Community discussions

MikroTik App
 
User avatar
Kentzo
Long time Member
Long time Member
Topic Author
Posts: 666
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:35 pm
Location: California

hAP ax3 / MBP: intermittent packet loss

Sun Feb 16, 2025 6:23 am

I recently started using a service called GeForce NOW and noticed a problem that I was not aware of previously: periodically my MBP would experience connectivity with ping to the AP ranging from high ping (>100ms) to packet loss. The connection will remain spotty for 10-30 seconds before recovering to normal.

One complication of my WiFi setup is that I have an old hAP ac lite (legacy wireless) that advertises the same network my MBP is connected to. But it's behind brick wall and the signal strength is 20db worse. Another complication is that I use DFS channels but there is nothing in the logs to show conflicts.

Curios thing is that /interface/wifi/registration-table shows that uptime of all clients connected to the affected network was reset. Uptime of clients of other networks remains unaffected.

On MBP, besides artifacts in the GFN app, the UI shows loss of WiFi connection and /var/log/wifi.log has records to the same avail.

Logs:
2025-02-15 17:34:58 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -66 
2025-02-15 17:35:08 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 connected, signal strength -68 
2025-02-15 17:37:50 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -68 
 2025-02-15 17:38:08 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 connected, signal strength -69
 2025-02-15 17:41:13 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 disconnected, not responding, signal strength -71
 2025-02-15 17:41:14 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 connected, signal strength -66
 2025-02-15 18:02:23 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 disconnected, access-list changed, signal strength -75
 2025-02-15 18:02:25 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 connected, signal strength -69
 2025-02-15 18:03:04 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -69
  2025-02-15 19:43:36 wireless,info...@wifi-5 disconnected, not responding, signal strength -68
 2025-02-15 19:43:37 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 connected, signal strength -66
 2025-02-15 19:56:08 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 disconnected, not responding, signal strength -68
 2025-02-15 19:56:09 wireless,info ...@wifi-5 connected, signal strength -66

WiFi config:
/interface wifi channel
add band=2ghz-ax disabled=no name="WiFi 2.4" skip-dfs-channels=all width=20/40mhz
add band=5ghz-ax name="WiFi 5" skip-dfs-channels=disabled width=20/40/80mhz
/interface wifi datapath
add client-isolation=yes disabled=no name="WiFi IoT"
/interface wifi security
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk disable-pmkid=yes disabled=no ft=no ft-over-ds=no group-key-update=1d name=WiFi wps=disable
add authentication-types=wpa3-psk disabled=no ft=no group-key-update=1d name="WiFi Work" wps=disable
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk disable-pmkid=yes disabled=no group-key-update=1d name="WiFi IoT" wps=push-button
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk connect-priority=0 disable-pmkid=yes disabled=no ft=no group-key-update=1d name="WiFi Link"
/interface wifi configuration
add country="United States" disabled=no multicast-enhance=enabled name=WiFi security=WiFi security.connect-priority=0 ssid=WiFi tx-power=\
    18
add country="United States" disabled=no multicast-enhance=enabled name="WiFi Work" security="WiFi Work" ssid="WiFi Work"
add country="United States" datapath="WiFi IoT" disabled=no multicast-enhance=enabled name="WiFi IoT" security="WiFi IoT" ssid=\
    "WiFi IoT"
add channel="WiFi 2.4" country="United States" disabled=no hide-ssid=yes mode=ap multicast-enhance=enabled name="WiFi Link" security=\
    "WiFi Link" security.connect-priority=0 ssid="WiFi Link"
/interface wifi
set [ find default-name=wifi1 ] channel="WiFi 5" configuration=WiFi configuration.mode=ap disabled=no mtu=1500 name=wifi-5
set [ find default-name=wifi2 ] arp=enabled comment="Increased MTU for EoIP" configuration="WiFi Link" configuration.mode=ap disabled=no mtu=1546 \
    name=wifi-link
add configuration="WiFi Work" configuration.mode=ap disabled=no mac-address=... master-interface=wifi-5 mtu=1500 name=wifi-work-5 \
    security="WiFi Work"
add arp=reply-only configuration="WiFi IoT" configuration.mode=ap disabled=no mac-address=... master-interface=wifi-link mtu=1500 name=\
    wifi-iot
 
User avatar
chechito
Forum Guru
Forum Guru
Posts: 3281
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2014 3:14 am
Location: Bogota Colombia
Contact:

Re: hAP ax3 / MBP: intermittent packet loss

Sun Feb 16, 2025 6:50 am

recently i also tested GeForce NOW in a open beta, from what i observed for basic 1080p resolution is required to have a sustained and stable 30-35 mbps throughput (higher resolution will require more), sometimes on wi-fi can be tricky to obtain this performance, i tested on a hap ac2 (2 spatial stream) using 80mhz channel, my laptop nic also has 2 spatial stream so plenty of wi-fi bandwidth left over, and i dont have any neighboring network competing for the radio spectrum, very favorable conditions

in your case with hap ac lite you halve your chances because 5ghz radio only has 1 spatial stream

and of course you must be sure your ISP can provide that 30-35 mps stably, also be sure another app or other device do not is competing for the bandwidth

It's obvious that playing via streaming represent one of the most exigent application available, because In addition to being so sensitive to latency and packet loss require a significant ammount of stable bandwidth

any deviation from this will be very noticiable on the user experience
 
User avatar
Kentzo
Long time Member
Long time Member
Topic Author
Posts: 666
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:35 pm
Location: California

Re: hAP ax3 / MBP: intermittent packet loss

Sun Feb 16, 2025 6:57 am

I'm certain that this particular problem that I experience is due to AP and not the ISP / GFN. Mainly because my OS (macOS 15.3) reports WiFi connectivity issues and that RouterOS reports disconnection of _all_ clients that belong to the affected WiFi network.

The AP my MBP is connected to is hAP ax3, not hAP ac lite. There is an unobstructed path of about 15ft between the devices and the connectivity when its normal is excellent.

Either this issue is somehow triggered by the volume and type of traffic utilized by the GFN app. Or this issue was always present I was just unaware of that as on-demand video streaming buffers enough data to smooth these issues while GFN is very much latency sensitive.
 
victorbayas
newbie
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2024 1:56 pm
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: hAP ax3 / MBP: intermittent packet loss

Sun Feb 16, 2025 3:25 pm

+1

I’ve also sporadically noticed some packet loss from the hAP ax3 WiFi (0.5-5%), over Ethernet there is no packet loss so it is not my ISP's fault. Most streaming and video conferencing services are tolerant to these losses but it may not be the case for GFN (I have not tried the service personally).
 
User avatar
Kentzo
Long time Member
Long time Member
Topic Author
Posts: 666
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:35 pm
Location: California

Re: hAP ax3 / MBP: intermittent packet loss

Mon Feb 17, 2025 8:47 am

Adjusted the config to disable DFS channels (out of assumption that there were conflicts but RouterOS failed to log them) and set reselect-interval. No disconnections so far.
 
jdub88
Frequent Visitor
Frequent Visitor
Posts: 97
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2020 1:35 pm

Re: hAP ax3 / MBP: intermittent packet loss

Mon Feb 17, 2025 4:48 pm

Could you share the configuration changes you made and/or the wifi config as it looks now?

This issue is well documented in other threads. I have been battling with this for months. It started after 7.14.3, at least anecdotally. What version are you on?
 
User avatar
Kentzo
Long time Member
Long time Member
Topic Author
Posts: 666
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:35 pm
Location: California

Re: hAP ax3 / MBP: intermittent packet loss

Mon Feb 17, 2025 9:45 pm

I will report once I test it more.