Clients never disconnect - maybe related to old bug?
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Hey
I'm experiencing an annoying issue in my network where WiFi clients remain connected indefinitely, even after they have long left the network. I found similar issues reported in the past in these threads:
- Clients don't disappear from Omada controller (Sep 2020)
- Persistent client connection in client list (Mar 2022)
Maybe there are others. It seems there were some efforts to address this, but I'm unsure if it was fully resolved?
My current hardware and firmware versions:
- Router: ER605 v2.0, Firmware: 2.2.6
- Main Switch: SG2008 v4.20, Firmware: 4.20.1
- Secondary Switch: SG2016P v1.20, Firmware: 1.20.1
- Access Points: 2x EAP653(EU) v1.0, Firmware: 1.0.14 (Connected to Main Switch with POE)
- Controller: OC200 1.0, Firmware: 1.31.3 Build 20240620 Rel.80383, Controller Version: 5.14.26.23
My setup appeared to work fine initially; At least I didn’t notice any issues on my first setup attempt (Where I updated to latest firmware for all devices). However, after encountering an unrelated problem with a configuration loop related to messing with stateful gateway ACL rules, I had to reset all devices to factory settings and set everything up again. Since then, the issue with clients not disconnecting has appeared. This has been running for about two weeks now.
I initially ignored the issue because my main focus was getting device tracking to work in Home Assistant. While troubleshooting that, I discovered a bug in the TP-Link Omada Home Assistant integration, which has since been fixed by the developer. I hoped the problem with the clients always appearing online was only a visual issue in the Omada controller interface, but I was wrong - it affects the functionality in general.
The only thing I can think of that might be related to this issue is the fact that I have a long list of DHCP reservation entries that I exported from my previous setup and imported into this one (originally from my old router).
The bug in the Home Assistant integration gave me this idea, as it was related to devices that had not yet connected to my router, causing the integration to fail because it assumed a specific attribute in the API was always available.
While this may be unrelated, I wanted to mention it as a potential clue. Here is the issue I posted regarding the integration bug: Home Assistant Integration Issue.
I should mention that I had this DHCP reservation configuration in place previously as well, so I'm not sure if it is contributing to the current problem.
The problem is not only frustrating for network management but also makes the client list unreliable for device tracking in for instance Home Assistant as mentioned.
I would greatly appreciate any guidance on resolving this issue.
Thanks
TrekkieDK
The issue affects various devices, including phones, tablets, and PCs:
In this screenshot, the devices highlighted in yellow aren't even in the house. The blue iPhone 12 (my son's) "just" arrived home, yet it's been shown as "connected" since 08:00 this morning when he left for school. The "Camilla" iPhone has been on and off 3-4 times today but also shows as connected the entire time. The iPad is online but on a different SSID (more on that later).
Here's a screenshot of my son's iPhone:
The uptime is incorrectly shown as 4 days when it should be around 30 minutes.
And here's a report screenshot:
All the listed devices are reported as being online for 2 days, which is inaccurate. One client seems to disappear and reappear, but I’m unsure which one it is. The overall client count remains stable at 7 for 2 days, even though devices have been going online and offline more frequently.
On the guest network, only my iPad is connected, using "private Wi-Fi address" on iOS (which fakes the MAC address). However, it still appears connected on the main SSID as well, which shouldn’t be the case.
Please let me know if there’s anything else I can provide to help identify this issue.
Thanks
TrekkieDK