Yet another thread about XE75 pro wifi connection instability/drops
I unfortunately am starting another thread regarding seemingly completely wifi system disconnections in have with my Deco units. I have had my Deco mesh system for a few months now and have began to notice a recurring trend. This seems to be that my entire mesh system drops the connection, all of my 65-70+ or so wifi devices lose internet, and then the system recovers within a few minutes. Sometimes, this does not happen for a number of days or maybe even up to a week. Other times, like yesterday evening, the system did this two times within a few hours. The main issue is that this continues to happen.
Below are some other relevant details of my setup. I had unfortunately switched ISPs very close to the same time I installed this system also so I am trying to do some troubleshooting to discern between an issue related to my ISP versus the Deco system.
- I have fiber service from Quantum (i.e. CenturyLink). The ONT/modem which was provided is a C5500XK SmartNID. After the install, I immediately changed the settings on the modem to disable the router mode and placed it into transparent bridging mode. So my issues are not arising from a double NAT situation.
- Along with the original three XE75 pros (one of which is set as the main deco), I also have a X55 pro satellite unit and then a X50 outdoor unit.
- I run a wired backhaul from all unit to the main deco except for the X50 outdoor unit which connects to one of the XE75 pros.
- I have turned off the "mesh technology" option for all of the stationary devices on my network.
When the problem occurs, it seems as if every one of my wifi devices goes offline. I have multiple smart speakers, a couple laptops, cameras, smart plugs, streaming devices, all of which seem to be impacted. The system does recover generally within 2-4 minutes or so. However, if someone is on a video call, or watching on a streaming device, the impacts are frustrating. I am starting to get a bit more serious about troubleshooting (e.g. saving logs, tracking occurrences), so here are some things I have captured so far and also plan to do:
- I am starting to download the logs from the main deco through the WebUI as soon as I can regain internet after these occurrences. I think that I captured the two which occurred yesterday evening, although the first I may not have caught in time. One issue is that it looks like log file buffer fills up very quickly after the whole system goes down (I think a lot of entries get generated very quickly due to all my devices trying to reconnect), so the first one from last night may be incomplete.
- I just replaced the patch cable from my ONT/modem to the main deco to rule this out. I have not given this significant time yet so we will see if the situation improves
- I have enabled system logging on my modem to rule out ISP problems. The issues with the logs on my modem are that the logging isn't very verbose, and also that I am running the modem in transparent bridging mode. All I know is that the modem is not restarting, since I can see the total uptime.
- I disabled fast roaming after the first occurrence yesterday evening. However, another connection drop occurred a few hours later.
- For some reason, I cannot disable beam forming although 4 out of 5 of my units have this capability. I think because of the X50 outdoor unit I have included, the option is hidden from the app. Not sure if this intentional or a bug or that beamforming just gets disabled when you have a satellite which doesn't have the capability (this is anyone's guess here).
- (still needed observation) I have turned back on all of the led indicators on the units so that maybe I can run around and see what the status of each one is when a connection drop occurs.
- (still needed observation) I just installed a wifi scanning app on my phone. Hopefully when I notice a connection drop, I can open the app to see if there is any SSID related to my wifi being broadcasted at all. I suspect that the entire signal goes down based on the behavior of all of my disconnected devices but I am not completely certain at this time.
So just throwing all this information out there to see if I can get some creative troubleshooting methods and/or other things I can try. If anyone wants to take a look, I can see if I can figure out how to get them to you (could not attach here for some reason and cannot post a Google drive link). I just submitted an email support request also and am going to start tracking every time the issue occurs.