I know this has been talked about a lot in the forums how the wifi on the RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN has some quirks. Is there any confirmation of a bug? I still want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong. It seems something as simple as having the frequency on the 5Ghz set to auto makes it unstable, whereas setting a specific frequency makes it more stable. And other very minute seeming changes can suddenly make it drop out completely and hang on 'initializing'. It way more temperamental than I expected from pro level gear, to the point that when it's working I'm afraid to touch anything. I just wondered if I was the only one, or is this a known issue?

Having the device set to Auto is probably the worst way of operating the unit. It needs to be configured correctly otherwise it'll be all over the place.
Please give some details or config you have as an example (don't forget the country you are in) and I'm sure people on here will help you.

I know this has been talked about a lot in the forums how the wifi on the RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN has some quirks. Is there any confirmation of a bug? I still want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong. It seems something as simple as having the frequency on the 5Ghz set to auto makes it unstable, whereas setting a specific frequency makes it more stable. And other very minute seeming changes can suddenly make it drop out completely and hang on 'initializing'. It way more temperamental than I expected from pro level gear, to the point that when it's working I'm afraid to touch anything. I just wondered if I was the only one, or is this a known issue?

I am talking about this again!

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=145834

Thanks for the responses guys. As to your point about auto, I guess my assumption was that auto meant for the router to select the best frequency. Other than looking for the least crowded, I'm not sure I have a whole lot to offer in the decision making process, lol. I am in Thailand and have Thailand selected. I ended up selecting 5260 Mhz, which seems to have reduced the dropouts a lot, but not eliminated them.

This is my configuration and would value any input if I've done something wrong

name="wlan1" mtu=1500 l2mtu=1600 mac-address=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx arp=enabled interface-type=QCA9984 mode=ap-bridge ssid="xxx" frequency=5260 band=5ghz-n/ac channel-width=20/40/80mhz-XXXX secondary-channel="" scan-list=default

wireless-protocol=802.11 vlan-mode=no-tag vlan-id=1 wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none wds-ignore-ssid=no bridge-mode=enabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0 default-client-tx-limit=0

hide-ssid=no security-profile=default compression=no



1 name="wlan2" mtu=1500 l2mtu=1600 mac-address=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx arp=enabled interface-type=Atheros AR9300 mode=ap-bridge ssid="xxx" frequency=2412 band=2ghz-b/g/n channel-width=20mhz secondary-channel="" scan-list=default

wireless-protocol=802.11 vlan-mode=no-tag vlan-id=1 wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none wds-ignore-ssid=no bridge-mode=enabled default-authentication=yes default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0 default-client-tx-limit=0

hide-ssid=no security-profile=default compression=no

When wifi drops I get the below entries in the log. Usually reconnects within seconds, but occasionally seems as if the interface restarts, which takes a bit longer. Usually by that point the client has switched to the 2.4 radio

<<mac addr>>@wlan1: disconnected, extensive data loss

or

<<mac addr>>@wlan1: disconnected, received disassoc: sending station leaving (8)

or

<<mac addr>>wlan1: reassociating
<<mac addr>>@wlan1: disconnected, ok

I have RB4011 and its rock stable on 5GHz (and 2.4G). Maybe I am just lucky.

Settings I use are: So I use WMM, reduce max station count, enable multicast buffer, I also enable keep alive frames
Also make sure you use indoor (if indoor used) and put 3dB antenna gain into it! (this value was not set by default).

With this I really have very good 5G coverage and no issues.
But again, I could just be lucky...

PS: Have you any access list signal strength restrictions? In that area RouterOS is bad if you want to steer clients.
Seeing your logs it does not look you are blocked because of access list rule.

Hi @WeWinNet, Thanks for the specifics. I had the same settings as you except for the antenna gain and the 'indoors' in the distance setting. I've tried changing them and will test when I'm back home. Just on that, I've noticed every time I change a setting on wifi1, it often hangs on 'initializing.' have you noticed the same time? Either that or it takes a long time to get to 'running ap' status.

on the access signal strength restrictions, none that I know of. How would I find out? I didn't seem to have a problem setting the antenna gain.

If you do log "info" , then you would see messages like "Wifi client rejected based on ..." in that case it would be access list issue,
but you do not have that I would assume.

I get always one (and only one) error, which is at boot, "DEFCONF, can't find WLAN interface".
Probably it boots too fast before Wifi is up
But it does not create any issue afterwards.

If I change a Wifi parameter, the Wifi interface will indeed switch of for a couple of seconds and come back afterwards.
But never with an error message. And my laptop will reconnect immediately.

Have you updated the router board firmware itself to latest version (not only routeros).
Maybe do netinstall on it as well.

PS: I also apply similar settings on all Wifi virtual i/f. Specially the max client count reduction from 1000 clients
will mean less memory assigned/reserved for buffers, and might improve stability (but this might just be wishful thinking I guess on my side).