Archer C6 2.4G band stops working, disable then enable restores
Recently purchased Archer C6 Router running the latest firmware. On 4 occasions the 2.4G WiFi band has stopped working, devices can connect to it but get no network access. Disabling and enabling the 2.4G band on the admin interface restores the connectivity, the 5G band is not affected, a device connected to it is used to reset the 2.4G band.
I used the chat support service to discuss the issue and the suggestion was to change from automatic to a fixed channel for the 2.4G band, this appeared to resolve the issue but it has happened again today, a phone which only works on 2.4G was showing the WIFI as access denied.
is there anything else I can do to resolve this issue.
StuartP
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Hello @Rudrayya, sorry to hear the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi speed is not as good as expected, please help verify some details, and we will try to fix it together:
1. Ensure the C6 firmware is up-to-date. If not, update it first and reconfigure it from scratch.
2. How did you test this Wi-Fi speed via the router? Did you disconnect all the other devices from it and only leave one laptop or phone performing the test? It is suggested to change a new SSID and password and connect only one phone or laptop to perform the speedtest 3 times.
3. How about the 2.4GHz wireless negotiation speed on that device? If the link speed is not as good as expected, please try another wireless device with more powerful wireless cards.
4. Simplify your network layout if there are other routers or RE in your network, just leave the modem and the C6 on, disconnect other devices and run the Speedtest app 3 times. Please ensure the 2.4GHz wireless channel width is set to 40MHz. Try to run third-party software like Wi-Fi scanner to find a clear 2.4GHz channel, then refer to the guide below to modify the wireless settings on the C6:
https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/2292/
5. What is the distance between the 2.4GHz clients and the C6 router? How about the signal strength? Was it working fine before?
May it help.
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This issue has been running for ages now and everyone has been fiddling at the edges - nothing has fundamentally changed to bring about a fix. This is technology that should just work. Yes, it can be tuned to avoid neighbours' channels and things like that, but the trouble being experienced here indicates a far more fundamental issue.
On a further matter, even installing a WA901ND v5 WAP and turning off the router's 2.4 GHz transmitter has not completely solved the issue as, although the 2.4. GHz frequency on the WAP does not demonstrate the issue where devices are connected but not really / unable to connect, the signal from teh WAP is still flaky.
My older generation kit that is still knocking around (e.g. TL-WR940N, and all but one of the TL-WR841Ns that I use as access points) does not demonstrate the issue that everybody on this thread is struggling with. (Unfortunately I cannot get my hands on the TL-WR841Ns to see exactly what the different builds are at they are in London and I am stuck in Brussels thanks to the pandemic!)
I think the developers need to go back to the last working implementation of the 2.4GHz kit and analyze the changes they have made (that broke it).
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Hi @DWR65, thanks a lot for your feedback and suggestions, we are sorry that this takes long to resolve the disconnect issue our customer reported on the Archer C6, while the issue is kind of complicated and the root cause of the cases is not actually the same, so our developers are still analyzing all the codes.
While we hope you could provide us more details as you can as for now, and we can escalate your case to the engineers once the issue needs to be verified by them.
Is your issue also that the 2.4GHz is unstable? If yes, please kindly confirm what have you done and how is the behavior when it disconnects. Thank you very much.
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You will find a detailed description of the issue as experienced by me higher up in this thread.
For the moment (details above) I have disabled the 2.4GHz transmitter on the router and connected a separate 2.4GHz WAP. It's better, but the signal from the WAP is flaky (but at least devices don't effectively get blocked).
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Hello Kevin,
I am one of the "happy" owners of C6 device.
My issue is even worse - my 2.4Ghz stops working each X minutes (where X varies from 5 mins to an hour or two) and all devices are disconnected. Meantime LAN and 5G are fine. Any action with 2.4Ghz like change the bandwidth or channel or disable/enable WAN restores the service and then it goes down in X minutes again.
But, even in working stage not all devices are able to connect to WiFi - some devices stay unconnected, after wifi reset they may connect but some others are jumping into unconnected stage. Have to manually push for registration. I have ~25 devices at home (TVs, Phones, Laptops, IP Cameras, smart switches etc), they're able to work with my old WAPs perfectly so it is not an endpoint issue.
I've tried to play with almost everything in router configuration - all parameters in Wireless Settings, disable/enable TxBF/MiMo, DHCP configuration, System Parameters - everything. Nothing helps. Replaced the device in the shop and 2nd device behaves exactly in the same way.
I will happily support you with troubleshooting if you will advise where/how necessary debug logs can be collected and shared with you. Device system log doesn't contain anything useful.
Meantime, as far as I understood from this topic the issue appeared in 1.3.x version only, so maybe you can share one of the old/stable 1.2.x releases with me to install and check if 2.4G is okay or not please?
Thanks.
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There is no stable firmware. The issue is present from the very first version 1.1.0. Read the first post of this thread.
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I see, you have followed this thread for months, while we didn't have a clear info about the issue you encountered actually. Can we have the detailed network layout, please? As you mentioned there is a WAP in the network, what is the model number? Is it connected to the C6 LAN with a cable?
BTW, as per your previous description, it seems that the case had been handled by the engineers already, it is suggested to respond to their email directly if they need more details about the issue, as even if you are posting your issue again here, we may not be able to trace the root caused and it needs to be verified by the engineers instead.
Hope you could understand and cooperate, thanks a lot.
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@Wetterhahn Thanks for correcting me, I somehow missed that.
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Since I went from C6 V2 EU to Asus AC87U two weeks ago, it's boring - no issues anymore ... all my devices work (also Chromebook) on both 2.4 and 5 GHz :)
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Same here :) D-LINK DIR-825 AC1200...
I left my C6 as a second floor router. It seems stable when working on Channel 1. But I can feel some performance issues...
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