EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes

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EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes

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EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes
EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes
2023-02-04 10:44:59 - last edited 2023-02-04 10:49:27
Model: EAP245  
Hardware Version: V4
Firmware Version: 1.0.1 Build 20220713 Rel. 66299(4555)

We use two EAP245s in our small business to cover two floors. I chose this model to increase the network reliability, but unfortunately, we experience frequent WiFi network disruptions: every few hours, the following happens for a few minutes:

 

  • All mobile devices lose complete network access (can't even ping the EAP245, the router, or any internet address like 8.8.8.8).
  • Devices initially show a connected WiFi without connectivity but might disconnect completely eventually (probably depending on the length of the disruption).
  • When a device manually disconnects and tries to connect again, it's not able to find the WiFi until the disruption is over.
  • The WiFi usually comes back pretty quickly, after 1 or two minutes, and full performance is restored.

 

A few observations:

  • We did not enable any advanced features, no Load Balancing, no Airtime Fairness. The EAPs run in plain vanilla config with a WiFi with the same SSID on 2.4 and 5 GHz.
  • I'm not able to see anything out of the extraordinary in the (very minimal) system logs.
  • As a "poor man's" monitoring, I've been running PingTools running on several phones, checking both EAPs, the router, and Google DNS 8.8.8.8 every minute. I can clearly see frequent outages, even in the middle of the night.
  • I tried to run the two EAPs both individually (set up through the Omada mobile app), and managed by an Omada Controller (running dockerized on a Linux server). There might be differences in behavior, but the outages occur in both scenarios. So it's unlikely that the outage is caused by the Omada Controller "provisioning" the EAP, as I've read in other discussions.
  • This happens to both our EAP245, but not at the same time (at least if they're not managed by the Omada Controller). If the WiFi is out on the upper floor, and I jog down to the lower floor, my phone will connect to the same SSID with full connectivity. Back up, there's no connectivity again.
  • Initially, we ran both devices with PoE from our central switch panel, without any obvious issues. But to rule out power issues, I've also placed the PoE injector that comes with the EAP245 directly next to the device.

 

Other components we use (but I doubt there's much relevance): fiber internet connection, Ubiquity EdgeRouter Pro, about 40 devices on the network (both static and dynamic addresses).

 

Overall, the performance of the EAP245 is great when it works. But these outages are nothing we can live with. And I'm just not sure how to proceed, as it seems clearly an EAP issue, but that's nothing a business EAP should ever allow. And the same issue over two separately configured EAPs excludes the possibility of a single faulty device.

 

Any help is much appreciated. I'd hate to scrap the devices and go with a different brand, as I really like them if they work!

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#1
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Re:EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes
2023-02-04 17:36:52

  @rolandx 

 

Hey

 

Cant say i have ever come accross this, but what you are describing doesnt sound to me like the AP is faulty, certainly agree with that.   It seems more a protocol issue, or perhaps channel selection?

 

Does this happen on the LAN?   Namely, if you have 3x pings going (WiFi to WAN, LAN to WAN and LAN to AP) is it only the WiFi that drops out?    Also when this happens do you lose DHCP, what error do you get when reconnecting?  Does connected devices have an IP and can you ping the AP / Gateway?

 

I would also check for interference, even switch to DFS channels for a while to see if it goes away or the controller detects radar.  

 

 

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#2
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Re:EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes
2023-02-04 18:04:38

@Philbert Thanks for the quick rely! It's a pure WiFi issue, the wired devices don't experience any issues.

 

The last time this happened, I observed it on my phone. After turning off WiFi and turning it on again, the WiFi itself was present, but Android gave me an "Connection could not be authenticated" (maybe not verbatim in English, translated from German). After tapping a few times on the WiFi in the settings, the phone was able to connect again. Other devices dropped out as well. For example, we had Spotify playing in the background via Chromecast Audio, and the playback stopped at the same time.

 

The interference theory sounds interesting. Before going with the EAP245, we had a few regular WiFi routers (Asus RT-AC66U), and also had sporadic issues. But with them, it was not with all devices, and only once every few days. So my theory was that it was some incompability between the router and specific devices.

 

I'm not familiar with DFS. If I understand correctly, it's only available when running the EAP245 managed by the Omada Controller, correct? If I can find the feature, I'm happy to try it out and see if it helps.

 

If there are any other ideas, especially about interference, I'm happy to dig further, test things and report back.

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Re:EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes
2023-02-04 19:29:57

I now dug a bit into DFS and I'm not quite sure how choosing a DFS channel could help.

 

  • IIUC, a DFS channel is a channel on which the Wifi will be dropped as soon as a radar signal is detected. Isn't using a DFS channel therefore more a possible source of the issue, rather than a solution?
  • Also, I think DFS channels are only relevant for 5GHz Wifi. However, the Chromecast Audio lost connection as well, and it seems that it's a 2.4GHz-only device. That would indicate that the disruption is not related to DFS.

 

Nonetheless, I think trying to pin a specific channel might make sense for testing. For now, I randomly selected the DFS channel 120 (5600MHz), to follow your suggestion. If the issues are persistent, I'll try selecting different channels (e.g., non-DFS).

 

 

 

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#4
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Re:EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes
2023-02-06 11:21:28

  @rolandx 

 

You can also create a 5Ghz only SSID and test it.

 

Sometimes 2.4Ghz is not good to use but the client devices still want to try their best to connect 2.4Ghz.

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#5
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Re:EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes
2023-03-09 22:40:03

Happy overall, yet a bit sad here, to report that the issue has been fixed. I replaced the two TP-Link access points with two Ubiquiti U6-Lite and everything worked reliably out of the box.

 

The access points are located at the exact same positions, same network cables, even using the TP-Link PoE injectors (as you'd need to buy them extra w/ Ubiquity). Without a dedicated controller, the configuration options are laughably few, but the setup was reliable without any disconnects. I've since added the Unifi controller (running on a Rasperry Pi for free), and now I've got everything I wished for.

 

Too bad it didn't work out with the TP-Link access points.

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#6
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Re:EAP245: WiFi is disrupted several times per day for a few minutes
2023-03-10 00:58:59
  @rolandx Did you have the AP set to auto channel selection?  wondering if it had a DFS channel selected and your getting this issue when radar is detected,  when that happens the AP will stop transmitting and wait to see if it see another radar signal,  if that happens it fires up on another channel.  Check your logs on the controller and see if there are any notifications showing that.    You could try setting the channels manually and test again. I have 60 EAP setup on a site and they work well when the channels are set correctly. At some point soon I'm going to test with the new AI auto config for channel & power to see how it handles things!
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