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pekr
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hAP ac2 uses only a 2.4GHz radio ...

Wed Nov 25, 2020 10:41 am

Hi,

I have created a small home network, using 2 hAP ac2 units. Second one is set-up in a repeater mode via a wireless connection. But - I have played with various configs and there is a possibility I have messed up something. Following are point I find a bit fishy and dunno how to correct them:

Image

- I have noticed limited copy speed over the local network. My ntb preferred the 2.4GHz network, so I have changed the setting to prefer the 5GHz one. Notebook now reports being connected to a 5GHz one.
- When I look into a wireless registration, I can see the ntb being connected to wlan2
- However - when I start to copy a file to a local NAS, I can see it uses a 2.4GHz radio instead
- I also don't understand the bridge assignations of root port / alternate port.
- When I turn off the wlan1, it starts to copy using a wlan2. Is that some kind of a fail-over solution? The only thing which came to my mind is, that in fact my ntb might be connecting to the secondary hap-ac2 router via a 5GHz, which is set in wireless repeater mode. But I can't see my ntb in registration there.

Thanks for any pointers,
Best regards,
/Petr
Last edited by pekr on Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
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bpwl
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Re: aAP ac2 uses only a 2.4GHz radio ...

Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:43 am

Please document your full setup and network design between the 2 hAP ac2's.. (And share your config files "/export hide-sensitive file=yourfilenamehere" of both devices.)

Particular attention goes to your repeater setup. You must chose which WLAN will be used as station, connecting to the other hAP ac2, and which WLAN's will be used as AP-bridge. (AP-bridge can be multiple.).

Your setup can use the 2.4GHz as backhaul connection, or the 5 GHz as backhaul connection between the hAP ac2's. Using both at the same time is normally not done (you waste transmission air-time) and the created network loop must be eliminated, or only one will be used.

Using the "repeater" term points in the direction of the "Setup Repeater" button which will make a "station-pseudobridge" (or maybe a "station bridge") plus an "AP bridge" on the same WLAN master..
Between 2 Mikrotiks you better do it manual, and set the second hAP (now "repeater") as a bridged AP.

It's simple, for the "repeater" hAp ac2, you define a WLAN interface with mode "station bridge", and connect to the SSID of the other AP, and then define WLAN and virtual WLAN's with mode "AP-bridge" as you like. All interfaces are connected as ports to the bridge. (bridge has DHCP-client, no DHCP server, and is member of the LAN "interface list"). This "repeater" hAP is now a regular switch in your network.
 
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pekr
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Re: aAP ac2 uses only a 2.4GHz radio ...

Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:33 am

Not sure if I should post it inline here, but it might get a bit verbose. Also - deleted some dhc static info, etc., to keep it more private.

https://2zone.cz/pekr/mt-main.rsc
https://2zone.cz/pekr/mt-repeater.rsc

And yes, from what I remember, I used a wireless setting repeater button, to set a repeater. Chances are, I have used it for both radios, because the secondary router contains 2 virtual radios. Interesting info on your side re only one backhaul channel. I wanted to have both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks around the apartment, as we've got some older smartphone with just 2.4GHz support.

I have recently set-up 2x hAP ac2 at my friend's house too and his primary MT bridge ports are all of a designated port type. That's why I have started to look into my config at my home again. But at his apartment, it is not in a wireless repeater mode, just two MTs connected over the ethernet. That's why I got curious, why my wlan bridge ports are of a root type and alternate port type on a primary MT.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your explanations, appreciated!

Best regards,
/Petr
 
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bpwl
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Re: aAP ac2 uses only a 2.4GHz radio ...

Thu Nov 26, 2020 5:50 pm

The number of possibilities is endless, and there is no "best" setup for all situations. With 2 hAP-ac2's you have 4 radio's. (each radio has 2 streams/chains/antenna, doubling the throughput if connected to another 2x2 device, but chains cannot do different functions at the same time).
On the other hand, you are in one interference domain. Even if the signal is too weak to be used, the co-channel interference goes 4 times further than the weakest usable signal goes.

This means that independent of the number of radio's , the number of non-overlapping channels used is important. The channel width choices depend on the neighborhood interference. Normally 2.4 GHz is crowded and the free use of 40MHz wide channels is seldom possible. The only non-overlapping channels are 1-6-11 (FCC regulation and 'no_country_set') , or 1-5-9-13 if channel 13 can be used in your region and no "b" mode is used. In the 5 GHz band 40 MHz width is mostly used as minimum, but 80 MHz is no exception if enough channels are free.

