Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected

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Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected

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Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2020-06-22 15:11:26 - last edited 2020-06-23 01:56:35
Model: Archer VR900  
Hardware Version: V3
Firmware Version: 0.2.0 0.9.1 V0069.0 Build 170303 Rel. 59897n (Up to date)

Hi,

 

In the last 4-6 weeks my Archer VR900 has been regularly (several times a day) dropping out the 2.4g connection but the 5g connection stays connected to the internet.   The only way to convince it to reconnect again is to reboot, and when this fail, power it out for a little while.

 

It's driving me mad, especially as I'm trying to work from home and my laptop isn't 5g compatible. 

 

I'm just on a bog standard phoneline connection, not fibre or cable or anything like that.  Basic package.

 

Can anyone please recommend any setting changes I can make to stop this happening please.  The router is telling me it has it's most upto date firmware, I've only had it about a year and before this, it's been working almost perfectly.

 

This is the latest log information it's showing, but it's all gobbledy gook to me! (Debug mode)

 

ID Time Type Level Log Content
1 2020-06-22 15:58:03 DHCPD Notice Send ACK to 192.168.1.109
2 2016-01-01 00:01:10 DHCPD Notice Recv REQUEST from 20:DF:B9:A6:79:BE
3 2016-01-01 00:01:10 DHCPD Notice Send OFFER with ip 192.168.1.110
4 2016-01-01 00:01:10 DHCPD Notice Recv DISCOVER from 50:C7:BF:8B:90:11
5 2016-01-01 00:01:10 PPP Information ppp0 rcvd [IPCP ConfAck id=0x3 <addr 80.225.151.61> <ms-dns1 79.79.79.77> <ms-dns2 79.79.79.78>]
6 2016-01-01 00:01:10 PPP Information ppp0 sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x3 <addr 80.225.151.61> <ms-dns1 79.79.79.77> <ms-dns2 79.79.79.78>]
7 2016-01-01 00:01:10 PPP Information ppp0 rcvd [IPCP ConfNak id=0x2 <addr 80.225.151.61> <ms-dns1 79.79.79.77> <ms-dns2 79.79.79.78>]
8 2016-01-01 00:01:10 PPP Information ppp0 sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 <addr 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns1 0.0.0.0> <ms-dns2 0.0.0.0>]

 

Thanking you in anticipation!

Sarella

 

 

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#1
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9 Reply
Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2020-06-30 03:50:53

@Sarella 

Hi, for your issue, may I know how many wireless devices connected to the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band in your house?

May I know the model numbers, system of these wireless devices which connected to the 2.4GHz band?

 

Please download the Wi-Fi analyzer APP, then test the usage of the 2.4GHz channel around your house.

Then, please change the 2.4GHz channel to the empty one, change the channel width to be 20MHz on the router's management page to avoid the traffic.

You can follow the instruction to change the channel and width easily. https://www.tp-link.com/support/faq/2292/

 

If the issue still happens, please feel free to contact us again.

 

 

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#2
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Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2020-07-01 14:49:24

@Sunshine Hi, Thanks for coming back to me.

 

As of this moment there are 23 devices connected to 2.4g, these are: 6 x HS100 TP Link plugs, 2 x LB100 TP Link Lightbulbs, 3 x TP Link KL110B lightbulbs, 5 x Google home mini v1, 1 x Google home, 1 x Google nest, 1 x chromecast, 1 x hp printer, 2 x HP laptops, 1 x Samsung TV.  There are 4 devices connected on 5g (1 x Iphone 1 x android phone, 1x laptop and 1 x ipad) and 1 wired device (Humax box).  We purchased this router as we were advised that it was very good for multiple device connections

 

Which Wifi Analyser app do you recommend (IOS) please and what am I using it to find out?  I looked for a TP Link one in the appstore, but didn't find one. 

When it is working we have good WiFi reception on 2.4g across the house - 5g is less extensive, which is why static devices are set on the 2.4g network.   

When 2.4g drops, all devices on the network are not connected, but the 5.g ones are.  The google home screen also tells us it's not connected.

 

How do I know which channel is empty please? it's just a list of numbers? It is currently set to Auto?

 

Many thanks for your reply

 

Sarella

 

 

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#3
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Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2020-07-02 01:11:18

@Sarella 

HI, Wi-Fi analyzer is not TP-Link APP. You can search it from the APP store and download it. 

After you download it, please test the channel of the 2.4GHz network around your house.

 

The 2.4GHz networks has 11 channels in total and it is Auto normally on the management page.

After you test the channel, please change the 2.4GHz channel to be empty one on the page.

