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WDS connection unstable

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WDS connection unstable

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WDS connection unstable
WDS connection unstable
2020-12-01 11:06:15 - last edited 2020-12-01 11:22:26
Model: Archer C6  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 1.3.6 Build 20200902 rel.65591(4555)

Hello,

 

I have an Archer C6 V2 EU router connected to my main router (UPC Giga Connect Box) via WDS using WiFi 5GHz. The main router is connected to the Internet.

 

The distance between the two routers is 5 meters and there are no objects between them. Also there are no other/neighbors routers using the channel I use (channel 36), my two routers are the only routers using this channel, I checked with a WiFi analyser app on my phone. Based on this I assume the signal quality and strength must be very good. The channel on my main UPC router is fixed, the "auto-detect channel" for optimal signal is disabled so the channel does not change.

 

The problem is that the WDS connection is unstable. Every few days (could be 1-3 days) the WDS connection gets broken. Being connected via Ethernet cable from my Archer C6 router, I can ping it and enter its control panel but I can't ping the main router and there is no Internet connection. Someone has the same problem here: https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/170254

 

Restarting either the main UPC Giga Connect Box router or the Archer C6 router fixes this problem, the WDS connection gets reestablished. But you have to manually do it, the Archer C6 doesn't automatically detect that the connection gets broken.

 

I can see that when this happens the UPC Giga Connect Box still has Internet connection because I can connect to it with an Ethernet cable and the Internet connection is OK.

 

I am running the newest firmware.

 

Anyone having the same problem? Is it going to be fixed in a next firmware release? How can I debug this connection issues?

 

For now I can't connect them via Ethernet cable as it would run through the middle of my room :( I have also tried PowerLine adapters but the throughput is too low so I decided to use WDS

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4 Reply
Re:WDS connection unstable
2020-12-02 07:33:39

@darxis 

 

Hi, thanks for the detailed issue description.

 

When the WDS connection drops, have you confirmed if the wireless channel on the main UPC Giga Connect Box is still on channel 36? 

 

How about other devices connected to the main UPC Giga Connect Box 5GHz network, are they always stably connected to it?

 

What if you connect the C6 and the main via 2.4GHz, will it be more stable? Please give that a try and monitor the performance, thanks.

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Re:WDS connection unstable
2020-12-03 20:56:04 - last edited 2020-12-03 21:31:02

@Kevin_Z 

 

Thanks for your reply!

 

It happened moments ago and I diagnosed as you have suggested.

When the WDS connection drops, have you confirmed if the wireless channel on the main UPC Giga Connect Box is still on channel 36? 

Yes, when this happened I can see on my Wifi Analyser app that the UPC Giga Connect Box WiFi is still on chanel 36. And what's more I can also see my Archer C6 on channel 36 (I guess it is the Archer C6 WDS WiFi bridge signal). Also when this happened I entered the UPC Giga Connect Box WiFi control panel and I saw that the channel is still marked as "Manual - Channel 36".

 

How about other devices connected to the main UPC Giga Connect Box 5GHz network, are they always stably connected to it?

Yes, I have one device connected to the UPC Giga Connect Box by Ethernet cable and it is working fine, I can ping it and access its web control panel interface from the Internet (using my SIM phone 4G Internet connection) when this issue happened as I had setup port-forwarding to this device. So the UPC Giga Connect Box Internet connection is OK, I'm 100% sure.
Also, I have successfully connected with my laptop directly to the UPC Giga Connect Box 5G WiFi network (the one that Archer C6 connects to using WDS) and the Internet connection worked fine.

 

One more thing.

In my current network configuration in the Archer C6 configuration, the WDS connection and the WiFi configuration is the same, meaning that the UPC Giga Box, Archer C6 WDS and Archer C6 "normal" WiFi share the same SSID/password/channel etc. In the WiFi analyser I can see that there are 3 MAC addresses for the same channel, two of my Archer C6 (I guess one for WDS and one for "normal" WiFi) and one for the UPC.
I am going change this and setup a different SSID for the UPC Giga Connect Box/Archer C6 WDS and the Archer C6 "normal" WiFi for clients so that there are two network - one with SSID "WiFi Bridge" and one with "WiFi Clients", with different channels.

EDIT: I can't use a different channel because in Archer C6 the 5GHz Channel selector is greyed out... And the "normal"  ARcher C6 WiFi automatically uses the same channel as the WDS one.

 

If this issue happen again and the above do not solve it I am going to try switching the WDS from 5GHz to 2.4GHz and I will post a message with results here, as you suggested.

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#3
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Re:WDS connection unstable
2020-12-04 02:16:36

@darxis 

 

Thank you very much for all the details. 

 

We cannot change the wireless channel manually on the C6 as it needs to synchronize the same channel from the UPC Wi-Fi, what I suggested was trying to change the Wi-Fi channel on the UPC to some others, such as 48 or something else.

 

Yes, it is also suggested connecting via the 2.4G between them, and we can see if it is more stable.

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#4
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Re:WDS connection unstable
2020-12-29 15:20:56

darxis wrote

In my current network configuration in the Archer C6 configuration, the WDS connection and the WiFi configuration is the same, meaning that the UPC Giga Box, Archer C6 WDS and Archer C6 "normal" WiFi share the same SSID/password/channel etc. In the WiFi analyser I can see that there are 3 MAC addresses for the same channel, two of my Archer C6 (I guess one for WDS and one for "normal" WiFi) and one for the UPC.
I am going change this and setup a different SSID for the UPC Giga Connect Box/Archer C6 WDS and the Archer C6 "normal" WiFi for clients so that there are two network - one with SSID "WiFi Bridge" and one with "WiFi Clients", with different channels.

 

Okay, renaming the UPC Giga Box SSID to a different SSID (something like "WDS Network"), other than my Archer C6 fixed the unstable connection issue.

 

So, when setting WDS you have to set a unique SSID for WDS, different than the "normal" WiFi SSID. The WDS and "normal" WiFi for clients can't share the same SSID because it would conflict with each other.

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