Community discussions

MikroTik App
 
trurle
just joined
Topic Author
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:13 pm

RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD keeps rebooting

Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:33 pm

hi everyone

I bought the wAP AC a couple of years ago and it has been plain sailing, nothing to complain about.

however a few months ago I started experiencing some wireless clients failing to communicate (while the AP connection was still up), and they were all different hosts. some were probably more susceptible than the others, but it's hard to say. I was also experiencing packet loss and crazy ping times from the client to the AP. the test client was meters away from the AP, direct sight. I also checked the environment, and there are not many APs around. I also experimented with choosing different channels, no success.

I recently upgraded to 6.48.1, and what I am seeing now is that the AP reboots (watchdogs?) fairly regularly, sometimes several times a day, which is not good:

mar/04/2021 10:20:23 system,error,critical router was rebooted without proper shutdown by watchdog timer
mar/05/2021 13:50:31 system,error,critical router was rebooted without proper shutdown by watchdog timer
mar/08/2021 09:32:12 system,error,critical router was rebooted without proper shutdown by watchdog timer
mar/08/2021 09:32:14 system,error,critical router was rebooted without proper shutdown by watchdog timer
mar/09/2021 06:19:34 system,error,critical router was rebooted without proper shutdown
mar/09/2021 13:21:06 system,error,critical router was rebooted without proper shutdown by watchdog timer

I tried a different PoE injector and a different cable. The mains power is provided by a UPS and the installation is permanent, so I can't blame power.

it is possible that the Mikrotik HW is failing, or the FW is unable to cope with a poisonous host on the network. still, the operation was unreliable for a while, and now even less so.

how do I diagnose the problem? are there known compatibility problems? are there any settings on the AP I can try disabling to make it more reliable? I am even prepared to sacrifice some fancy AC speed mode to make it reliable if I need to.

I read in other posts that Intel's "Throughput boost" could be the culprit, but I don't have a single client with an Intel adaptor running windows.

thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
trurle
just joined
Topic Author
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:13 pm

Re: RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD keeps rebooting

Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:59 am

I have made more observations. after I moved approximately half of clients to a different AP, Mikrotik stopped crashing and dropping connections. it's been up for 5 days now, while previously it would crash at least daily.

it would be useful if Mikrotik Support advised on any incompatibility/stability issues.
 
sindy
Forum Guru
Forum Guru
Posts: 10205
Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:19 pm

Re: RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD keeps rebooting

Mon Mar 22, 2021 2:39 pm

To get Mikrotik support involved, you have to contact them directly, at support@mikrotik.com or, better, at https://help.mikrotik.com/servicedesk/servicedesk/ .

You have mentioned changing an "injector" - do you use the one with a power adaptor inside or just the passive one connected to an external DC adaptor? What is the cable length from the injector to the wAP ac, and what is the output voltage of the injector?

Also, if the device is old enough, the capacitors inside the wAP ac itself may have degraded, causing trouble when the device drains a lot of power.
 
trurle
just joined
Topic Author
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:13 pm

Re: RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD keeps rebooting

Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:29 pm

thanks for replying Sindy.

I normally use a PoE switch. I also tried a proper PoE injector (with ports in/out), rather than the supplied DC power supply cable thingie. in both cases I was seeing the same behaviour (drops and watchdogs). the cable is ~10m long. tried two different cables too, same behaviour.

I don't think this is power supply related, as after I removed some of the clients off that AP, all the rest being the same, it stopped misbehaving. it's now been up for 7d.

the device is under 2 years old.
 
sindy
Forum Guru
Forum Guru
Posts: 10205
Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:19 pm

Re: RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD keeps rebooting

Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:23 pm

The volume of traffic is roughly proportional to the number of clients, and the volume of traffic is responsible for some part of power consumption, that's why I was thinking about this. A 10 meter cable would have to be really bad, or the voltage of the source would have to be very close to the bottom of the permitted range; if you use more a 24 V or more power supply, the cable length cannot be related unless the cable (or rather crimping of the connectors) was really bad; as you've tried two different cables, it's almost excluded that it was related.

What's the absolute count of the clients, and what is the current throughput of the AP? You've said you've migrated "half of the clients" to another AP, but that says nothing about the actual number of registered clients nor traffic volume.

If it worked before the upgrade with the same number of clients and traffic volume, I'd open a support ticket with Mikrotik straight away.
 
trurle
just joined
Topic Author
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:13 pm

Re: RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD keeps rebooting

Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:41 am

thanks Sindy.

the PoE switch and the injectors are proper kit. the voltage as reported by Mikrotik itself is ~36V.

I don't have too many clients. a dozen tops, usually about 5. maybe one of those clients will use a sustained rate of top 802.11n for a while, the rest will be 802.11n/ac going into the WAN, and my downstream is 64mbps. so nothing extreme.

if a dozen clients at such speeds makes Mikrotik pop its clogs, I don't know what to think.

/max
 
sindy
Forum Guru
Forum Guru
Posts: 10205
Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:19 pm

Re: RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD keeps rebooting

Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:32 pm

As said - if it started after the upgrade, file a ticket with Mikrotik. They'll ask for autosupout.rif or, if not available, a supout.rif created manually just after the reboot. So best attach it to the ticket straight away.
 
trurle
just joined
Topic Author
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 6:13 pm

Re: RouterBOARD wAP G-5HacT2HnD keeps rebooting

Wed Jun 02, 2021 7:51 pm

unfortunately Mikrotik support did not offer any real solutions. they speculated that my AP was suffering from a DDoS attack (on a small home secure network!) and could not come up with anything that made sense, or a way of diagnosing the problem (like finding the client that broke it).

in the end I had no choice but reflash my Mikrotik AP with OpenWRT and the problem disappeared. I am using the same PoE equipment, the same clients, the same channels even, and the problem is gone for good.

looks like Mikrotik picked the wrong QCA9880 firmware which is unstable with some clients in some modes. I am currently using:

OpenWrt 19.07.7 r11306-c4a6851c72
fw: ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct-htt 2020-07-02-1
driver: kmod-ath10k-ct 4.14.221+2019-09-09-5e8cd86f-1

great hardware, Mikrotik! software and support? not so sure.

hope this helps someone.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], GoogleOther [Bot] and 68 guests