support for AR9271 in RC2

rmichael · Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:28 am

AR9271:
The Atheros AR9271 single-chip USB solution provides enhanced Wi-Fi performance and value for home gateways, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, printers and a variety of other embedded wireless products

Does that mean that routerboards will now work with USB adapters, like NETGEAR WNA1100?

Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:12 am

apap100 · Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:55 pm

I have a TP-Link AR9271 based USB Wi-Fi card plugged in and it doesn't show in interfaces?
Can see it in resources though?

popcorrin · Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:27 am

Is there anymore information on this? How to set it up, compatible devices, etc?

InoX · Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:36 am

in rc10, the stick hanged my server; never tried again.

popcorrin · Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:17 pm

Anyone have this working well? If so, what adapter are you using?

Andre81 · Tue Feb 07, 2012 12:12 pm

AR9271:
The Atheros AR9271 single-chip USB solution provides enhanced Wi-Fi performance and value for home gateways, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, printers and a variety of other embedded wireless products
Does that mean that routerboards will now work with USB adapters, like NETGEAR WNA1100?

Hi rmichael,

have you tried NETGEAR WNA1100 on mikrotik RB?

Thanks

A.

Andre81 · Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:52 pm

Any news?

server8 · Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:30 am

Andre81 · Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:57 pm

I've bought one adapter, when it will be in my hand I'll sharing the results...

deveros · Sat May 26, 2012 1:30 pm

Hello everyone, i have RB750UP and TL-WN821N how to make them work?

Thx

Mon May 28, 2012 10:50 am

We only support USB wireless cards with this chipset "AR9271". Your card has a different chipset, so RouterOS will not recognize it.

Andre81 · Thu May 31, 2012 11:54 am

It doesn't work!!!

The interface was discovery, but the configuration doesn't work in fact, I can't connect to them in any configuration I have tried...

Damn!!!

Andre81 · Thu May 31, 2012 11:57 am

We only support USB wireless cards with this chipset "AR9271". Your card has a different chipset, so RouterOS will not recognize it.

Normis, AR9271 doesn't work properly. Any settings I have tried, the interface not works properly.

Andrea

P.s. RouterOS 5.16

Thu May 31, 2012 11:58 am

could you clarify what exactly is not working? give us some more information and we might be able to solve the issues

Andre81 · Thu May 31, 2012 6:35 pm

Hi normis,

some example:

I want to use usb wireless in ap mode (license 4), so i connect the WNA1100 by netgear (AR9271 chipset) in the usb port. The mikrotik detect chipset and I can view this wireless interface under wireless page. Now I've set up one ip address to this interface, a dhcp server. one SSID and all other information needed by wi-fi, no wep or wpa protection are enable.
If I try to connect to this new network, the computer says "unable to join the network". I've tried only B, only G only N, but every time the result is always the same....Unable to Join....

Thanks

Andrea

TSDA · Sat Jun 02, 2012 11:12 am

I can confirm that AR9271 based TP-Link USB adapter doesn't work correctly in ROS 5.xx... ROS see the card, possible to change settings etc. but WiFi is absolulty unstable... WiFi link goes up and down etc... Hopefully it will be fixed in 6.xx...

to Mikrotik guys: If you are sure that AR9271 should work perfectly, can you provide working example of settings? TIA

TSDA · Sat Jun 02, 2012 12:08 pm

It doesn't work!!!

The interface was discovery, but the configuration doesn't work in fact, I can't connect to them in any configuration I have tried...

Damn!!!

Same here... to be discovered is not enough... to work...

Andre81 · Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:35 am

@normis,
can you provide the exact model of usb adapter that the developer use?
So we can try...

RusConSPb · Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:05 pm

I tested TP-LINK WN722NC - discovered but doesn't work correctly...

Andre81 · Thu Jun 07, 2012 6:16 pm

@normis,
can you provide the exact model of usb adapter that the developer use?
So we can try...

dead silence from mikortik...

