Deco P9 setup stability

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Deco P9 setup stability

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Deco P9 setup stability
Deco P9 setup stability
2022-01-20 16:14:28
Model: Deco P9  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 1.1.3 build 20201228 Rel. 55057

Hello I recently purchased 2 packs of 3 Deco P9 for my holiday house, to replace TP-link wifi extenders that were failing regularly.

 

On first setup, all Decos updated to the latest firmware, so I can't say if they would work better with an older version, I didn't try.

 

My setup consists in 3 Deco positioned on the same floor, of which one is the main Deco. They are aligned and chained to the next one. The Deco hooked to the main Deco is very stable, the second one in the chain fails everyday.

 

I have 2 other Deco one floor below, one linked to the main Deco, the other chained to it. They both fail regularly, after a few hours of stable work they disconnect 10 times per day. The last Deco is further down and away in the garden and hooks directly to the main deco (so 2 floors above and sideways)  with only one bar of signal and no PLC, but is surprisingly also quite stable.

 

I use the mesh network to connect a good number of IoT devices (about 50 clients) and access them from distance. My main issue is that when one Deco fails, it still broadcasts the SSID and some clients try to hook to it and do not switch to another, working Deco. I therefore loose remote connection to them until that one Deco comes back to the mesh. I tried to disable the "mesh" option for some clients when they were connected to the main deco, but it seems it does nothing, the clients continue to roam to other Decos (although they are fixed devices), including those which fail.

 

I fail to understand why 3 Deco out of 6 keep on failing. I switch different units from the 2 packs, same issue. I moved the decos in different places, no success. The Deco linking to the main deco is litterally below the main deco, one floor below, it cannot be any closer. Floor is concrete with metal bars, which is why I opted for a Deco with powerline capability. All deco except in the garden have the PLC backhaul symbol showing. I verified all electric cabling of the house, it's modern and clean.

 

For me this looks like a problem of firmware stability. When I get to the web UI the "CPU" bar shows 100% all the time. The traffic is minimal, only a few kbps, so it seems it's busy working around with the mesh management. In despair I have plugged the Decos on smart plugs (it can still do PLC surprisingly) and reboot them every night, but there isn't one day without a massive failure of the mesh, leaving 2-3 Decos offline for most of the day. Their light is solid red or blinking red, it depends.

 

In term of configuration, I have disabled fast roaming and beamforming. The only option left active is a guest wifi in addition to the main SSID. I have no other option, parental control, or anything like this.

 

I am now considering downgrading the firmware on all 6 Decos, is there any chance that it can help?

 

Many thanks for any assistance with this.

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Re:Deco P9 setup stability
2022-01-30 21:31:30

Hi again, no luck with my question in this forum, so I tried to reboot sequencially every night and it was already failing by noon. So I downgraded all Deco to previous firmware 1.1.2 and as others mentioned before, stability is much much better.

 

Main difference is, with firmware 1.1.2 only one Deco has established a PLC backend connection (not even sure with whom). Nevertheless, there is no noticeable decrease of performance after all. I had no Deco disconnecting for 3 days. It is interesting that the firmware 1.1.3 is supposed to improve "backhaul performance and stability". What a joke ! Yes it connects via PLC more, but with so many disconnections...

 

I have a new problem now, the main deco is turning solid red for a few minutes every hour or so, then the others too. Then it comes back white, so do the others. Consequently any music or video stream is disconnected, but it's not too noticeable for IoT devices. Today it did not come back white at all, stayed solid red. As it is the main Deco doing that, I had to reboot manually, I totally lost remote access obviously. So I have to keep this deco on a smart plug and maintain a night reboot, so to try to regain remote control the next day. What a stress...

 

All in all I'm pretty disappointed by the product, the hardware is very promising and would work well, if the firmware was up to par, which is definitely not.

 

Last question, if there's anzone around in this forum, is there anz chance that the "beta" firmware that was handed over unofficially bz TP-link would solve any issue?

 

Thanks

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