At school, I have tried connecting 23 Chromebooks to one cAP ac https://mikrotik.com/product/cap_ac.
Those are broadcasting at two frequencies at 2,4 Ghz and 5 Ghz with two separate Wi-fi points.
Judging by specs, in theory, one cAP ac should be able to provide internet for 23 Chromebooks as it provides 300 Mbps via 2,4Ghz and 867 Mps via 5Ghz channel.
In reality, it can’t. I had some PCs connect and show exclamation mark while others showing full signal, but nothing would open. I have tried to leverage between the two points.
There were times when all Chromebooks just dropped connection. It wasn’t dependent on the websites, as I’ve tried opening both local and international. No student was video streaming or doing some heavy networking as I walked between the rows and checked both internet connection and what students were doing. By testing our overall speed on Speed Test I had 350 Mbps available for our school. Our overall speed from ISP is 800 Mbps. I assumed I reached max client.
The same happened with 20 pcs Windows 11 notebooks. Can someone share on what should be improved. I need every classroom to support anywhere from 20 to 30 student Chromebooks at the same time.
Install wave2 drivers. Huge difference.
As for settings:
I would limit your width to max 40MHz on 5Ghz, 20MHz on 2.4GHz.
Maybe even go for 20/10 … maximum 100Mbps/50Mbps speed should be more then enough for a Chromebook.
Don’t use WPA unless you really must. It’s slower then WPA2.
2.4GHz: don’t use auto. See which frequency is the least used and set it manually.
2.4GHz, only use 802.11n if possible, b/g makes things slower.
Install wave2 drivers. Huge difference.
I’m still very confused by the Wi-Fi packages. I’ve just upgraded a RB2100UiAS router running CAPsMAN with four cAP ac access points. On upgrading to ROS v7.14, I’ve got “routeros” and “wireless” packages on all devices. Is this the legacy Wi-Fi drivers? On my hAP ax2 at home, I’ve got “wifi-qcom”. Is this the new name for Wave2? On the documentation, it says Wave2 was v7.12 and older and it’s now just called “WiFi”?
So are you saying I can run newer drivers on this set-up as, like the original post, we’re using cAP ac access points?
Later… found this article so looks like one can… any downsides?
https://www.reddit.com/r/mikrotik/comments/18un0dr/just_upgraded_cap_ac_to_wifiwave2/
Later still… the light dawns! Removed wireless on a cAP ac and added wifi-qcom-ac and voila, new drivers on cAP ac. Not supported on things like hAP ac/lite as they’re MIPSBE/SMIPS and the driver isn’t supported there. Finally got it!