Hey there!

I've recently purchased 'RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN' router as a replacement to my FritzBox 6490. The thing is, no matter how much I play around with the frequencies, channels and whatnot, I cannot get the same performance nor the range out of the Mikrotik router. Does anyone have any tips? I got a 110 m2 flat with router positioned in the center. 2.4 GHz coverage is almost the same (slightly worse) and 5GHz about 30-40% worse than the FritzBox. Router position hasn't changed, and while performing the tests, "second" router was always off.

Here's my config atm. As for using the FritzBox as an access point.
1. If I would've known that the RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN's wifi performance is worse, I would've gotten the non-wifi model
2. I can't use the FritzBox as an access point (at least not this one, I would need additional one) as it's being used to pass-through the connection (similar to a bridge)
3. I wouldn't want to use an MikroTik AP as the wifi setup would then feel like a downgrade after replacing the FritzBox

I would appreciate useful tips!

I cannot get the same performance nor the range out of the Mikrotik router.

Well, what performance you got before and now?

Try the following changes,
For installation, you should use Any not indoor, that should give you more channels to select.
Change the 5Ghz band to N and AC only.
In advanced mode, check if you set the adaptive-noise-immunity for AP & client (This helps a lot in my case)

I cannot get the same performance nor the range out of the Mikrotik router.

Well, what performance you got before and now?

Try the following changes,
For installation, you should use Any not indoor, that should give you more channels to select.
Change the 5Ghz band to N and AC only.
In advanced mode, check if you set the adaptive-noise-immunity for AP & client (This helps a lot in my case)

Did what you suggested & didn't notice any significant change when it comes to the range.

Could you post your config?

/export hide-sensitive verbose

What channel frequency are you running for 2.4ghz and 5Ghz. What are your expectations for range or the Sq-ft you're trying to cover?

I have the same mikrotik model as you and I had the same issue. WiFi performance is just terrible compared to a Calix 854G modem. Tried fine tuning everything but couldn't get more than ~470 Mbps download on 5GHz while on Calix's 5GHz i could easily get ~620Mbps.

Load up routerOS v7 beta and see if results change with the wave2 driver.

What is your internet connection, 800Mbps+?

Post configs and we can review your settings to be sure most optimal.

Who recommended that model vice the wired only RB4011?
Placement of wifi is not usually nor should be dictated by router location and is thus better set separately.
THe RB4011 router will last far longer than any wifi device one purchases as wifi technology is a moving target (except for MT house wifi which has stagnated in the dark ages).

Who recommended that model vice the wired only RB4011?
Placement of wifi is not usually nor should be dictated by router location and is thus better set separately.
THe RB4011 router will last far longer than any wifi device one purchases as wifi technology is a moving target (except for MT house wifi which has stagnated in the dark ages).

I concur with this statement. RB4011 without wireless would be "better" and last much longer. As can use dedicated wireless AP's and swap them out over time.

Update:

I've changed the WiFi configuration to this: And now my 2.4GHz as well as the 5GHz covrage is even better than it was with the FritzBox 6490. Both 2.4 and 5 GHz frequency ranges are within what's allowed in my country.
Now, I'm a tiny bit worried about the strenght .. I have 4/5 or 5/5 bars of signal on my phone (with 5GHz), in the bedroom which has 2 thick concrete walls in line of sight & is 8 meters of air distance away. Should I be worried about my health? xD

What is the best way of lowering the "signal strenght" and with which values should I start?

The reason RB4011 originally had lower signal strength than your old Fritz is that RB is conforming to your country regulations while old Fritz does not. By setting to "superchannel" and "no_country_set" you're in violation of said regulations (again).

The right thing to do is to go back to proper settings (as they were on RB4011 initially) and live with that. When AP is transmitting with high power, clients might still experience bad overall experience because clients lack the Tx power for uplink connection (remember, IP is mostly bi-directional). Setting AP's power lower might slightly reduce downlink performance, but clients on coverage edge will have much better uplink performance.

If you insist on keeping the illegal settings, you can lower Tx power by either setting antenna gain to a few dB higher than actual value (that's CLI-only setting) or by changing Tx power settings in Advanced section.

BTW, one of basic wireless optimizations is to manually set frequency (scan the spectrum to find channels with least interference) and channel width (manually select channel mapping to Ceee or eCee or ... XXXX means AP will make its own selection which might not be the best one).

The reason RB4011 originally had lower signal strength than your old Fritz is that RB is conforming to your country regulations while old Fritz does not. By setting to "superchannel" and "no_country_set" you're in violation of said regulations (again).

FritzBox is a router / company manufactured in Germany, for German market so I highly doubt that they're operating outside of what's allowed.
My current settings are not violating frequency range regulations as I checked which are okay to use and which not. What I might be violating is the "max power" regulation.

BTW, one of basic wireless optimizations is to manually set frequency (scan the spectrum to find channels with least interference) and channel width (manually select channel mapping to Ceee or eCee or ... XXXX means AP will make its own selection which might not be the best one).

As for the "Ceee, eCee, XXXX" channel mapping, when I had my country selected and tried for example XXXX, it did not always select the best channel.
I've checked the whole apartment, all spots, for available / not as congested channels and manually selected the best one. And even with this "perfect settings" (& Germany being selected as country) the wifi performance was miserable when compared to the FritzBox.

Where can I find the max WiFi power output for "RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN"? Maybe it's maximum (superchannel setting) is not going over the allowed transmission power. I couldn't find anything on its spec sheet.

Wireless Tx power capability of device is stated on product page. For RB4011 wifi version it's up to 29dBm on 2.4GHz and up to 33dBm for 5GHz.

Country regulations are much lower. You can get the regulation limits, as hard-coded in ROS, by running
from CLI. For Germany it's up to 20 dBm on 2.4GHz and up to either 20 dBm or 27 dBm on 5GHz depending on channel (indoor channels are limited up to 20 dBm). Your current 5GHz setting is to use outdoor/DFS channel with country regulatory limit to 27d dBm. But be prepared for occasional dtop of WiFi signal, if AP detects something similar to radar signal it will pause for a minute (or 10 minutes, not sure if the particular frequency falls into weather radar frequency band). This might happen even if no radar is in vicinity because AP might get a fslse detection.

Most WiFi equipment vendors didn't care about country regulations regarding Tx power up to until around year 2018 when EU (and country regulators) made some fuss about it. US FCC was more strict before that (hence special variants for US market). I'm not saying AVM was breaking rules about Tx power, but I'd be much surprised if they didn't. Older ROS versions didn't enforce Tx power limits and there was considerable noise by users who found out that WiFi signal dropped after ROS upgrade.

I would expect somewhere in the range of 100-200 Mbps higher throughput (and more stable) on the fritzbox if using wifi - 5. MTs wifi-5 implementation is less stable and has less distance IMHO (my limited experience)