@calimansi808 

 

Bear in mind that just because it is showing more errors / dropped packets may not be a fault in the firmware, reading the forums this has not been reported by others (myself included).

 

It could actually be the opposite, you have been getting errors and drops for a long time.  However its only now with the latest firmware its being logged correctly?  The release notes indicate no such update however  

 

All wireless has errors and drops, its not uncommon and provided its not in the 20 / 30% range on a constant basis its likely not an issue, personally I know of no sites that dont have some drops / errors.    It could simply be bad timing, someone else has an SSID that just switched to your channel?  that would also cause these effects

  @Philbert 

 

Thanks Philbert.

 

My experience with this new firmware is that it is causing errors and retries.  This is probably due to the wifi ip cameras that I have running all the time.  The previous firmware errors / retries was basically stuck at zero.  Now I get up to 15000 errors / retries.

 

If these errors / retries were logged in correctly in the previous firmware, how can I know they're not being logged in correctly now in the new firmware?

 

In my area, it is pretty dense with wifi.  I don't think its isolated though.  The line for errors and retries is pretty flat and constant, as long as my wifi cameras are working.

 

This is just my experience and is not meant to insult anyone.

 

Thank you.

  @calimansi808 

 

Hey

 

I just re-read my post and perhaps it was a tad sharp, I had my network admin head on at the time, my apologies.

 

My concern with your post was more the speed at which you came to your conclusion that it must be firmware.  There are a lot a members on the forums that perhaps don't have the same level of experience that we do, some may read your post and assume that errors / retries are bad and they should downgrade their firmware immediately.   This is not something that should be done on a whim and could have massive unforeseen effects.

 

Again with my network head on firmware updates, while not 100% perfect are a good thing from a security and reliability point of view.  Your post seems to conclude that it was firmware right off the bat, while you may be correct in what you assume; I feel you had not considered the outside effects that could also cause this issue.    For example when your AP rebooted post upgrade did it broadcast on a different channel that was more congested, or was this specific to the 2.4ghz frequency and not affecting the 5ghz.

 

Having spent 20 odd years working with WiFi and seeing things like this hundreds of times, I was just concerned that you where looking to roll back the firmware perhaps un-necessarily and others may jump to the same conclusion.

 

regards

 

 

  @Philbert 

 

You are correct.  It might not be the firmware, but I don't know what else it could be since I didn't change any settings from 5.0.5 to 5.0.6. 

 

You're fine... no apologies needed.  I am thankful that you brought up some things that I hadn't considered was the problem.  If you have more ideas, please don't hesitate to share.  I am open to anything.

 

The errors / retries I get are only on the 2.4 ghz frequencies.

 

I do have my wifi channels locked to 4 and 9.  These are the cleanest channels in my area.

 

I have tried lowering and raising the power and the errors continue.

 

I also tried changing the RTS and Fragmentation Thresholds with no change in the errors.

 

The only thing that takes me back to zero errors is flashing back to 5.0.5.

 

I did notice that I am transferring on average 100k packets per 5 minute period for my ip cameras.  The error rate is 10k to 15k, but is pretty good.  Maybe 5.0.5 doesn't pickup the errors , as you mentioned.  I'm going to stick with 5.0.5 for now since I didn't notice any significant changes in the log.

 

It would be interesting for a TP-Link engineer to chime in on this topic.

  @calimansi808 

 

Hey

 

If this is only happening on the 2.4ghz frequency I'm 99% sure this is congested airspace causing it and not a firmware issue.   The fact you mention that only 4 and 9 are free indicates this is the case also

 

There are only 3 channels in the 2.4ghz that don't overlap in some way, this being 1  6  and 11.  These channels (1 6 11) are not hard and fast, rather the central channel in the frequency range, therefore anything between these will overlap in some way with the others, for example the actual spectrum of channel 6 is not just "6" but the range 4-8, channel 11 is 9-13.  The picture below might help with this

 

 

As you can see the only 3x non overlapping are 1  6  and 11, anything else is just congested.   To add further problems to the 2.4ghz, its a very limited spectrum and doesnt have a massive frequency range so cant be extended in any way.    Looking at channel 4 and 9, they are both going to interfere with their neighbours, you would be almost better going to auto channel on this.  Let me explain

 

Most home routers have a setting called channel hopping, what this means is that your neighbours router scans for the "best channel" and moves to it, this could be on channel 1 today, then suddenly channel 6 tomorrow,  11 come Monday.   Setting your channels manually for 4 and 9 means you are 100% guaranteed to get interference as you are in an overlapping channel, this might actually make things worse as your neighbours will move more aggressively to avoid you.     My point being that if you are in a busy area with lots of WiFi, the interference you are seeing after the reboot / update may be due to your neighbours channel hopping when your APs came back online. 

 

Honestly.   Best practice is to set it for AUTO in the 2.4ghz and let the controller move your channels as needed.   This frequency is VERY congested in all situations and manual setting of channels just doesnt work.  You are literally shooting a moving target.      The rule of thumb for 2.4ghz is, you WILL get congestion / Errors and Retries.. its guaranteed, just let the controller do the selection for you and  hope for the best.

 

5Ghz is becoming more busy, but channels are not a major issue here as the capacity is much higher, so manual is still a viable solution should you decide to go that way. 

 

6Ghz is right on the doorstep and offers LOTS more channels that don't interfere and much improved speeds.

 

Other options for 2.4 -  If you are running 40mhz channels, this will MASSIVELY interfere, in congested airspace stick to 20mhz channels. 

If you are using a lot of older devices, stuff running A  B or G WiFi then Airtime Fairness may be a consideration to keep things flowing.

 

The best thing you can do for 2.4ghz is avoid it like the plague, have a google about "2.4 ghz saturation" and you will see its a very common issue.  

 

If you are getting zero errors or retries on the older firmware... speaking from 20 years experience its a False Negative, its simply impossible on 2.4 to avoid it.

 

 

 

 

  @Philbert 

 

Good points!

 

I'm going to upgrade and put my wifi channels in auto for one of my AP's.  I'll let you know if this fixes my issue.  Thanks.

  @GPB 

 

I've been testing the 5.0.6 firmware for the last 8 hours.  I have the channels set to auto.  I see that the software prefers to use channels that have less interference rather than lower utilization, even if the utilization is near 100%.  Is this right?

 

Yep, I'm getting getting thousands of errors / drops / retries compared to 5.0.5, but I bet it is just a mis-reporting on the old firmware.  My ip cameras are as stable as with 5.0.5.

 

I'll probably stick with it more.  Where is that TLS option that was described in the change log?

  @GPB 

 

I'm using the wifi controller in a virtual machine.  It's the mbently one on docker hub.