostly cover it. Due to the house being T shaped one part of it is a dark zone.
Now when i have a tik as the main router i was thinking of installing 3 access points and maybe using capsman for them.
Now my concerns of the 3 devices. I’ve heard that the hAP ac2 has radio problems. It does have a decent cpu but only 2 chain wireless. Also have those problems been fixed?
The cAP ac has the same chipset as the hAP ac2 and probably the same problems as the hAP ac2. Also only 2 chain wireless.
The wAP ac does have a diffrent chipset but only a single core cpu. Could the cpu become a bottleneck for wifi? It does have 3 chain 5GHz wireless wich i say it’s a plus.
The hAP ac does have both 2.4GHz and 5GHz 3 chain. But again im worried the cpu will be a bottleneck.
Now what woukd you recommend and will any of the problems i listed affect my setup?
I finally have the hAP AC2 getting around 300Megs of throughput. When it first came out, it struggled with 30. LOTS OF FIRMWARE AND ROUTEROS VERSIONS IN BETWEEN.
The hAP AC and wAP AC seem to be CPU limited to about 180Megs.
The cAP AC at my office seems to sit right about where the hAP AC2 does.
BUT and this is a big one.
I have run into quirks where SOME device just WILL NOT WORK CONSISTENTLY with a Mikrotik WAP. I will take the exact same settings and apply them to another brand of access point. Including. Ruckus/Ubnt/Araknis/Linksys and have no problems at ALL.
When I recently contacted support with sup files… their complete indifference cost us the job. It took several days for support to email back “put the unit in standalone mode”, with no explanation as to why. When I asked for calcification as to what I was supposed to try… it took several days to get “Yes Put it in standalone mode.” Since that… silence. My initial email to support explained all the trouble shooting I had done already… I even posted it in the forums and it has been ignored by staff.
While Mikrotik makes exceptional routers… I am really learning the hard way that the wireless and more importantly the support for the wireless, is EXTREMELY LACKING.
wAP ac is a good device but it is indeed bottlenecked by cpu.
With VLAN’s configured it can deliver about 200mbit when two chains are used.
Haven’t tested it with three chains thou.
I think you’d better go with newer devices: cAP ac or hAP ac2 (depending on where you would like to mount AP’s) - most of their “early” wireless issues seem to be resolved by now.
I was thinking of using 3 access points, one in each corner of the T shaped house so i could get some wireless outside. The issue where tik won’t work consistently with some devices scares me a bit tho being that i have a mixed variety of devices (lenovo tablet, couple of samsung phones, an xiaomi phone, asus laptop and so forth).
Two aps would be ceeling mounted and one would probably sit on a desk where the main router is located.
A nother question regarding the hAP ac2: can it be used with capsman and be used as a switch at the same time if i would plug in any laptops or other wired junk if i neded an umph in speed?
Something I think many people underestimate is the value of starting with the defaults for many of the wireless tweaks. As an example, on a new wAP AC setup I thought the “Enable WMM” setting (default disabled) controlled APSD, which I explicitly wanted for the battery-powered devices on site, so I enabled it. Turns out it doesn’t, WMM APSD is always enabled; that setting actually controls WMM priority queues, and one specific Samsung device at the location didn’t like that at all and would periodically end up in a disassociate/associate loop.
So on one hand, you’re less likely to have problems with defaults. On the other hand, there are obviously some incompatibilities involving things like WMM priority support, so if that’s something you need…