Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2022 17:56 Post subject: WR-841ND two router WDS link keeps disconnecting
Hello all, I hope you can help me with the issues I'm having since the last months. I've had other connectivity issues with my setup in the past but nothing like this, and it seems to not show in the logs, I really don't know what to do.
The WDS link keeps dropping every 5 to 20-30 minutes, in average. As a result, all the clients on the secondary router (HambertRTR3) loose connectivity and jump connections to the first router (HambertRTR). In previous builds it used to hold to maybe an hour but it would do the same, now more frequently.
After a minute the connection is somehow re-established and the clients start to come back to the secondary router, and then after 5 to 20-30 minutes it happens again.
HambertRTR3: Nothing is shown on the logs with respect to the WDS Station interface (wlan0). Only activity seen is coming from the WDS AP (wlan0.1 interface) and are the clients coming and going due to the loss of connection with the main router (internet loss), again all without apparent errors.
Sample: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OUyYjhvDbAgjmbsy5E6ga6rvKHtoKGQA/view?usp=sharing
What I have already tried
- Switching to other channels.
- Modifying the ACk timing, tried low and high.
- Disabled "Disassoc Low Ack" in both routers.
- Filling the MACs on the WDS configuration page (for what I understand, it is not longer required and/or working well).
- Creating a virtual WDS AP on the first router exclusively for the WDS link (as current setup. Prevously the secondary router would connect directly to the same wlan0 WDS AP as the clients).
- Rotated the routers so now the link is between the v8 and v10 WR841s. This is to discard hardware compatibility issues.
- Flashed all the routers to the latest build (R9139) and manually set them up again.
- Followed the sticky wlan configs (the main changes to what I had before were disabling "Noise Immunity", activating RTS/CTS with a threshold of 784, and enabling U-APSD).
Well, I hope I made it complete enough for you. Any other info, just ask me. I really don't know what else to do.
Thanks to all in advance!!!
Humberto
Last edited by hambert on Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:24; edited 1 time in total
Just having done this on 3 routers (ok, R7800's).
I have wlan0 as as a hidden ssid that is the link and all station routers have the other 2 routers mac addresses in the lan list
wlan0 is wpa3 only
wlan0.1 and wlan1 are both wpa2/wpa3
wlan0.1 on all are the same ssid
wlan1 on all are the same ssid, but different channels.
Wireless settings are as per the QCA wireless sticky.
No drops from me, but all my 3 routers were reset before I switched or upgraded the dd-wrt so no old configs possibly messing things up
Just having done this on 3 routers (ok, R7800's).
I have wlan0 as as a hidden ssid that is the link and all station routers have the other 2 routers mac addresses in the lan list
wlan0 is wpa3 only
wlan0.1 and wlan1 are both wpa2/wpa3
wlan0.1 on all are the same ssid
wlan1 on all are the same ssid, but different channels.
Wireless settings are as per the QCA wireless sticky.
No drops from me, but all my 3 routers were reset before I switched or upgraded the dd-wrt so no old configs possibly messing things up
Well, inspired by your reply I did some extensive work.
I have a third WR841, with all three I have three different hardware revisions (v8, v10, v11). I didn´t mention it because it´s not part of the WDS wireless link. What I did is rotated them so the link is now between the main router (v10), and the oldest one (v8 ), leaving the v11 apart.
I´ve also took the work and flashed them all with the latest build (R49139) resetting all the settings to factory, and followed the sticky wlan configs.
So, what I did, in summary:
- Rotated the routers so now the link is between the v8 and v10 WR841s. This is to discard hardware compatibility issues.
- Flashed all the routers to the latest build (R9139) and manually set them up again.
- Followed the sticky wlan configs (the main changes to what I had before were disabling "Noise Immunity", activating RTS/CTS with a threshold of 784, and enabling U-APSD).
And the verdict is nope, same as before. Constant link drops.
I will give it until tomorrow to see if it stabilizes, but I think it´s a problem specific to the WR841s...
I've struggled with this for over a year. It's a general WDS issue and we never got any specifics or workarounds. I appreciate all the effort everyone put in but it didn't help. Eventually I gave up and routed actual cables between all of my routers last month (hand to rebuild some walls and floors along the way but was worth it).
I've struggled with this for over a year. It's a general WDS issue and we never got any specifics or workarounds. I appreciate all the effort everyone put in but it didn't help. Eventually I gave up and routed actual cables between all of my routers last month (hand to rebuild some walls and floors along the way but was worth it).
Oh crap, I didn't notice your thread and ticket before. Yup, same bug. Well, at least an extra confirmation is always good when the logs don't say anything.
I'm also thinking on going the cable way, but I really shouldn't, that's what WDS Stations are meant for in our cases! For me it's more than enough with the reduced bandwidth, I don't want to spend time an money doing cable when I don't need to...
I did try a later build - as I want to get mesh running - and started to get problems. Saw the message about the vanilla binaries being updated from early 49xxx and switched to DD-WRT, which helped, but I was getting errors.
