Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices

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Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices

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Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
2022-01-24 11:06:50 - last edited 2022-01-24 13:59:29
Model: Deco M5  
Hardware Version: V3
Firmware Version: 1.5.7 Build 20210819 Rel. 43499

I have a mesh of 6 M5s set up in access point mode.  The set up is just over a year old and up to last month very reliable.  I have about 80 wireless devices on the network mainly low bandwidth IoT devices.  This is under 50% of the stated max number of attached devices.

 

In December I noticed that some of my IoT devices were dropping their wi-fi connection.  After trouble shooting I decided to replace my old Mikrotik router and TP-Link switch with new Mikrotik equipment.  For a week everything was good.  However I am now experiencing the same rapid dissconnection/re-connection of all wireless devices.  The situation is so bad we have had to hard wire TV and laptops idf we need to stream media.

 

I have attached an image of a wi-fi switch showing the constant disconnection of the device from the network.

 

All devices, of all different types, brands and 2.4Ghz/5Ghz all around the house are effected.

 

I have read numerous community posts about people having similar problems so I have downgraded and upgraded the firmware to all available releases, factory reset all Decos and re-created the networks (I use 5Ghz as main and 2,4Ghz for all IoT equipment), changed the main Deco for another, removed the old main Deco from the network (in case that one unit was faulty) . 

 

I have checked for wireless interference from neighbours and there is no other wi-fi signal on the premises. I do run a Zigbee mesh on Zigbee channel 11 but this has been there when the wi-fi network was running OK.

 

In addition

 

  • CPU usage on the Decos is low.
  • Switching off Fast Roaming / beamforming / IPMG has no effect
  • I have switched off roaming on the IoT devices but they still disconnect as frequent

 

 

Questions:

 

1) what tests can I run to find out if one or more of the Deco units is faulty

2) what other suggestions do you have to correct the problem is all units appear to be OK?

 

Thanks in advance.

File:
Overview-Castel.pngDownload
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#1
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7 Reply
Re:Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
2022-01-24 11:08:47

@TP_LINK I have attached the current debug log for your reference

File:
log-2022-01-24.logDownload
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#2
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Re:Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
2022-01-24 14:32:26 - last edited 2022-01-24 14:35:06

@TP_LINK Here's a screen shot of the wi-fi analyser

 

 

The red line is the Main Deco deco some 10m away from me and the green line is a satellite Deco 5m away.  Is the signal drop out normal? If not what could be causing this.  This drop out is happening on all satellite Decos

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#3
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Re:Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
2022-01-25 05:52:52

@MDMC95 

Hi, welcome to the community.

Among all the 80 clients, how many smart IoT devices do you have? And what are they?

Would any Deco turn red when the wireless devices are disconnected?

Have you tried to pick up 2 or 3 Deco units aside and create a second Mesh network on the Deco APP if the smart IoT devices are mainly installed on a specific location?

As for the attached picture about the network stability on the Wi-Fi switch, I did not quite understand what it said, and did the red spot display when the switch was disconnected from Deco?

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#4
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Re:Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
2022-01-25 06:28:47 - last edited 2022-01-25 07:34:12

@TP-Link 

 

Among all the 80 clients, how many smart IoT devices do you have?

 

  • Approximately 60 wi-fi based IoT

 

And what are they?

 

  • Tasmota/MQTT
  • Tuya
  • Sonoff
  • Xiaomi

 

  • Mostly sensors, switches, lights with a few larger items like vacuums, air filter, air cons etc.

 

  • I also run RF433 and Zigbee (on channel 11)

 

Would any Deco turn red when the wireless devices are disconnected?

 

  • No

 

 

Have you tried to pick up 2 or 3 Deco units aside and create a second Mesh network on the Deco APP if the smart IoT devices are mainly installed on a specific location?

 

  • I have not tried this option as I have 1000sqm (house and garden) and such a set wouldn't be practicable as the mesh would fail. I'll look at running Ethernet to  the remote Decos and create another network in the living room where a lot of sensors/switchers are

 

As for the attached picture about the network stability on the Wi-Fi switch, I did not quite understand what it said, and did the red spot display when the switch was disconnected from Deco?

 

  • Yes - but the WHITE is when the device lost wi-fi connection.  I can see in the MQTT console of the device that iit had to reconnect over 200 times in the last 24 hours

 

 

 

 

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#5
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Re:Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
2022-01-25 06:43:45

@TP_LINK 

 

In addition:

 

 

1) I have laid all the Deco unit in a horizontal position.  Some were on stands to help with cooling (as we know M5's run very hot)

2) I have run Ethernet to 2 of the satellite Decos to see how that helps

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#6
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Re:Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
2022-01-26 01:36:18

@MDMC95 

Thank you very much for the detailed information.

I will wait for your update with the Ethernet connection.

By the way, I would like to follow up on your case by email and please check whether you have got an email from me.

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#7
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Re:Deco M5 Constant Short term Disconnects for Wireless Devices
2022-01-26 06:00:23

@TP-Link Still monitoring but i believe that one of the Deco units is faulty giving a signal DB that was "bouncing" between -40 and -70dB.  The lower limit was below the neighbour Deco causing devices to try to continuously swap between access points.

 

I moved the suspect Deco to the edge of the mesh and without Ethernet backhaul (connection to the router - note this is an ACCESS POINT set up).  The network became more stable but losses still occurred.

 

I have now removed the suspect Deco from the mesh leaving the other 5 units in place.  I have re-booted the mesh and am now waiting for the network to settle as devices are now moving to new Decos (plus my DHCP lease was set to 24 hours so I've had to force renewal on a number of devices).

 

I'll get back to you tomorrow with an update.

 

 

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