My question seemed simple

Andre81 · Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:23 am

In the wiki AR9271 ALFA AWUS036NHA is reported as "works"

This not true, I've try every type of AR9271 usb device, and none of these works properly.

I'm bored.

A.

RusConSPb · Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:54 pm

In the wiki AR9271 ALFA AWUS036NHA is reported as "works"

This not true, I've try every type of AR9271 usb device, and none of these works properly.

I'm bored.

A.

I can only confirm it. AR9271 DOESN'T WORK

Andre81 · Fri Jul 06, 2012 5:50 pm

@normis,

please, remove AR9271 usb wireless device fromt the supported hardware.

A.

glucz · Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:04 pm

Just a quick note here: On ROS V5.20 the Atheros 9271 (TPLINK) seems to work 99% . I had the same problem described here on earlier versions. The only thing I could not get to work is to access RouterOS with Winbox through the USB wifi interface. At the same time I could use it as an AP.

GL

Larin · Sat Oct 06, 2012 12:32 am

Just a quick note here: On ROS V5.20 the Atheros 9271 (TPLINK) seems to work 99% . I had the same problem described here on earlier versions. The only thing I could not get to work is to access RouterOS with Winbox through the USB wifi interface. At the same time I could use it as an AP.

GL

This information is confirmed by someone else?

Nenad · Sun Oct 07, 2012 5:41 am

I'm thinking of having a go with a TP-Link TL-WN722N (AR9271)...
I obviously have v5.20 ROS ready with an USB port, but I need more than one confirmation about it working. Anyone?

JeffLSU · Sat Oct 20, 2012 12:28 am

In can confirm that a TP-Link TL-WN722N (AR9271) works with 5.14 but not with 5.21 on an SXT-5HPnD. There is an odd issue with it on 5.14 but it works pretty well in general.

With 5.21 I get "Couldn't change interface <wlan2> -bad on-fail-retry-time (6)" whenever I try to touch that interface through WinBox. Did a firmware upgrade and a reset configuration with the same result. Only solution seemed to be to roll back to 5.14. Everything goes back to normal after rolling back RouterOS.

Under 5.14 it works but I've found that if I attempt to change the frequency without first disabling the interface it just quits working without any errors. All clients get kicked off and cannot re-associate until I either reboot the whole router, unplug/replug the USB radio, or switch that interface back to the channel that was set on boot. I get the same behavior if I initiate a snoop on that interface.

Is this AR9271 USB chipset going to be supported in future RouterOS versions? We're looking at rolling out about 30 of these SXTs that will act as portable "repeaters" to uplink relatively weak 2.4 GHz handheld devices over 5 GHz from remote locations. The SXT+USB radio option looks like it's a good option to keep cost down and package size compared to something like a 411+5 GHz MiniPCI radio+antennas+cabling+ an outdoor enclosure.

Thanks,
Jeff

chlp · Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:23 pm

HW: RB751G-2HnD
OS: 5.21 (firmware 3.0)
USB: TP-LINK TL-WN722N (mac:0x140/0x1, phy:0xff, a5:0xc0, a2:0x0, eeprom:0x0)

[admin@RouterBoard] > interface wireless print detail 
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0  R name="wlan" mtu=1500 mac-address=D4:CA:6D:53:26:35 arp=enabled 
      interface-type=Atheros 11N mode=ap-bridge ssid="RouterBoard" 
      frequency=2462 band=2ghz-b/g/n channel-width=20/40mhz-ht-below 
      scan-list=default wireless-protocol=802.11 antenna-mode=ant-a 
      wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none wds-ignore-ssid=no 
      bridge-mode=disabled default-authentication=no default-forwarding=no 
      default-ap-tx-limit=0 default-client-tx-limit=0 hide-ssid=no 
      security-profile=security-wlan compression=no 

 1 X  name="wlan1" mtu=1500 mac-address=94:0C:6D:8E:33:9A arp=enabled 
      interface-type=Atheros AR9271 mode=station ssid="RouterBoard" 
      frequency=2412 band=2ghz-b channel-width=20mhz scan-list=default 
      wireless-protocol=unspecified antenna-mode=ant-a 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

Management with WinBox impossible:

Clipboard-1.png

but through terminal all works:

[admin@RouterBoard] > interface wireless enable wlan1

Noise Floor shows 63dBm, not "-"!

