EAP 615 messing with other EAP units

EAP 615 messing with other EAP units

EAP 615 messing with other EAP units
EAP 615 messing with other EAP units
2024-09-22 14:22:32 - last edited 2024-09-27 17:26:11
Model: EAP615-Wall  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: 1.2.4

I have a system with 5 EAP access points covering a fairly large area. I have two EAP245s, an EAP225, an EAP225-Outdoor, and I once had an EAP235-Wall covering the far end of the space. The wall unit was most approriate for that location because it gave me an extra wired Ethernet that I needed, but it did tend to cause minor issues because it did not support seamless roaming, so sometimes a device would take a long time to switch to or from this Access Point. I was doing some research recently and found that the newer EAP615-Wall has been released since this was installed, and it is basically the same thing but supports seamless roaming, so I purchased one and installed it in place of the EAP235-Wall.

 

I started experiencing very odd behavior on a couple of devices, and troubleshooting has led me to the EAP615-Wall as the definite source of the problem.

 

I have an Android phone and a Windows based Laptop that now will connect exclusively to the EAP615-Wall. They will not roam to another AP, and if I power off the EAP615-Wall they will fail to connect to the SSIDs provided by the other APs. They can 'see' the SSID still but will not connect, and give me an error if I try to force a connection. If I 'forget' the SSID and re-add it, they will connect using the other APs as normal until I power the EAP615-Wall back on. Once they have roamed to this AP the issue occurs again. Unfortunately this means that I have devices that for a fair section of the physical space my WiFI covers, they have either very slow WiFi or no WiFi at all because they are too far from the EAP615-Wall for an effective connection and they will not connect to the nearby AP as they should.

 

I have looked through the settings and cannot find anything that seems to apply to just this device that makes any difference. Is this a bug, or is this a defect with my particular unit?

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#1
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Re:EAP 615 messing with other EAP units-Solution
2024-09-27 16:55:11 - last edited 2024-09-28 12:52:36

Edit. With no helpful response here I decided to go out on a limb and turned to ChatGPT.

 

The AI generated response I got back was a suggestion that there might be a conflict if some access points offer WiFi 6 and others do not.

 

Based on this I went digging into the config again and found that after changing the 'Wireless Mode' in the Radio Config from 'Auto' to '802.11a/n/ac' I was able to forget the network and re-add it again on the two devices that were having trouble and they both now connect seamlessly to the nearest AP again.

 

I would suggest that logic be added to Omada SDN to monitor for this and perhaps show an information message if there is a mix of devices that do and do not support 802.11ax, since apparently that was the issue here. Once this particular laptop and this particular phone associated that SSID with an 802.11ax connection, they refused to connect to it on anything less.

 

Editing again. Leaving the above as possibly relevant info for others who come here with similar issues in the future.

 

The solution above turned out to be incomplete. After a few hours I noticed that the issue returned. I believe I have traced it to a WPA2-WPA3 issue now. Apparently the EAP615 is the only access point on my system that supports WPA3, so although the WPA setting in Omada controller was set to WPA3, no devices could actually use this because the hardware did not support it, but now with one out of five APs supporting it, once certain devices connected to the SSID using that AP they would no longer connect to any others because the other APs are only capable of WPA2. I had to go into Wireless Setting, Advanced Settings for each SSID, and manually change it to WPA2.

 

This is definitely something that needs to be flagged or otherwise alert a user if WPA3 is enabled but there are APs in the system that do not support it!

 

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Re:EAP 615 messing with other EAP units
2024-09-27 01:47:43

  @KocherJJ 

Do you enable fast roaming? Here's why clients can not roam to the AP. Please refer to this article for troubleshooting:Why my clients don't roam or connect to the nearest AP

 

Best Regards! >> Omada EAP Firmware Trial Available Here << >> Get the Latest Omada SDN Controller Releases Here << *Try filtering posts on each forum by Label of [Early Access]*
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Re:EAP 615 messing with other EAP units
2024-09-27 03:51:13

  @Hank21 

 

Fast roaming is enabled, and unfortunately none of the suggestions in the shared link seem to be relevant. It's only a couple of WiFi devices that are suffering from this behavior, and if it was just a question of signal strength then the devices should still connect if it is in an area that is only covered by one of the other access points, but it does not. It refuses to connect at all even though it detects the network, until it is within range of the 615 Wall unit and then it only connects to that.

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Re:EAP 615 messing with other EAP units-Solution
2024-09-27 16:55:11 - last edited 2024-09-28 12:52:36

Edit. With no helpful response here I decided to go out on a limb and turned to ChatGPT.

 

The AI generated response I got back was a suggestion that there might be a conflict if some access points offer WiFi 6 and others do not.

 

Based on this I went digging into the config again and found that after changing the 'Wireless Mode' in the Radio Config from 'Auto' to '802.11a/n/ac' I was able to forget the network and re-add it again on the two devices that were having trouble and they both now connect seamlessly to the nearest AP again.

 

I would suggest that logic be added to Omada SDN to monitor for this and perhaps show an information message if there is a mix of devices that do and do not support 802.11ax, since apparently that was the issue here. Once this particular laptop and this particular phone associated that SSID with an 802.11ax connection, they refused to connect to it on anything less.

 

Editing again. Leaving the above as possibly relevant info for others who come here with similar issues in the future.

 

The solution above turned out to be incomplete. After a few hours I noticed that the issue returned. I believe I have traced it to a WPA2-WPA3 issue now. Apparently the EAP615 is the only access point on my system that supports WPA3, so although the WPA setting in Omada controller was set to WPA3, no devices could actually use this because the hardware did not support it, but now with one out of five APs supporting it, once certain devices connected to the SSID using that AP they would no longer connect to any others because the other APs are only capable of WPA2. I had to go into Wireless Setting, Advanced Settings for each SSID, and manually change it to WPA2.

 

This is definitely something that needs to be flagged or otherwise alert a user if WPA3 is enabled but there are APs in the system that do not support it!

 

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Re:EAP 615 messing with other EAP units
2024-09-29 12:26:21

  @KocherJJ 

 

This is a known issue, and has been reported several times in the last year and a bit.  TPlink have steadfastly refused to correct the profile pushed by the controller to filter 6Ghz from the APs that do not support it.  My fix is to create two profiles, one with 2+5 and another with 2+5+6 which are identical other than the latter enabling 6Ghz band.  I then manually assign the appropriate profile based on the device capabilities.

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