Access point recommendations

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jonathan18

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#2002635 26-Apr-2018 09:06

GarryP:
Is the SSID for the router's wifi different from the AP's one so that you can definitely tell which hardware you are connecting to? While trying to use the AP, have you disabled wifi from the router?

What I would do is disconnect both APs and then connect only one of them directly into a LAN port on the router using a known good Ethernet cable. Now try and set up your wifi from there.

You could do a visual check of the newly installed cable to ensure it is wired correctly ie all wires punched down correctly, both ends wired the same (T568A or T568B).

You may also want to change 802.11ac 5GHz Channel Width to 40MHz. When I set mine up I found that nothing I had would connect at the 80MHz setting.

Thanks for these ideas. Yep, have always had a different SSID for the new connection, and had the router’s WiFi turned off when the APs have been running. Also tried 40 MHz as per your suggestion, but there’s no issue with any device connecting, just the whole thing going down!

jonathan18

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#2002636 26-Apr-2018 09:08

Unfortunately, I’m still experiencing the same wifi and internet problems despite many more attempts to resolve these.

Much of the time when the wifi goes down, the APs’ SSID remains visible but no device is able to connect to it. Even more weirdly, many of the times the wifi connection goes down, the internet on the router itself goes down. The ONT still shows an active connection, but the ‘internet’ symbol (on the router - edit added for clarity) is not lit and all devices including wired ones lose internet.

Given this, is it possible that the router (a standard-issue Spark HG659B) is (part of) the problem? I’m currently trying using only the router’s wifi for the day to see if anything goes wrong, but that won’t help if it’s caused by the interplay between the router and APs.

I’ve updated the router to the latest Spark firmware and, when that made no difference, completely reset it. As far as the fixed IP issue, I’ve reduced the DHCP range and ensured devices with fixed IPs have an address outside of this (this includes both of the APs) or specifically reserved the IP address for that device in the router.

I’d really appreciate some further advice as to what I should try next, or what could be causing these problems. I’ve uploaded a text document of the router’s log, if that gives any clues (https://1drv.ms/t/s!AoLFO27xfS8ggtNgk_YTQ5VHEDXsUA – please let me know if you can’t open this); would it help if I can dig out the same for the APs?

Thanks again for any suggestions.

michaelmurfy

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#2002645 26-Apr-2018 09:47

@jonathan18 Yep appears to be your router here. If that crashes then the DHCP server also dies meaning nothing can connect to the WiFi. Could be either worth requesting a new one from Spark or perhaps even investing in the Grandstream GWN7000 to complete your setup.

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billgates

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#2002664 26-Apr-2018 10:14

If you need good coverage around and even outside the house depending on the placement of the satellite, the Netgear Orbi is really good. It's currently $100 off which is rare and if you signup with an email on Noel Leeeming website you can get further $10 off. Both the master and satellite offer 4 wired Ethernet ports each. The best part is that the communication between the master and satellite is using a dedicated backhaul (Wired or WiFi)

https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/shop/computers-tablets/accessories/networking-equipment/netgear-rbk50-100aus-orbi-high-performance-ac3000-tri-band-wifi-system/prod149814.html

Do whatever you want to do man.

Jase2985

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#2002669 26-Apr-2018 10:20

could you not try assigning a wifi device a static IP to see if it can still connect to the wifi when the internet goes down? will at least show its not the AP's thats the issue

jonathan18

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#2002684 26-Apr-2018 10:38

billgates:
If you need good coverage around and even outside the house depending on the placement of the satellite, the Netgear Orbi is really good. It's currently $100 off which is rare and if you signup with an email on Noel Leeeming website you can get further $10 off. Both the master and satellite offer 4 wired Ethernet ports each. The best part is that the communication between the master and satellite is using a dedicated backhaul (Wired or WiFi)

https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/shop/computers-tablets/accessories/networking-equipment/netgear-rbk50-100aus-orbi-high-performance-ac3000-tri-band-wifi-system/prod149814.html

Thanks for the suggestion, but I’ve only just spent well over $500 purchasing two of the well-regarded Grandstream GWN7610 APs (Including the cost to get the Ethernet cabling into the ceiling), which (when they work!) give me good coverage across the whole section. I elected to go with a commercial-grade product, and this one in particular, based on feedback from GZ, following getting sick of replacing dodgy consumer-grade equipment. (Not saying the one you link to is the latter, but more to explain my purchase decision!)

jonathan18

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#2002685 26-Apr-2018 10:40

Jase2985:
could you not try assigning a wifi device a static IP to see if it can still connect to the wifi when the internet goes down? will at least show its not the AP's thats the issue

Yep, I can certainly give this a go. Would I best to trial this using an address outside of the DHCP range, or is it ok to do so within it but ensure it’s reserved? I’m assuming the former is safer?

