Hello Community,

 

First post and hope I can get help as I rasied a ticket and no answer after 48h.

 

I have a critical isssue with my C80s routeurs.

 

I setup a new, Cat 6 wired large home and thought buying the Archer C80 as Access points to extend the wifi network was a good idea. 

So my configuration is as follows:

 

- Fiber Modem

- Central Wifi 6 router connected to modem

- 2 x 24 ports Switch (TP-link) for home distribution

- Each remote area has a C80 connected as access points:

• Ethernet cable in wan (blue port) of C80
• Fixed IP address 192.168.2.24x
• Use Main Wifi Router as DHCP, 192.168.2.1

 

I confifgured first 2 C80s and it was working great. They came with firmware version 201022

 

So I decided to buy 3 more, 6 months later. And after 8 hours of configuring, rebooting, resetting, trying and trying I could not amke any of the new C80s work.

 

Concretely I setup my IP as fixed IP but when selecting the operation mode to be in Access Point, the fixed IP would be lost, impsosible to access the web management page and to connect to the router (my computer would show conenction for 0.5 second then would siwtch back to another wifi).

 

Afer hours and hours of invetigation came the idea it may be firmware related. Sure enough, the new routers had a more advanced firmware version (1.5.7 vs 1.5.0).

 

So, I decided to upgrade to the latest for testing one old (that was working well with the old firmware) and one new C80 for testing. And , sure enough, both failed. Same thing, no fixed IP on network, no access to internet or possibility to conenct to router on wifi, or the web control page of the router!

 

So, clearly post version 201022 something was done to the router setup that makes it fail in access point mode. 

 

I notice in the network diagram that the newer versions have a "Mesh Element"  showing next to the Wifi Clients on the network diagram, and a little mroe menu items. Not sure why adding the mesh option for Mesh then destroyed the basic AP functionality, but it did!

 

I also realized with horror that the latest firmware, 210716 is marked as "cannot be downgraded"!!!

 

What can I do? How cna I revert to the 201022 build all my C80, or can TP-link fix their bug and publish a new router. 

 

I have invested now in 5 C80 and only 1 is working :(

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Julien