I’ve been a loyal MikroTik user for years, and never had wifi issues but but my recent experience with the hAP ax² has been frustrating. Since day one, I’ve been dealing with WiFi disconnect issues that aren’t related to signal strength or distance from the AP—all my devices are in the same location with excellent signal quality. Yet, I keep seeing “disconnected, connection lost” notifications without any clear cause.
After testing various firmware versions, the most stable I’ve found is 7.14.3. However, when I upgraded to the latest 7.16.1, I had a pretty terrible experience. The disconnects became so frequent that I nearly considered throwing the router away! It was especially embarrassing during work meetings, where I’d get disconnected mid-sentence while presenting.
So, I have a question for everyone here, as I assume some of you might have had similar experiences: Should I stick with 7.14.3 and ignore new releases until a stable solution comes out?
Also, does anyone know if MikroTik plans to officially announce a firmware release to install once the WiFi issues are permanently fixed?
experience with the hAP ax² has been frustrating. Since day one, I’ve been dealing with WiFi disconnect issues that aren’t related to signal strength or distance from the AP—all my devices are in the same location with excellent signal quality.
Not sure what signal strength you get here. Your configuration may allow for different 5GHz channels to be used, in an uncontrolled way. And for the hAP ax² and ax³ the power of those channels vary from 30dBm to 14dBm , or in other words can be 1000mW to 25mW strong/weak with the same configuration setting. The ac series normally had no 25mW channels allowed.
The 25mW channels are for Europe, and in some ROS7.xx version (some 7.14) upgrade they changed the default country from US to Latvia (Europe). So suddenly you face the potential of very weak signals, which cannot be seen with the configuration only. (Channel selection can be dynamic)
To avoid the weak 5GHz channels, Restrict the allowed channels to the 5100-5700 range !!!
Check the status for the transmission strength and registration table for the received signal strength.
Value in registration table greater than -30dBm (e.g. -29dBm) is too strong and will also cause disconnects
Why (the heck) are most people here on the forum obsessed with updating?
Besides the obvious mistakes the good Mikrotik guys insist on making, pushing out new versions without appropriate testing, and mixing all together, without even an attempt to prioritize them, new features, bug fixes, half-@ssed experimental additions and what not, it seems to me like many users believe in the fallacy of “new is better” which may, or It may not be true in all cases.
1)You have a working setup? Do not update.
2)There is a needed security fix? Update.
3)There is a new feature that you need or only want to try? Update but be ready to go back to #1 or #2 if something that was working has become worse or doesn’t work anymore.
I appreciate the advice about WPA3 – I had already disabled it, but unfortunately, the issue persisted. (Also I ave a question why to disable WPA3? I have seen a lot of references on this, mikrotik does not support WPA3? what is the problem on this? supposed to be wifi6 secure device. )
Regarding the signal strength this is an example: disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -52
Not sure how to restrict the allowed channels to the 5100-5700 range? When I click on the channel setting does not list anything.
If there is a good tutorial
That said, staying on top of firmware updates has become absolutely essential for me, particularly because I have several services exposed to the internet. Security is critical, and regular updates are a priority to help keep everything as safe as possible. Keeping firmware current should not only ensures stability but also helps protect against vulnerabilities, which is especially important when external access is involved.
Yep, I understand, but due to the way Mikrotik creates the updates (since they “mix” bug fixes with new features) just updating because a new version came out can actually be less safe.
The same new feature that creates the instability (whatever it is) may well - for all we know - introduce a new vulnerability.
