Let's Control It

My TP-Link Archer AX21 / AX1800 WiFi 6 router failed. Everything on 2.4GHz WiFi would not connect. So I installed a new router that looks identical, but is the newer model Archer AX55 / AX3000. They use the same setup menus, so I manually copied the various menu entries from the old router to the new router.

All my commercially made 2.4GHz devices are working fine. But ESPEasy is not playing nice. Some refuse to connect, others take several minutes to connect and are slower to respond. I have a variety of build dates, so it is not specific to single release.

I noticed that a couple of my ESPEasy devices will come online after several minutes of rebooting the router. But ping times are slow and I see random timeouts. And the connection is sometimes lost after a few minutes.

I was using 2.4GHz fixed channel-6 on the router. But have changed to Auto channel without any improvement. Also setup for 802.11b/g/n/ax (mixed).

And yes, I know TP-Link is known for Chinese spying. But that's a different problem. And changing settings on the ESPEasy devices is not ideal, since I cannot access some of them via WiFi.

My WiFi scanner app shows a strong signal from my new Router and a small number of weak signals from the nearby houses. I haven't dragged out the big RF spectrum analyzer to scan for interference around 2.4GHz, but will be doing that.

Any suggestions on Router Settings I should try?

- Thomas

Update: The HP Spectrum Analyzer shows normal 2.4GHz WiFi activity. Nothing unusual.

- Thomas

Try to set ESPEasy to use "force b/g only"
Try to see if your router supports "band steering" and if it does, try disabling it.
The same for "WiFi mesh".

Thanks for the ideas. Check, check, and check. No joy.

I have been using TP-Link's WiFi onemesh for a couple years. It solves reception issues in my house. FWIW, there are two mesh extenders. But turning the mesh feature off in the router, and unplugging the extenders (plus reboot everything) did not fix the problem. Using "Force b/g only in ESPEasy" did not help. I don't use router band steering.

Another weird symptom is my WakeMeOnLan IP Scanner Tool cannot see my ESPEasy devices. Even when my browser is successfully connecting to the ESP device. This worked fine before the problem appeared.

What's also frustrating is that a couple times I thought I had it fixed after everything starting working fine. But then after an hour or two, the gremlins would return and ESPEasy devices would stop communicating.

Everything about this is strange. And so much hair has been pulled while debugging it. Not much hair is left to grab, so I better find a fix soon.

- Thomas

Hmm sounds like your network is forgetting MAC-addresses.
Can you check the checkbox for gratuituous ARP in ESPEasy?

Do ESPEasy devices see others? (when connected to the same access point)
The p2p announcement packets are sent to the UDP broadcast address.
That's often a good starting point to see whether your access point is trying to filter out stuff.
I assume the access point(s) are set to act as a transparent bridge and not as a router?
So not using the WAN port?
In some review of this TP-link, I read there were issues with DHCP on the WAN port.

Another review states that when using mesh, your separate IoT WiFi and guest WiFi are not included in the mesh.
No idea what this entails, but it sounds like those might only be allowed to connect to the internet and not to other devices on the network/access point.
For guest networks, this is what you want, but for IoT devices it doesn't seem practical.

Yet another reviewer mentions the TP-link app will not work when the AP isn't the main DHCP provider.

See here for reviews (in Dutch): https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1739220 ... 5/reviews/

Good idea, could be MAC address issue. And it's unfortunate to hear that the IoT WiFi doesn't utilize the mesh function. Because I was thinking of moving all my IoT onto that alternate SSID. But not now since some of those devices would need the mesh network to work in the weak signal areas.

Later this morning I will shut down the entire network and bring it back up, one item at a time. There's a half dozen Ethernet switches and two server racks. Plus 45 devices total in the IP list. Maybe one of them is defective and flooding the network with garbage.

- Thomas

Hmm sounds like my network, minus the organization level of a server rack.
I like to call it a "server stack"

I have tried myself to setup my access points to use a separate SSID for IoT stuff.
The Fritzbox access points only support a 'guest network', which truly isolates any client from eachother.
The Mikrotik access points do allow to setup separate SSIDs, each of which can be set to different VLANs.
So I think I will move to such a setup for IoT stuff, since the Fritzbox router really freaks out when its DHCP pool runs out of unused IP-addresses. I already have extended my DHCP pool to be a /23 subnet just for this 'bug'. (running lots of ESPEasy nodes for testing and Android devices continuously refreshing their MAC-address and you will run out of DHCP-pool quite fast)

I do have some managed TP-link switches, but those are a bit 'strange' when dealing with VLAN tagging and L3 static routing.
So I plan on replacing some of those with Mikrotik switches.
I also had some Cisco layer-3 switch (Linksys consumer style, so for sure not high end) and this one was often running out of resources, probably MAC-address table related issues.

Do you also use some routing on your switches/APs or is it just a 'flat' layer-2 network?

It's working! Geez, what a ride.

TL;DR The issue was isolated to a little wireless security camera that monitors a door.

Long story:
The original problem is that all 2.4GHz devices stopped working. After replacing the WiFi router with a newer model, 2.4GHz devices worked again, except for the ESP based devices. So weird.

The problem was isolated after turning off everything. Then restarting each Ethernet switch and their devices, one group at a time. Then a bit more digging, and eventually nabbed the bad guy.

I have a dozen wired POE cameras (Dahua brand). They connect to an integrated POE switch (built into the NVR) that has a *private IP range* for LAN security. But there's a single lone wolf: an Amcrest brand 2.4GHz WiFi camera that uses my TP-Link WiFi router's LAN to get to the NVR's private switch via its WAN port. Apparently this one year old camera is secretly the spawn of Satan.

It seems to be thermal related. After about a half hour of run-time from a cold start, it creates havoc on the WiFi LAN (but the camera image looks fine). I have no idea what it is doing, but it is effective at killing ESPEasy device communication.

I'm nearly finished with the repair. That is to say, I'm still sweeping the floor because of all the hair I pulled out.

- Thomas

There is only one reply possible.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2F1rFmyQmY

Oh and when using Dahua camera's, I can imagine why you have a separate LAN for those.

There is even a Chrome extension for using the backdoor on those.

Not sure which brand is worse regarding backdoors... Dahua or HikVision.
Or the Contec CMS8000 heart rate monitors used in hospitals in the EU and US.

Well at least they comply with UK's "technical capability notice".

(and that's also part of why I want to slowly phase out my TP-link stuff as those do act a bit too weird to my liking)

Camera (and other IoT device) back door access is a big problem. The Dahua models I use are not the Chinese market versions, so security is suppose to be better. But still not to be trusted.

TP-Link has been in the news about that too. I heard a rumor that the USA gov secretly deployed patches for infected routers. It's a mess out there.

-Thomas

Well with the current 'powers that be' in the US gov. I wonder what they consider "patching".

If someone would have told a year ago in public what would be happening happen now, he'd still be trying out those jackets with way too long sleeves and ropes on the back.

It truly is a mess right now and I'm more and more convinced we really need to make sure we understand ourselves what is possible so there is no surprise.
And also to make sure you're not getting locked into some vendor lock-in.

So there is still a lot of education to do.

Amazon delivered the new Amcrest WiFi camera today (exact same model as before). It has been running for several hours. No issues, all is well.

- Thomas