FortiAP Wireless Issues

[REDSCT]

I am about to give up on the FortiAP's.  I have a few units to test, mainly to increase knowledge on the product.

I have had no end of troubles with these AP's, I have tried pretty much all I can think of still cannot get a stable connection to some units

I have tried

- Individual SSID's for 2.4 and 5

- Power Settings

- Channels 

- Switching between both AP's

I have FTTP connected to the Fortigate.

The Forti60 physically connects to the Fortiswitch which connects to the outdoor Forti432

The Forti60 physically connects to the indoor Forti431

I have approx 30~ devices, tv's, iphones, ipads, google devices, playstations, etc, all general household stuff.

The main issues are

Anything in the other room will not connect to the IndoorAP or be stable.

I dont want to run two AP's

If I stand under the indoor 431 with speedtest.net ~260 (iphone 15 pro max app)

If I stand under the outdoor 432 with speedtest.net ~130 (iphone 15 pro max app)

The distance between the TV and the outdoor 432 is literally 15 steps and 20 steps to the indoor 431.  Anything in this room wont connect or be stable to the indoor, tv, playstation, google, etc but will connect to the outdoor.

The only things I can think of are the mounting positions, this house is a metal framed house with a tin roof or some magical setting that I am unaware of.

The goal would be to pick the best unit, im thinking the outdoor 432 should be better and have everything connected to that and decom the other.

Attached are pics of the whole scenario, any assistance would be great.  I used to have a basic asus rt router/wifi and would cover the whole house with no issues.  I can't believe these cant even get close to that and the amount of hours and reading I have spent on this is crazy.

List of devices and firmware versions

Indoor 431AP SSID

Outdoor 432AP SSID

Indoor 431AP Profile

FortiAP 432 Outdoor Profile

Indoor Mounting on the roof (screendoor is the same in the next pic, just from outside, thats how close all this is)

Outdoor mounting on the wall

The room trying to connect, this will connect to the outdoor but not the indoor

Speedtest from mobile app while directly standing underneath it.  These tests were done 1 minute apart .. the descrepancy is large, both go through the same FTTP.

IndoorAP

OutdoorAP

[Toshi_Esumi]

A few things to start with:
- When you did speed tests, were you sure which RADIO you were connected.
- If not done yet, separate SSID between 2.4G and 5G like "home-WiFi24", "home-WiFi5" to that you can be sure which one you're connected.

- Check FortiAP Client Monitor in the dashboard to see signal receiving levels at the APs from all devices as well as check the channels

- install a Wifi Analyzer app to your phone and check signal receiving levels from the APs at the position of each IOT devices for both RADIOs.
- I would assume you've done the same speed test from a PC/Mac directly connected to the 60F or FSW. If not test it to use it as a benchmark.

I would start from there.

By the way, nice house.

Toshi

[REDSCT]

Thanks for the reply.  I have literally spent hours troubleshooting this.  I have created separate SSIDs for different radios but the change wasnt really any different.

I guess a good question would be, if you had one of these new in the box, what would be your default go-to settings be for BAND, Channel width, channels, transmit power, etc

Am I expecting to much here?  I mean, the devices in the cave are litterally 20 steps away.

As for a wifi analyser, any recommendations, dont mind paying for something but when trying to have a quick look at an app, my lord the ad's come thick and fast.

Ahh the house, yea, its a lot of work, big house, big property but it is nice not having neighbours.  I just noticed my dog in the first pic .. haha

Ill line up some more structured testing when I get a minute.  Just wanted to throw it out there and see if I'm doing something clearly wrong here.

Thanks

S

[Toshi_Esumi]

Separating SSID between two RADIOs is NOT to solve the problem, but to make troubleshooting clearler/easier.

How about the FortiAP Client Monitor in the Dashboard? How much dBm the AP is seeing from the each client device?

Generally 43xF series is overkill for a house. They're more for dense client environment like class rooms, large offices, or ballrooms, etc. 4x4 mu-MIMO/Tri-radio. But the 3rd RADIO is mainly for scanning. So your set up is reasonable: 2.4GHz 20MHz width/5GHz 80MHz width, so likely all IoT devices are connected to 2.4G (they regularly don't see 80M) while highend devices like iPhone, newer laptops can see the 5G SSID. So far I don't recognize any config issues.

For WiFi Analyzer, I use "WiFi Analyzer" written by Kevin Yuan on my Android for free. And Acrylic on my laptop PC, which has a free version but I bought a license.

Toshi 

[REDSCT]

Thanks Toshi

Thats what I was thinking about the device, it certainly is overkill for a house but if these units are designed for offices, classrooms etc then I would think there should be zero issues straight out of the box.

Im not sure about the placement of the unit, I might move it somewhere else after I have done a bit more testing.

Im slowly going through and learning each item and decided on each items impact.

I've been reading doing some reading, reddit and manuals.  It would be interesting to get your thoughts on

- DAARP, one guy mentioned to turn it off

- The transmit power mode, what value is best here.

- I had a quick look at the MIMO settings, everything on my list is 2x2, 1x1, does that sound right? I assumed 4x4 should could work here.

Ill gear up with the tools and do some proper testing to see what exactly is going on here.  thanks again for the comments.  Here is a quick list of some of the devices mentioned.  All of these devices are within 20 meters at most.

[ebilcari]

The problem with WiFi is that one "lazy" device can slow/disturb the whole radio/channel communication. I would suggest to split the SSID to a "speedy one" (5GHz) with only modern/smart devices capable of MIMO, channel width 80Mhz, and a "coverage" SSID (2.4GHz) for the rest of them, also disable the support for old protocol like a,b,g.

The MIMO shown there should be what the end device supports not the AP capabilities.

For transmit power since you don't have other APs in the network you can leave it at full power.

[Toshi_Esumi]

The first dB must be "Signal Strength/Noise" while the second column with -xx dBm is raw Signal Strength.

almost 30 devices. Are they really connected?

But my concern is the Signal Strength/Noise is lower than I would expect. Mine is just two 221Es but they see my Android with 37dB while IoT device (Roku) is 40 dB both on 5G 20Mhz width. There might be strong "Noise" sources.