With wifi-connected hAP ac2, there is one common channel for both AP functions and for the interconnect. (One and the same channel is used for clients on hAP1, interconnect, and for clients on hAP2, unless the clients are not allowed in the setup). That "one and the same channel" is a potential bottleneck ! The other 2 radio's are free and should use different non-overlapping channels. (SSID and security can be equal or not, this does not matter at all. With same SSID and security roaming of the clients will work.)

So it all depends, but for a typical case it would tend to reconsider following things in your setup.

Router:
/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] band=2ghz-b/g/n channel-width=20/40mhz-XX \
    country=no_country_set disabled=no distance=indoors frequency=auto \
    frequency-mode=manual-txpower mode=ap-bridge ssid=Home \
    station-roaming=enabled wireless-protocol=802.11
set [ find default-name=wlan2 ] band=5ghz-a/n/ac channel-width=\
    20/40/80mhz-XXXX country=no_country_set disabled=no distance=indoors \
    frequency=auto frequency-mode=manual-txpower mode=ap-bridge ssid=\
    Home station-roaming=enabled wireless-protocol=802.11
.
Don't use 2ghz-b unless you support very old devices, are you sure to have 40 MHz free channel? , don't use XX this gives no control at all, use Ce or eC, set your country, don't use auto frequency as results will vary and the auto-choice is seldom optimal,
On 5 GHz don't use 5-ghz-a if not needed, don't use XXXX use Ceee or eeeC, set country, don't use auto frequency

"Repeater"/Bridged:
/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] antenna-gain=0 band=2ghz-b/g/n channel-width=\
    20/40mhz-XX country=no_country_set disabled=no frequency=2442 \
    frequency-mode=manual-txpower mode=station-bridge security-profile=\
    wlan1-repeater ssid=Home station-roaming=enabled
set [ find default-name=wlan2 ] antenna-gain=0 band=5ghz-a/n/ac \
    channel-width=20/40/80mhz-XXXX country=no_country_set disabled=no \
    frequency-mode=manual-txpower mode=station-bridge security-profile=\
    wlan2-repeater ssid=Home station-roaming=enabled
add disabled=no mac-address=6E:3B:6B:86:23:A6 master-interface=wlan2 name=\
    wlan3 security-profile=wlan2-repeater ssid=Home \
    station-roaming=enabled
add disabled=no mac-address=6E:3B:6B:86:23:A7 master-interface=wlan1 name=\
    wlan4 security-profile=wlan1-repeater ssid=Home \
    station-roaming=enabled
Antenna-gain-0 is illegal, don't use 2GHz-b, (check 40 MHz width, don't use XX, frequency is odd channel, but all this is not used when it is "station-bridge"), set country, don't use station-roaming if there is only one AP to connect to.
5 GHz idem. Most channel settings are not used when used as "station-bridge" but follows the AP. But still, antenna-gain=0 is illegal,

Reconsider which one (WLAN1 or WLAN2) will be used as "station-bridge". Try to use 3 different channels in total if the RF spectrum is free for this.
 
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pekr
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Re: aAP ac2 uses only a 2.4GHz radio ...

Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:31 pm

Thanks for all your suggestions, really appreciated! Your level of wireless networking knowledge is well beyond my capability to understand :-) I will have to read it many times to make some conclusions. I might switch to the Czech country, but I was a bit scared reading something about the "detect radar" stuff and MT messing their firmware, making it non working for even minutes, when there is a radar scan occuring. As for channels, I thought that once set to auto, MT will somehow try to find the best option.

/Petr
 
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Re: aAP ac2 uses only a 2.4GHz radio ...  [SOLVED]

Sat Mar 20, 2021 1:14 pm

Implemented some changes in my setup, basically using only a wlan1 (2.4GHz) as a repeater, but still was facing the situation, when wlan2 (5GHz) was a root port in a bridge, and basically did not get used at all by any device. When I turned off wlan1, it actually started to be used by the devices.

Found old thread from around 2010, suggesting setting a bridge admin port to some low value of 00:00:00:00:00:01, and now my wlan2 is a designated port and I can finally use both frequencies.

Of course I have no clue of why that was happening or why is that modification needed, but it finally works!

/Petr

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