Yeah it's a big pain. But the Chinese don't give a sh1t. They'll just tell you to 'watch the app!' and be done with it.

Hello, everyone,

I might have found a solution.

TLDR: disable smart DHCP by assigning a static IP and disabling the DHCP server in every AP you have. This you do in the AP's. It does not work if you reserve the IPs to the AP's in the router and leave dummy DHCP on. 

I bought an Archer C6 to route in my house 1.5 years ago. I used many of its features (VPN, VPS, etc) and everything went smooth all that time, except for the guest WIFI signal that kept dropping so I decided to shut it off as I have not so many guests at home anyway.

A week ago there was one shortage and I was not home. My wife tried restarting the C6 but she could not make it work. There had been many other shortages but this one apparently killed my router. When I came home I couldn't not even connect to the router with its IP or address. The app Tether allowed me to connect but soon after got me out again and lost the visibility of the router.

I went and bought a TP-Link TL-R600VPN to have a little more flexibility and put it to work. Everything went smootly again. Then, I connected an AP TP-Link TL-WA901ND and worked fine as well. A couple of days later I replugged the Archer C6 and tried re connecting to it. Maybe I could use it as an AP too. I noticed its IP had changed to 192.168.0.254 after the power outage. I logged in with the old password I had set up and voila, it worked. I was in. I switched to AP mode and everything worked normally.

Here is when finally I encuntered (noticed) the dreaded Smart DHCP / IP range problem. The basic TL-WA901ND was dropping all connections every 10 minutes. I tried restarting but nothing was fixed. I then went to the router and reserved an IP to the TL-WA901ND, thinking that maybe the TL-WA901ND was losing its IP every now and then. Failure.

I then tried turning on the DHCP sever on the TL-WA901ND AP and allocated an exclusive range of IPs for it, on the router. The AP allocated ONE IP and then the router's (the TL-R600VPN) DHCP server took over allocating all other devices connected to it. Again, dropping them every couple of minutes.

I decided to return to smart DHCP on the TL-WA901ND AP and erase the IP reservation for it in the router. Finally it ocurred to me to use an static IP in the AP TL-WA901ND, while leaving the router without an IP reservation. Problem solved. At least for the last 3 hours.

I checked the logs in my TL-R600VPN and lo and behold, it was assigning the same IP over and over to my other AP (the Archer C6). Every 5 seconds or so, the router was giving the AP the same IP. I then changed the Smart DHCP function on the Archer C6 to static IP, and then the router stopped giving the same IP to the Archer C6 every 5 seconds. As far as I am concerned, my network is stable now.

@RodrigoBG8 

This might be an option, but the M9s have no feature at all to assign a static IP...

@phillip_mcmahon 

You can assign a static IP to the AP on the advanced options. Right in WAN settings.

@RodrigoBG8 

Please share screenshots specific to the M9.

There should be no WAN option when in AP mode, which confuses me a little. I have looked both in the Deco app and also via the web link to the settings direct on the APs themselves.

I see no way at all to add a static IP address.

@RodrigoBG8 If I understand your solution correctly, your main router is the TL-R600VPN which is managing DHCP. In that you have configured a static IP for your APs which are TL-WA901ND and Archer C6? Or have you set a static IP in the APs?

@phillip_mcmahon 

I stand corrected. Instead of you can, I must have written you should be able to.

I don't have a Deco M9 AP and there are no simulators around in the TPL site. I only saw the user's manual here, in page 25 

Manual Deco M9.

@walz 

I set the static IP's directly in the AP's.

I am yet to test that concurring with the IP reservation and mac binding in the Router.

Sadly, after some more hours, the AP TL-WA901ND dropped the connections again, and on the router's log I could see the DHCP giving the AP TL-WA901ND the same IP three or four times in 3 minutes.

Maybe when I reserve the IP on the router things will improve. Maybe not. In any case, I'll be waiting for an upgrade as well as you.

The dumb DHCP activated itself in the TL-WA901ND...

That's what caused the AP severing connections again. Now I'll set a static IP in the AP and reserve the same IP in the router. I'll keep you posted.

@RodrigoBG8 

The manual refers to setting a static WAN interface on the M9s.

However this thread is about the M9s in AP mode, i.e. having no WAN interface. 

The model you're talking about is something totally different and it might be worth starting your own thread rather than confusing/hijacking this one 👍

Appreciate you looking though.