For example, if the channels of the networks focus on 2-10 around your house, you can change your 2.4GHz wireless channel to be 1.11 to check if it works.

You can also change the channel width to be 20MHz.

 

However, the issue happens because there are too many devices connect the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi.

On the 2.4ghz band, you can connect up to 11 devices depending on the bandwidth usage of the device. However, each device can use different amounts of bandwidth, so we don't advise connecting 11 devices at once as speed and performance can suffer. (It is also explanation from bing Website)

 

We suggest you change some 2.4GHz wireless devices to connect 5GHz network.

Or you can use two routers and divide some 2.4GHz wireless devices to connect 2.4GHz network from another router.

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#4
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Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2020-07-03 05:59:52

@Sunshine Hi,  Thank you for coming back to me.  I will move some devices to 5g at the weekend and see how that helps. Is there a maximum recommended number of devices that can be connected to 5g please? 

 

Can you recommend another router that is capable of coping with all of the devices I have please?

 

Thanks again,

Sarella

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#5
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Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2020-07-03 08:24:19

@Sarella 

Hi, about your question, I hope the below answer will help you.

 

For the 5GHz connection of VR900, it is the same as the 2.4GHz connection.

The maximum of wireless client is 32 in ideal condition.

However, there is much interface in the real condition such as walls, obstacle, wireless interface of other networks around your house etc.

We don't suggest you really connect 32 devices to the 5GHz connection of the router.

You can keep 15 devices to check the stability of 5GHz connection.

 

For the recommendation of another router, normal routers are the same.

Since all the routers' 2.4GHz connection have 11 channels and can't support many devices to connect.

 

If you have so many devices, you can add another normal router with the VR900.

Then divide some devices to connect another router's Wi-Fi. If this router supports dual band, you can connect some devices to this router's 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wi-Fi separately.

So that you will have 2.4GHz Wi-Fi from the VR900; 5GHz Wi-Fi from the VR900; 2.4GHz Wi-Fi from another router; 2.4GHz Wi-Fi from another router.

 

You can connect your devices to the four networks and the issue may be resolved.

Hope it can help you.

Have a nice day!

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#6
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Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2021-11-20 20:02:04

Hi @Sarella - did you ever find  a fix for this?  It seems to be a TP-Link flaw/restriction as limiting the number of wifi devices to 25 is pretty ridiculous with all the smart devices in homes these days.  Lighbulbs and smart speakers use very little bandwidth, so it's not like it's a capacity problem.  Anyway, I have spoken to Asus who say they have several routers that will support 50-60 devices quite happily, so long as they aren't using lots of bandwidth.  I haven't found a firmware fix for the limitation with the VR900 so unless you've found a fix somewhere, I think I'll be buying a new router, as there seems to be no other help from TPLink online regarding this issue....

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#7
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Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2021-11-21 08:36:57

Hi @LondonSi72 I didn't find a fix for the problem, but as a work around I moved all my Google products to a separate (cheap) router wired to the Archer one.  It appears to have resolved the dropping issue, although it was a bit of a faff setting up and changing various settings.  Did Asus tell you which product would easily support 50-60 connections?

Thanks!

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#8
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Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2021-11-21 21:19:39

Hi @Sarella 

The router I was enquiring about was the DSL-AX82U, which is a combined modem and router. I've actually just bought the cable router only version of this - the RT-AX82U, and am planning on setting the Archer to be modem only, and connect this to the new router. If this works I'll let you know! The RT-AX82U is cheaper than the DSL version and is on sale at the moment too, and my Archer has been really playing up this weekend, so it's forced me to try something else...

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#9
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Re:Archer VR900 - 2.4g connection regularly drops, 5g stays connected
2021-11-25 19:59:33

@Sarella just to let you know I got this working.  I have configured the VR900 as a 'pure modem' by deleting the PPPoE definition on it, adding a new defintion within the Advanced / Network / Internet settings and changing PPPoE in the drop down list to Bridge, adding the VLAN ID (very important if you use BT, like I do - and missing from the instructions in another TPLink forum post elsewhere on this site).  I then connected the Archer VR900 to my new ASUS cable router from one of the Archer's LAN ports to the ASUS's WAN port, and created the PPPoE  definition on this router.

 

The Archer is now acting only as a modem, and the ASUS is doing the DHCP, WiFi and everything else.  So far it seems to work well, with 30 devices connected today.  Will continue testing. 

 

(BTW - I returned the RT-AX82U and got a TUF-AX5400 instead.  At £90, t's £40-50 cheaper and is basically the same router - almost exactly the same spec as the RT-AX82U - and also considerably cheaper than the £200 DSL-AX82U which is the DSL-Router version of the same box, but with a built-in modem...)

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