WiFi Issues hAP ac

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

I have been using a couple of RB951G-2HnD’s for the last year- one as an AP, the other as a station.
These have been running solidly with no problem.

I recently purchased an hAP ac- as an upgrade in bandwidth - have to admit, bandwidth not really an issue on the current devices though.

I get a weird problem, where one of my computer drops about 5 pings to the hAP (or beyond) every 10-15 pings. My other computers are not affected, nor is my iPhone.
Although I drop pings, I don’t lose the wifi connection, and I can remain connected to the hAP using Winbox throughout (MAC Address?)

ip arp print shows the laptop’s MAC address, but if I run it while pings are being dropped, the mac address is not present for the laptop

I have tried SW 6.36.4, 6.37.2, and 6.37.3. Also Firmware 3.31 and 3.34. I get the same issue on all.
I’ve also tried the 2.4 and 5Ghz radio- same issue on both.

I’ve tried factory default settings, and also some of the QuickSet settings, again same issue.

The laptop having issues is a Dell XPS15 with the latest Network drivers (Dell Wireless 1830 802.11ac )

So, to recap, this laptop has no issues with the RB951G-2HnD’s, but doesn’t play nicely with the hAP ac.

Open to suggestions, additional log collection, things to try…

Andrew

2

Odd that the laptop’s mac is not in the router’s arp list while pinging it from the laptop. Without an arp address, and when pinging from the Mikrotik to the laptop, you should sometimes but not always receive host unreachable as the Mikrotik doesn’t know the mac of the laptop.

setting a static arp entry on both the Mikrotik and laptop will determine if issue is related to arp.

In the wireless registration list on the Mikrotik, you can view the negotiated tx and rx speeds for your laptop. Also tx and rx signal strength. A bad antenna in the laptop could mean really poor signal strength and would behave as if you were far from the AP. Laptop work on other APs ok?

When using Winbox and connecting via MAC, your connection is state-less, so dropped packets are simply as if they didn’t happen. Maybe dropped packets are ok and only noticable if you pay attention to stats not updating every second like they normally do. If connecting with IP (TCP) then dropped packets are re-sent.