Mon Oct 22, 2012 2:14 pm

we will try to fix that problem with enabling that interface from winbox.

JeffLSU · Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:05 pm

HW: RB751G-2HnD
Noise Floor shows 63dBm, not "-"!

I can confirm that this issue existed even in RouterOS 5.14. Noise floor is all over the place with impossible values frequently.

chlp · Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:14 pm

we will try to fix that problem with enabling that interface from winbox.

this problem not only in "enable/disable", but in all management this interface via winbox.

JeffLSU · Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:21 pm

I'm thinking of having a go with a TP-Link TL-WN722N (AR9271)...
I obviously have v5.20 ROS ready with an USB port, but I need more than one confirmation about it working. Anyone?

I went ahead and tried 5.20 and it seems to work as well as it was with 5.14. Still has the same issues with changing frequencies that I mentioned before and ridiculous noise floor values as chlp mentioned.

server8 · Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:42 pm

Actually AR9271 driver don't support channel-width=10mhz or 5mhz, its a minor feature but sometime it can help

Please add it

Giuseppe

JeffLSU · Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:06 pm

Me and FreqMan (another forum member) have been experimenting with this setup off and on all week. He tried pretty much every OS/firmware from Router OS 5.0 RC4 through 5.21. All versions seemed to have the same off the wall noise floor values most of the time as well as the issues with clients being unable to reconnect after a channel change. Versions <= 5.15 and > 5.17 seemed to all have mentionable packet loss issues during extended ping testing as well as erratic/poor throughput for clients associated via the USB wireless adapter.

As mentioned before 5.21 pretty much doesn't work at all. I've found that even if I enable the interface and what not via the command line clients can't associate with it. I haven't tried station mode with version 5.21.

OS 5.17/mipsbe fw 2.38 seems to be the most stable of them all. No packet loss issues, fast throughput but still has the noise floor and channel changing issues.

On a related note it's become apparent that all AR9271 USB adapters are not created equal. I've experimented with 3. The TP-Link TL-WN722N has been by far the best.

I've also tried an Ubiquiti AirStation-EXT. This one seemed really promising with a 1 watt radio but didn't really work. The RouterBoard recognized it appropriately as an AR9271 and could successfully scan and see other radios in the area just fine. However, it could not associate with any other radios in Station mode nor could any clients even see the radio in AP Bridge mode. I really wanted this radio to work so I experimented with several OS/FW versions, reset the configuration, etc with no success.

The next appealing concept was a tiny usb radio that would fit entirely inside the SXT. I purchased a little Onkyo (yeah, the home theater people) WiFi adapter that was supposedly based on the AR9271 chipset. Surprisingly it seemed to work perfectly at first and was pretty slick allowing me to close it inside the SXT with a little Dremel mod to the door. Then we realized that it would only allow 3 clients to associate completely when in AP mode. The 4th client would get an IP address, show up in the registrations but couldn't ping the router or anything. It was really odd. The only way that 4th client could associate completely was if a currently associated client 1) disconnected and 2) that former client's registration was killed manually. The registrations seemed to "stick" in there indefinitely until the router was rebooted or you killed them manually. Then the client that couldn't connect before would be allowed to connect. We tried several OS/FW versions here again but got pretty much the same 3 client limit on all of them.

So, for the moment the best solution if you require a USB radio is OS 5.17 and the TP-Link TL-WN722N. As long as you don't need accurate noise floor data or the ability to change the channel on the fly it seems to work really well.