Reverted back to 48954 for now and the WDS is stable
Disable noise immunity and set ack timing to 1350. _________________ "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost
"I am one of the noticeable ones - notice me" - Dale Frances McKenzie Bozzio
Disable noise immunity and set ack timing to 1350.
If you read the "things I've already tried" you'll see I wrote "tried ACK timings low and high" and "used sticky WiFi configs" (that includes disabling noise immunity).
I think configuration problems are long gone as a possible cause, I think that is more than clear.....
Last edited by hambert on Tue Jun 21, 2022 15:10; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 06 Jun 2006 Posts: 7492 Location: Dresden, Germany
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2022 14:49 Post subject: Re: WR-841ND two router WDS link keeps disconnecting
hambert wrote:
Hello all, I hope you can help me with the issues I'm having since the last months. I've had other connectivity issues with my setup in the past but nothing like this, and it seems to not show in the logs, I really don't know what to do.
The WDS link keeps dropping every 5 to 20-30 minutes, in average. As a result, all the clients on the secondary router (HambertRTR3) loose connectivity and jump connections to the first router (HambertRTR). In previous builds it used to hold to maybe an hour but it would do the same, now more frequently.
After a minute the connection is somehow re-established and the clients start to come back to the secondary router, and then after 5 to 20-30 minutes it happens again.
HambertRTR3: Nothing is shown on the logs with respect to the WDS Station interface (wlan0). Only activity seen is coming from the WDS AP (wlan0.1 interface) and are the clients coming and going due to the loss of connection with the main router (internet loss), again all without apparent errors.
Sample: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OUyYjhvDbAgjmbsy5E6ga6rvKHtoKGQA/view?usp=sharing
What I have already tried
- Switching to other channels.
- Modifying the ACk timing, tried low and high.
- Disabled "Disassoc Low Ack" in both routers.
- Filling the MACs on the WDS configuration page (for what I understand, it is not longer required and/or working well).
- Creating a virtual WDS AP on the first router exclusively for the WDS link (as current setup. Prevously the secondary router would connect directly to the same wlan0 WDS AP as the clients).
- Rotated the routers so now the link is between the v8 and v10 WR841s. This is to discard hardware compatibility issues.
- Flashed all the routers to the latest build (R9139) and manually set them up again.
- Followed the sticky wlan configs (the main changes to what I had before were disabling "Noise Immunity", activating RTS/CTS with a threshold of 784, and enabling U-APSD).
Well, I hope I made it complete enough for you. Any other info, just ask me. I really don't know what else to do.
Thanks to all in advance!!!
Humberto
running ht40 in 2.4 isnt a good idea. too many inteferences. this can be a cause for your issue. beside this i dont see any error in your config on first view
and dont touch the wds tab with the static macs at all. this is for a very different protocol. wds ap -> wds sta. thats all nothing else is required _________________ "So you tried to use the computer and it started smoking? Sounds like a Mac to me.." - Louis Rossmann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL_5YDRWqGE&t=60s
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2022 14:59 Post subject: Re: WR-841ND two router WDS link keeps disconnecting
BrainSlayer wrote:
running ht40 in 2.4 isnt a good idea. too many inteferences. this can be a cause for your issue. beside this i dont see any error in your config on first view
and dont touch the wds tab with the static macs at all. this is for a very different protocol. wds ap -> wds sta. thats all nothing else is required
Thanks A LOT for the reply. I will try Dynamic (20/40) and Full (20) ASAP and report back with the results.
Disable noise immunity and set ack timing to 1350.
If you read the "things I've already tried" you'll see I wrote "tried ACK timings low and high" and "used sticky WiFi configs" (that includes disabling noise immunity).
I think configuration problems are long gone as a possible cause, I think that is more than clear.....
You were saying? I missed the channel with; may also wish to try Mixed instead of NG-mixed.
BrainSlayer wrote:
running ht40 in 2.4 isnt a good idea. too many inteferences. this can be a cause for your issue. beside this i dont see any error in your config on first view
and dont touch the wds tab with the static macs at all. this is for a very different protocol. wds ap -> wds sta. thats all nothing else is required
_________________ "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost
"I am one of the noticeable ones - notice me" - Dale Frances McKenzie Bozzio
Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 9:19 Post subject: Re: WR-841ND two router WDS link keeps disconnecting
hambert wrote:
Thanks A LOT for the reply. I will try Dynamic (20/40) and Full (20) ASAP and report back with the results.
If you don`t require the newest builds, try build r47695 or r46220 (or older) at least on the WDS client and compare stability. Builds newer than r46220 are reported instable on low end wifi devices. You should reset the downgraded client device to factory and reconfigure from scratch.
The instability issues are a perception flaw. I am currently running a TL-WR1043ND v1 through the slaloms, hurdles, and obstacle course as we speak and speed testing hasn't shown me any evidence that there's a problem in the current release (49289) given the hardware specifications and realistic capabilities. Expecting a stock 1971 Chevy Vega to compete with a stock 1970 Camaro Z28 and win at the drag strip is unrealistic. _________________ "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost
"I am one of the noticeable ones - notice me" - Dale Frances McKenzie Bozzio