Hi @xleroc,

Some things to try (not sure of your current config):

1) Set the AP's to use different radio channels for all radios.  1, 6, or 11 for the 2.4GHz and 36 and 149 for the 5.8GHz

2) Lower the AP transmit power.  Use the custom scale, set all 4 radios to 16 dBm and adjust from there.  You may need to turn down the 2.4GHz more, and possibly turn up the 5.8Ghz a little (depending on home construction)

3) Disable band steering, and use separate SSID's for 2.4 & 5.8GHz

4) Use 20MHz only for 2.4.  For 5.8GHz you can try 80MHz only vs. 20/40/80.

5) Enable FAST roaming, disable MESH (if you're not using any wireless backhaul)

6) Use WPA2/3 PSK

7) Join your Chromebook to only one SSID -- either 2.4 or 5.8 -- but not both.

If posisble, make sure the Chromebook is fully updated.

-Jonathan

@JSchnee21 Thanks.  I will try these suggestions and post in a day or two to say how well they worked (or not).

@JSchnee21 

I made a bunch of modifications as you suggested, and also turned on client logging (at least for 7 days, so it doesn't fill up the OC200).  When my daughter got home from school, I still observed the behavior, but now at least there's a message on the OC200:

[Failed]XXXX failed to connected to YYYY with SSID "ZZZZ" on channel 1 because WPA Authentication times out/failed.(8 times in a minute)

Now, I know that the password is correct because if I watch the settings on her chromebook, it will attempt to connect, actually assign an IP address and then go back to not connecting.  I have tried "forgetting" the connection and manually re-adding it with the correct password, but that doesn't work either.

Hi @xleroc,

Interesting.  Did it used to stay connected and recently stopped connecting reliably, or has it never worked?

From your error message, I have few additional questions / suggestions:

1) Does it only support 2.4GHz?  I see the message shows channel 1 (which is 2.4GHz).  Try 5.8GHz if possible.

2) In cases of severe RF interference I have had devices fail to authenticate to the Wifi network.  iOS devices are notorious for this.  They'll claim the password is wrong when you know, for sure, that it is right.  I also used to have two different Apple Airport AP's that would bork and get stuck in a reboot loop if they were set to channel 6 due to interference.  This was non-Wifi interference -- so you would only see it with a true RF scanner -- turned out to be some of my older compact fluorescent bulbs.  After I switched to LED this went away.  But the TP-Link's have never had this issue (one of the reason's I switched).

Try changing the channel of the closest AP to a different channel -- 6, 11, 3, 9 see if that helps at all.  Better still, use 5.8GHz if possible.

3) What WPA settings are you using / requiring for your WLAN's on the OC-200?  If the Chromebook is an older device perhaps it doesn't support WPA3, or 2, or AES.

4) Just for fun, if you turn off the 2.4 GHz radios on your TP-links and turn on the 2.4GHz radio on your broadband router (or use a 3rd channel with a different SSID) does the Chromebook work any better?

My kid's local school district experimented with Chromebooks for a few years (pre-Covid) but then ultimately abandoned them for iPads.  But at least for us, the combination of Google Classroom, Goodle Drive, Zoom, Google Meet, FlipGrid, and Schoology are all platform independent.  So my kids routinely use their Laptop, iPhone, iPad interchangeably depending on the task at hand.

-Jonathan

@xleroc 

Ooops, sorry.  I just saw the full image you uploaded.  Obviously you tried different channels and radios (2.4 & 5.8).

WPA settings would be the next place I would try.  I would also your broadband Wifi for fun.

-Jonathan

@xleroc 

Given the frequency of those failures and the rapidity with which the channels are changing, it seems like you still have band steering on and and bound the SSID to both radios.  I would turn that off, and use saeparate SSID's for each radio frequency -- e.g. 

myssid_2ghz

myssid_5ghz

Some devices really don't take to Band Steering very well.

-Jonathan

@xleroc 

Here's another possibility.  Check the date and time on the Chromebook and if possible set it to automatically synchronize with an NTP authority

https://support.google.com/chromebook/thread/10868275?hl=en

Bad system date/time often screws up encypted connections -- SSL, VPN, WAP?

I've also seen a variety of posts suggesting that Chrome OS doesn't support WAP/TKIP but does support WPA/AES.  But then I've seen others that say the opposite.

-Jonathan

Hi @xleroc,

Three other suggestions:

1) Make sure "Airtime Fairness" is disabled.

2) There is a new version of Omada SDN out today for the OC-200 (firmware 1.7.1 having Omada 2.4.2).  I've upgraded and it seems to be working well (likely won't fix your issue though).

3) Experiment with different WPA settings:

You might have to fall back to WPA1 (or WPA2) and compare TKIP to AES.  Hopefully you won't have to fall all the way back to WEP.    NOTE that you can set these per SSID.  So you can create a separate Chromebook only SSID using different security settings than your regular networks.

@JSchnee21 Part of the difficulty is that since this is a school-issued Chromebook, I can't change any settings.  It's pretty locked down.  It requires that she log in with her school-issues Google username and password to even get access to the Chromebook at all, and, of course, if she can't get onto Wi-Fi, she can't enter her username and password.

@JSchnee21 I went ahead and created a separate SSID for my daughter's Chromebook that's 2.4 GHz only.  That way I can experiment with the WPA settings without messing with anyone else's WiFi.  I'll try that out when she gets home from school.