Hank21 wrote

Hi  @luca22 

luca22 wrote

I'm using Omada software controller v. 5.1.7 to control 2x EAP660HD APs (both hardwired and using their own PSU).  Looking at the 2.4 GHz band with wifi analyzer / wifiman and the like, I see signal strenght and channel varying.  I've recently switched the radios on both APs to manual channels (since auto was working poorly as well), I setup max Tx power.  Setting a certain channel seems almost random: after clicking "apply", sometimes I can see a strong (-55 db) signal on the "correct" channel (the one I just set), buth sometimes SSID pops up on a different channel altogether. 

 

One of the APs disappears from monitoring for minutes at the time.  Over several minutes, the signal strenght will also vary for both APs, usually settling around -75 db (same strenght as most of my neighbors).  It is almost as though the APs are still selecting both channel and Tx power automatically, and doing a very poor job at that.  I understand the concept of interference and how busy the 2.4 GHz spectrum is, but I cannot understand why manual channel settings don't seem to apply reliably, and why Tx power "high" setting goes back to "medium" strenght (at best) over time.   Any advice?

 

Could you please share us the screenshot(of wifi analyzer) that 2.4Ghz wifi went to another channel automatically?

 

Please go to Controller-->Log and check if there is any Disconnection/Rebooting Alert from the EAP.

 

If possible, please reset one of the EAP and configure it as Standalone mode. It will help us detect if the problem is related to the Controller. 

 

Hi  @Hank21 

thanks for replying. I'm attaching 2 screenshots from my phone (Oneplus 6T) from wifi analizer app.  Both taken from the same location about 30 seconds apart.  My SSID (bumblebee) is displayed on one screenshot, but not on the other.  No settings were changed between the 2 shots.  Clients do not disconnect while the SSID disappears, looks like perhaps the SSID is intermittently broadcasted?  I have "broadcast SSID" set on the controller.  No errors / disconnections from the APs.  I used to get a lot of "authentication timeouts" from clients with the APs selecting their channels automatically though, but that seems to have been resolved by switching to manual selection for the channels.  I can try the stand alone trick next.

  @luca22 

Not showing up in wifi analyzer but not losing connection could just be the interval/broadcast going out of sync.

Using the "general" power settings (low/med/high) vs actually setting a power setting gives the APs a range to work in.... or at least that seems to be the case for all of the TPLink EAPs I've ever had.  Best practice would be to set actual values 6db apart for 2.4 and 5ghz....  Starting low and going from there.  Generally a good place to start is 2.4 @ 10 and 5 @ 16, depending on your results you go up or down from there...  But attempt to keep the difference 6db.  Not really necessary if you are using separate SSIDs for the different bands....  But it's a good habit to keep in general.  You also want to manually set channels and generally different channels per AP.  I've not yet run into any system prosumer, enterprise or whatever that is very successful with auto channels and auto power....  The closet to being dependable is possibly Aruba in that regard.

Also, as usual, I'd suggest trying a dtim of 3 from the tplink default of 1.  Most consumer gear (phones, tablets... especially idevices and macs) favor a dtim of 3.... probably most likely because that's what consumer routers chose to be their default ohh so long ago.  If your gear plays great with a lower dtim, it generally leads to smoother performance....  But it's also all relative, cause something like an iPhone will have "smoother" performance with a dtim of 3 since they favor that.

I'd also try going back to firmware 1.0.6 and see what happens.  We have noticed performance issues (downlink slowness) with firmware 1.1.0 and 1.1.1 and some devices (Oneplus phones and various models of iPhones).

Powered by their own PSU I'm assuming you mean you are using the power adapters instead of PoE?  If you are, and you are able, I'd try PoE if none of the above works.

  @Vilmalith 

thanks for your help.   I changed power settings according to your post: starting at 10 db for 2.4 GHz and 16 for 5 GHz, also changed dtim from 1 to 3.  I'll keep these setting for a while and see.  In my shoes, would you enable "fast roaming" and "band steering"?  Both APs are using their power adapters, I don't have a PoE+ switch, maybe that is next.

  @Hank21 

> If possible, please reset one of the EAP and configure it as Standalone mode. It will help us detect if the problem is related to the Controller. 

Today I shutdown the controller, reset both APs, and recreated the bumblebee SSID with the same settings via the web interface.  The signal is now staying put (no sudden signal decreasing / disappearing), so that seems to be a problem that was caused by the controller software. :-(   One thing I still cannot explain, is why on one of the APs (both same hardware model (1.0) and firmware level (1.1.0) I can only set 5GHz Tx Power from 7 to 16, while on the other AP I have the usual 7-26 range available).  For the 2.4 band I can see the 7-26 range for both APs.   EDIT: 7-26 seems only to be available for channels => 149 , channel 36-48 are limited to 7-16 tx power