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Deco P7 - half of network loosing internet connections - but no indication on nodes

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Deco P7 - half of network loosing internet connections - but no indication on nodes

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.

Tor-Arne

2019-05-03 08:23:16

Posts: 23

Helpful: 7

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Registered: 2019-02-27

Deco P7 - half of network loosing internet connections - but no indication on nodes

2019-05-03 08:23:16

Model: Deco P7

Hardware Version: V1

Firmware Version: 1.2.0 Build 20181210 Rel 34913

4 Deco P7's in AP mode, main node connected through Ethernet (so this should be the backhaul),

Ethernet -> P7 - P7 - P7

-P7

ie the main node is probably connected to 2 nodes through Powerline, one of these 2 nodes connected through a 2nd line node through Powerline.

All nodes showing green and working normally, and all powersupply's showing green (>50 Mbit/s connectivity through Powerline).

All generally working well after spending a lot of time getting all power supplys green. It's a one level flat with very difficult and thick walls.

After working well for a month the situation deteriorated a few days ago.

The 2 nodes on the top line disappeared from the network, and could not be seen by the master node, or app. Weirdly enough all lights, on all nodes and power supplys were still green. Rebooting the 2nd level node brought it back on the network for 1-2 minutes, then fell out again. Reset the node and set it up again, worked for 1-2 minutes. In the end I moved the 2nd level node to a new power socket, and everything is working again.

My concern is that there is absolutely no way of debugging this, through app, LED's or any other means as no Web interface or SNMP is available, making it next to impossible to make the network work optimally. The speedtest seems to only work from the main node, which makes it useless as it's connected through the Ethernet connection. So I have what could be a really good mesh network, but no metrics on how well it works. Even on "normal" TP-Link Powerline units there is a management app and browser access helping the setup process, on the P7's (and possibly all Deco units) the management of nodes in AP mode is appalingly bad. And monitoring of nodes is next to impossible (except for ping or arping).

I have heard rumours of a new version of the firmware, will this remedy any of these shortcomings?

It's a pity, as the nodes work well when set up after trial and error, but when I get a call saying the network is down, it's hard to do anything.

3 Reply

Tor-Arne

LV2

2019-05-04 17:19:46

Posts: 23

Helpful: 7

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Registered: 2019-02-27

Re:Deco P7 - half of network loosing internet connections - but no indication on nodes

2019-05-04 17:19:46

This is not a reply - it's continuing the sags.

Today I tried moving one of the AP's (as I have 4 in a 1700sq foot flat, and strangely enough I almost immediately lost access to 2 of the nodes, even if they were withing line of sight. Getting all AP's back into the network was a difficult exercise, which led me to believe that once they are running as 2+2 they advertised a new network adn refused to join the main AP. Unfortunately this meant that a number of our devices connected to the 2 AP's that were not connected to the Internet.

Even after moving the AP I had originally moved back to it's original spot, things did not start working again until I had turned off all AP's started the main AP first, and then the others in sequence - with the remotest node last.

As I wrote in my last post - this is next to impossible to debug, but I do suspect that 2 of the nodes got self assigned IP addresses outside our subnet, and would therefore not rejoin the core network later on, but I am just guessing here, but it's the only explanation I can see when these nodes have to be restarted to join the network. Not terribly good - there is a mjor bug somewhere when a mesh network is unable to survive a node disappearing and reappearing again.

When can we expect the new version of the firmware??

Kevin_Z

2019-05-06 06:27:24

Posts: 21782

Helpful: 5151

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Registered: 2018-12-24

Re:Deco P7 - half of network loosing internet connections - but no indication on nodes

2019-05-06 06:27:24

Hi,

What is the operation mode of the main AP? Is it the router mode or the access point mode?

What do you mean by 2nd level node? Meanwhile, how do they connect each other? Via wireless or wired cable? (The powerline function is related to the powerline backhaul);

(Ethernet -> P7 - P7 - P7

-P7 --- this one? )

After the 2 nodes on the top line disappeared from the network, with your computer connected to them each other, please check the IP address and default gateway it obtained; below is the instruction, please show us the screenshots of the status-details page.

https://www.tp-link.com/en/support/faq/838/

To run a comparison test, please connect your computer to the main Deco directly and check the IP and gateway; and whether you can access internet.

Please reboot the modem or main Deco manually after this issue happened and test whether the 2 nodes appear again.

Besides, you can try to reboot/hard reset them to give it a go as well.

What is more, please tell us the Mac address of the Deco P7 which lost connection.

Thanks in advance, and have a nice day.

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Tor-Arne

LV2

2019-05-06 20:35:57

Posts: 23

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Registered: 2019-02-27

Re:Re:Deco P7 - half of network loosing internet connections - but no indication on nodes

2019-05-06 20:35:57

Kevin_Z

Thanks for the reply.

The main P7 is running in AP mode (they are all running in AP mode). The min Deco is also connected to my LAN using Ethernet cable. The P7 on the 2nd line (the line with one P7 on it is also connected to Ethernet).

The last 2 AP nodes (the ones that disappeared) are *not* using Ethernet, just Powerline backhaul.

How they are connected to each other in the mesh is hard to say - that is the main problem with the lack of diagnostics in the App, and the lack of any other ways of getting data from the nodes. So for the 2 AP nodes that disappeared it's just my assumption that they are using Powerline as backhaul, the LED os the power supply is green.

Next time this happens I'll connect to the nodes that disappeared using Ethernet.

I did just reboot the main AP - and the 2 nodes that had disappeared did not reappear until I rebooted them as well. I even reset one of the nodes, and it did not help.

The Mac addresses of the 2 nodes that disappeared are : B0-BE-76-E2-06-FC and B0-BE-76-E2-07-00

Regards

Tor

Deco P7 - half of network loosing internet connections - but no indication on nodes

Deco P7 - half of network loosing internet connections - but no indication on nodes

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