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jonathan18

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#2002690 26-Apr-2018 10:49

michaelmurfy:
@jonathan18 Yep appears to be your router here. If that crashes then the DHCP server also dies meaning nothing can connect to the WiFi. Could be either worth requesting a new one from Spark or perhaps even investing in the Grandstream GWN7000 to complete your setup.

Thanks, @michaelmurfy - I’ve become increasingly suspicious the problem originates with the router, but had wondered that, if everything is fine when using only the WiFi on the router, then it couldn’t be the cause - is that not correct? (Ie, can it be feasible that the problem only rears itself when trying to use WiFi via the new APs? And, as such, going back to only using WiFi via the router won’t prove anything?)

At this point I’ll try with a new router from Spark (@Talkiet, how would I be best to go about requesting a replacement router?) as I doubt my wife would be comfortable spending more money! But, certainly, the Grandstream model will be top of my list provided I can prove the current issue isn’t with the APs...

Many thanks again for all the suggestions.

Talkiet

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#2002692 26-Apr-2018 10:56

You can't just request a new router I am afraid - that's an option however which may be suitable after you have followed the helpdesk troubleshooting... I have quickly read the thread (apologies if I misread) and it seems that the issue is that the Internet seems to drop out (shown by the internet light on the router dropping)... If that's the case then there should be lots of logs of that happening on our side.

You should speak to the helpdesk and see if they can see what he cause for that is.

(again, sorry if I missed things or if you have already exhaustively been through that process)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

freakngeek

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#2003125 26-Apr-2018 20:54

Access point recommendation, I bought a Netgear r7800 just to play with the Intel 9260 WIFI card I just got for my laptop
I like to tinker with WIFI at home much to my kids displeasure

Running latest stock Firmware, setting r7800 in AP mode as I have a ERL3 running network
Here are my connection speeds:

3m from r7800 in lounge where it sits feeding entire house

20m away in bedroom through 3x walls or 1x hallway through door then turn left then turn right

Throughput limited to my 1Gb LAN speed
Need a router with Port Aggregation to max out the WIFI, but these are costly and only gain a little

r7800 for share wireless speed, hard to beat
At range it still performs very well
BUT...
Quite a mission to get it into AP mode and a dedicated IP (can't use GUI as its broken)
Having issues with a 64GB USB3 stick, keeps disappearing after a few minutes fine on other devices.
Running DD-WRT links at 1.7Gbps but only get 866Gbps link performance but has a much more usable GUI

For share Wifi performance its great for other things not so, hence run it in AP mode

jonathan18

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#2003162 26-Apr-2018 22:38

Chatted online to a Spark rep earlier tonight. Following a short explanation of the problem from me and them conducting a few minutes of diagnostic tests they proposed replacing the router, so I assume something dodgy was confirmed. Will pick it up tomorrow and hopefully that’ll solve the WiFi/internet problems for good. Bad timing for it to occur during the school holidays, when dodgy internet is not an acceptable situation!

jonathan18

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#2005414 30-Apr-2018 19:39

Sooooo... a new router has made no difference! Wifi went down again not too long after installing the new router.

Have since tried running each AP separately (ie, the other turned off) - both worked fine for a period of a day or so without any issues.

And so since this morning I have been running both APs again, this time with the master/slave roles reversed.

It was nice to get home to working internet tonight, but that ended about half an hour ago - again lost both wifi and internet. Initially I was able to log into the APs' web management, but even that stopped working quite quickly (similarly the router's interface).

My plan is to try running the single APs by themselves for longer than a day, to see if the fault does occur when only running one at a time - my sense is that it doesn't (as it's never happened when only running one), but this may be worth a go do you think?

I've requested assistance from Grandstream's support team a couple of days ago, but no response thus far (and I've read they're pretty useless in providing assistance), so any further advice as to what I can do to narrow down the issue and fix it would be much appreciated (noting I've only just remembered to set a wireless device to a fixed IP address).

Spyware

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#2005421 30-Apr-2018 19:53

And when the wireless device has a static can you ping access point or router when in fault state.

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