Hi, Thanks for the information. I'll cut to the chase... what do you use when setting AP's, especially ones with an omni antenna, for indoor use and outdoor use and how to any deviations from the default improve things? Regards Jason Hecker On 10 April 2015 at 17:19, Mike Everest <mike@duxtel.com> wrote:
Hi Jason, ok: here goes! ;-)
Thanks. OK, outside of the default settings you're saying there isn't much that can be done in the Data Rates, Advanced and HT tabs that might have a decent impact on speeds?
That is essentially true - especially for indoor environment, things change so much that there is probably not one set of configuration that will be optimal in all cases.
The Wireless Wiki doesn't go into any depth on some of the settings.
True, some items deserve a bit more detail ;)
Like when to set Distance to Indoors vs Dynamic Putting values into the threshold fields - do they have any effect?
Default is 'indoors' - i.e. the clients are very close, so normal ack timeouts are short (default) You only need to change it if there are cliets at long distances - (farther distances have longer round-trip times, so need to wait a bit longer for the ack reply)
What effect does the adaptive noise immunity really have?
Here it is:
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Wireless_FAQ#What_is_adaptive-noise-imm unity_setting.3F
Essentially it is a feature of the Atheros wifi chip - it adjusts settings like hardware retry count and ack timeout values according to how the network is operating. Like if the average retry count per second starts to climb, it can increase the max count value to try to avoid retraining the connection too often. It's not really a mikrotik feature, just like a register in the hardware that can be enabled from routerOS (i.e. mikrotik just provide a user interface to enable/disable that register)
Is it better to disable b/g if you don't need it?
Only if you think that b/g clients are connecting and bringing down your total data rates. Reason is that b/g use more airtime to pass the same amount of data, so if you prevent them from connecting, only faster clients connect, thus more bandwidth to go around for all ;)
Does putting a value in for burst time help in certain situations?
Only when there is only one (or very few) clients expected to use that network at any given time. It allows devices to transmit larger chunks of data without having to break it into smaller bits and 'take turns' with others.
When is it appropriate to enable RTS and RTS/CTS?
It is old-school technique to try to avoid hidden node and deal with clients at widely varying distance and location from the AP. It can be useful in a very busy network. The idea is that a client transmits a 'ready to send' packet and wait for 'clear to send' instruction from the AP rather than jump in and start transmitting as soon as the device detects what looks like clear air. RTS is only small, and so less destructive than full data transmit in hidden node situation.
<cheap plug>There is MTCWE (wireless engineer) class running after the MUM in melbourne next month - deals with these isssues and some more ;) </cheap plug>
Cheers!
Mike.
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