Alexa (Amazon Echo) unresponsive after switching Deco to router mode
Hello
I recently changed my Deco setup from AP mode to router mode. The transition worked well for all the devices in my network except for my Amazon Echo, which stopped responding to voice commands. The device is accessible in the network and I see it making request to its server. The request doesn't seem to be blocked by my custom DNS and even using my ISP's DNS or 8.8.8.8 the problem persists. It seems that the problem is in getting voice responses so I'm guessing it could be a port forwarding/firewall issue?
Anyone else faced a similar problem?
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Hi,
Are both Echo and the controlled smart devices connected to the Deco Mesh?
If yes, since the request is initiated from local LAN and both devices are in the local network, I think port forwarding might not be needed.
Would there be any error message when Echo failed to respond to voice commands?
Were you able to reproduce the same issue if switching the Deco to AP router and back to router mode again?
Thank you very much and wait for your reply.
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@TP-Link thanks for your reply. The issue happens only when interacting with the Echo by voice. All other integration with other devices in the LAN work perfectly when triggered from the app. It looks like the communication with Amazon's servers is cut off when talking to the Echo from what I hear in the recording accessible from my privacy dashboard on Amazon.
There is rarely an error message from the Echo but when one is returned, the error is just "I'm having troubles understanding you". I'm excluding problems with the device or on Amazon's side because I already tried factory resetting it.
I will try switching back to AP mode and report how it goes.
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Thank you very much and I would also like to follow on your case by email in case we need further assistance from the engineers later.
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I discovered something very weird regarding this problem. The issue occurs only when the Echo device is connected via WiFi to the main Deco (the one that has access to the WAN). I tried moving it close the the secondary unit and it worked normally. Not only this, also when interacting with Alexa using my mobile phone I experience the same issue: when I'm connected to the secondary Deco it works normally while when I'm near the main Deco it says it has network issues.
In fact, I noticed that wifi devices behave better next to the secondary Deco than when they are close to the main Deco.
Is this a known issue?
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Thank you very much for the update.
Would you please move Echo back to the main Deco and test whether the following suggestions make any improvement.
1. turn off the Mesh Technology on the Deco APP for Echo.
2. turn off the fast roaming and beamforming on the Deco APP>More>Advanced.
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Fast roaming was already disabled and Mesh was already disabled for the Echo. I tried disabling beamforming but the problem persisted. Other devices were having troubles browsing when connected to the main deco and the diagnostics tool was reporting a much slower internet speed for the main deco than for the secondary unit.
Switching back to AP mode immediately solved the problem.
After a while I reconfigured Deco to be in Router mode and surprisingly everything started working, even after re-enabling beamforming. The only change that I made was to use port 2 as WAN port instead of port 1 on the main Deco.
It took a while to get an internet connection because the main deco is connected to my ISP's router which is set to use bridge mode, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Anyway, I'll report back here if the situation appears to be solved or if it shows up again.
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@TP-Link after a few days I can say the issue hasn't reappeared. Only once when I had to reboot my router and the main deco I faced the same problem but I could solve it by rebooting again.
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