@Joseph-TP 

 

Hi Joseph,

 

Thank you for checking in.

 

Yes the network topology is as you indicated.

 

I did reset the printer and configure it with the new router network.

 

Also, yes the desktop and printer are connected to the main network. However, I should add that it's the 2.4G network, since many older-tech devices like printers and cameras do not connect to 5G network.

 

For the last 2 days, I do notice a pattern though - when the 5G guest network is using more bandwidth, it seems to knock my main 2.4G network down and my low-bandwidth devices seem to be eeked out too? Not sure it that's how the router works, which I would think is quite strange, since I've purposely isolated the network to give priority.

 

The other thing I notice is to help the connections resume, changing 1 setting here and there seems to make the router go into a software reconfiguration phase where for a short period of time, all connections are lost, and then my devices can connect again after.

 

Right now I've been turning on and off the QoS just to let my 2.4G devices connect again.

But again, this is extremely odd since I've never had to do this with any of my other previous routers, TP-Link or otherwise.

  @Joseph-TP Hi again, thank you for your helpful suggestions. Let me respond to them one by one:

 

"It is recommended that you connect clients that do not need to access each other to the guest network to reduce the number of connections to the main network."

-> Yes, already planned it such that this is the case. However, we still have many necessary connections to the main network.

 

"When the wireless connection is disconnected, have you compared it with the wired connection?"

-> Not sure what the value of this is, since not all devices lose connection at the same time. For example, yesterday only the desktop which is right next to the router could not connect to the 2.4G network, while connecting fine to the 5G network. Other devices had no issue with the 2.4G network though. That said, the desktop needed to connect to the 2.4G network since the printer can only connect to 2.4G. We gave up and relied on a messy cable to connect to the printer in order to print though. And my other laptops could connect to 2.4G and print using the printer just fine at the same time.

 

"Here are some suggestions for wireless disconnection:

• Change the wireless channel into another one. You may refer to Changing Channel and Channel Width on a TP-Link Router (new logo).
• For 2.4GHz wireless client devices, adjust 2.4GHz channel width into 20MHz, for 5G wireless client devices, adjust 5GHz channel width into 80MHz or 40MHz to avoid interference."

-> This is a little new to me, so please be patient with me if I misunderstand. At the moment, my channel width on the router's settings is 20/40MHz for 2.4G, while 5G is 20/40/80/160. There is no option in the dropdown menu to select 5G to be only 80/160. Is there anything I should change here?

 

"If possible, are you willing to reduce some client connections and compare the test for a period of time to see if some wireless clients are still disconnected?"

-> Yes, during the off-work hours, there are much fewer clients, but the dropped connections persist, despite having only 5 devices connected to the WiFi network.

 

Again, I've had to toggle on and off my guest network to let the router do a software-restart of the WiFi, as opposed to switching off and on again the router hardware, as the recent technician told me that switching off and on the hardware too often can damage the router. Feeling very tempted to schedule a reboot during off-work hours every week or everyday so the WiFi network is always refreshed, but I was warned against this. Not sure how valid this is?

 

Thanks again for all your guidance.

  @theike41 

 

Same thing and by the way, please release a new firmware as there are loads of errors and mistake. I can report on these issues.

I have the Archer AX73 (v.1), Smart Connect is unreliable on the latest firmware as well as MU-MIMO does not work in Smart Connect mode. OFDMA is weirdly absent and IoT Wi-Fi options are not present although showing up in home screen but not able to configure at all. No DoT/DoH DNS options. TP-Link Cloud works barely and QoS should not be a TP-Link tether exclusive but intergrated... I mean even my old AX10 (V1) had it intergrated. WireGuard should be an option. SAMBA/FTP and Time Machine if set to on, turns the router to some ADSL modem and starts heating up for no reason even without activity and even without a usb stick/drive or with a drive attached. Wi-Fi speeds plumet from 750Mbps to 40Mbps...

 

Yet, if you use VPN Server then it works perfectly no heating up no slow downs. Even using VPN client option which combined with both is much more intensive on the CPU just works fine. Also, TP-Link should introduce those easy VPN configurations like on the newer models BE with NordVPN or SurfShark easy configuration. I mean it's just simple life enhancements which will facilitate the quality of life of the product. Final critic is EasyMesh. EasyMesh practically is unavailable in all forms and settings even switching security methods and removing AX band. I cannot get my 2 range extenders (2 RE700X) and a AX10 router set up. I tried WPS, manual, the inbuilt setup from the WebUI and it just doesn't let me apply it. It drops the Wi-Fi connections and shows me an error. My routers recognize it but fail to join the mesh so all I see on my end using any device, 4 network SSID's. They are all on the latest firmware. This router worked fine (AX73) before 1.3.6 which is one build ahead of 1.3.5 which introduced EasyMesh.

 

It just shows how much the software had no attention and no testing. Yet, the AX73 is considered higher up with an msrp in Spain of 130 euros last year on Amazon. Why does the AX72 have better options and better reliability than the AX73. It's all software and I've had previous iterations of TP-Link and I have never encountered such a buggy and unreliable firmware. It's like they just took a firmware from AX75 or something else and just inspect element and deleted the elements... It's a good router. It has a good chip and it's got potential then why ruin it.

I can go more into detail on a document with screenshots and logs if needed however I will only do so if there's hope that this will be contributed to a new firmware as it has been a year.