@terziyski Thanks for your quick reply!

terziyski wrote

This has been observed before and the reason for that is unknown - check this thread for reference.

I have actually read this post before I decided to write my own, because it closely resembled my situation, but with some minor differences.

terziyski wrote

If your ISP router has address reservation option you can expand its DHCP server pool to 192.168.0.2-192.168.0.254, reserve 192.168.0.2 for C6 and 192.168.0.3 for Pi-Hole.

Then you can leave C6 on Smart IP, Pi-Hole with a dynamic IP address and everything should be fine.

Yes, that occurred to me as a last resort, but I wanted to check here first if it's something that can be solved properly.

I'm not a fan of that solution, but if I decide to go for it, I'll probably keep server pool range as it is, and just put Archer C6 at the last address in the range (..0.254) to keep reserved ones separated from those dynamically assigned.

Also, Pi-Hole must have fixed address because it's what Primary DNS server field in my ISP's router settings needs to hit, but it can also be solved with reserving DHCP.

terziyski wrote

Change your ISP router's Internet connection DNSs to 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 and reboot the C6.

Check if that makes any difference to the C6 Network State.

I tried putting 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 as tertiary and secondary, while having 192.168.0.1 (my ISP's DNS server) as my primary DNS server, but that didn't change anything. I might try doing it your way, but I don't think it has anything to do with DNS settings.

I might try contacting TP-Link's official support via email, maybe that's something that can be fixed via firmware update?

  @terziyski 

Yes, I understood what you were trying to say, maybe I didn't explain what I did the best way.

I usually have only one setting for my primary DNS: 192.168.0.3, because it's the address of Raspberry Pi who then handles all of the DNS traffic. I have him set up to use Cloudflare's and Google's DNS servers (so 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8) while at the same time blocking all of the domains from the blocklist. DNS is like a phonebook where domains are connected to IP addresses, and if some domain can't be found in primary DNS' list, it searches secondary and so forth. When I tested for DNS settings I changed from having only 192.168.0.3 as a primary option to having 192.168.0.1 as primary, 1.1.1.1 as secondary and 8.8.8.8 as third option, because I thought even if for some reason my ISP's DNS server can't find TP-Link's address, the other two options will step in and find it (which didn't happen).

Of course, I did all of those DNS settings in my ISP's router, since my TP-Link is only acting as an Access Point and can't change those things.

I have currently set DHCP reservation of my Archer to the last available address in the range (192.168.0.254) and called it a day, but will now try to set it to static and change DNS fields to be as you said, just to test the possibility of DNS being the culprit, but as I said, I'm 90% sure it isn't.

  @terziyski 

Just to report that I tried your second proposal, and sadly it didn't work as assumed.

I set the DNS settings on my ISP's router like this:

And Static IP on my AP, but it's the same thing:

So DNS settings definitely aren't the issue.

terziyski wrote

  @pajser92 

 

Well, it seems that there's no other option but to use the first scenario.

Although there's a beta FW release for C6 v2 EU region here.

You can upgrade and test but if it doesn't resolve your issue, you can revert back to your current FW release.

The new feature which this release offers is to disable OneMesh feature if you don't use it.

  @terziyski 

Thanks for mentioning that, I tried installing the beta release, but unfortunately there was no difference.

I've emailed TP-Link support to see whether they'll have something to say. I'm aware there is almost zero chance they will help me (or update the firmware, since the last update came almost 2 years ago), but it's worth a shot. Until then, I'll go with the first scenario.

Thanks again!