Info: new hAP ax2 running 7.8, MacBook 12" 2017 (capable of 2ghz, 5ghz, WPA2, WPA3, has had no issues with hAP ac2 on 6.x series).
I've looked at the Apple Macbook issues with 5GHz Wi-Fi thread (viewtopic.php?p=966083&hilit=macos#p966083) and have a similar configuration. Have tried WPA2 and WPA3.
I'm able to initially connect just fine, and light browsing/etc. works okay. But when I try to perform a TimeMachine backup (lots of data), the connection drops and takes several minutes to reconnect. This, of course, kills the backup, which will never complete unless I'm on a wired network. Here's what's in the logs:
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Mar/05/2023 18:44:22 78:4F:43:xx:xx:xx@xxxx-wlan-5 connected, signal strength -51
Mar/05/2023 18:47:16 78:4F:43:xx:xx:xx@xxxx-wlan-5 disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -56
I reset the MacBook's SMC, NVRAM, and ran diagnostics. Changed physical positions, tried on power, tried on battery. Unlike the above forum post, this happens on both 2Ghz and 5GHz networks.
This did not happen on the hAP ac2 I've been rocking for several years if I stayed on the 6.x series. I remember trying to upgrade to 7.x and had to downgrade because of poor WiFi reliability (this exact issue). I don't have the option of downgrading to 6.x on the ax2, of course.
(UPDATE) Switching the 2GHz network to 802.11n (2GHz N) kept the connection from dropping. I'd rather use 802.11ax (2GHz AX) so that other devices can benefit from it. I'm unwilling to downgrade my 5GHz network full-time, so it looks like this device will have to "slum it" on 2GHz. Do any Mikrotik engineers know whether work is ongoing with the wifiwave2 hardware/firmware/software to improve the backward compatibility of AX to N (for 2GHz) and AX to AC (for 5GHz)?
(SECOND UPDATE) Also confirmed that the client connects via WPA2 and WPA3 equally and without disconnects on the 802.11n (2GHz N) network, so it's not related to authentication. CCMP and GCMP "standard" and 256 options are also enabled on the router.
Anybody have anything else I can try to improve the backward compatibility of AX? Since I have a reproducible environment, I'm happy to try different scenarios and post my results to this forum. I imagine there are other devices with a similar wifi chipset on the client side.
-- Justin