EasyMesh Ethernet Backhaul Failure after Satellite Router Reboot
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After operating for almost two weeks, this morning the satellite router was not displaying all of its connected clients. I decided then to reboot the satellite router. The GUI of the satellite router does not have an option for rebooting so it was necessary to reboot it using the GUI of the main router under Advanced, EasyMesh.
After rebooting, the EasyMesh network failed to reestablish itself. The topology map showed the satellite router connected wirelessly with a poor signal. There was never any indication of a wired connection. After several minutes, the GUI of the main router then became very unresponsive and it was practically impossible to do anything. All of the main routers LEDs were green, but all of my devices lost their internet connection.
At this point, the main router was powered down and back up again, after which the network was restored except for one range extender (RE700X V2) which normally connects to the satellite router due to its distance from the main router. The range extender was connected to the main router with a poor signal instead of reconnecting to the satellite router with a good signal. It was necessary to power it down completely and back up again.
The problem here is that the satellite router is not recognizing its ethernet backhaul connection to the main router when it reboots. One should be able to reboot the satellite router at any time and not have to reboot the main router to get things restored. Any rebooted satellite device should just drop out of the network and then rejoin the network after the reboot. In the case of the range extender, it should be able to detect and connect to a router with the strongest signal.
Thank you for responding and showing an interest in this issue. First, the network topology is shown in the diagram below:
The home has three levels and is constructed with concrete floors and “brick and mortar” walls. In this explanation, I will refer to the different levels as the “ground floor”, “first floor”, and “attic”.
The main router is in the attic next to the ISP’s Home Gateway Unit (HGU). Normally, the ISP places the HGU near the entry point on the ground floor, however due to a home office in the attic area, the ISP installed fiber optic cable all the way to the attic. The satellite router is in the living room on the ground floor and is directly connected to the main router (through wall jacks) via Cat6a cable. The total cable length is approximately 15-20 meters.
An RE700X (V1) range extender is located on the first floor and normally connects to the main router. A second RE700X (V2) range extender is located on the ground floor and about 7 to 10 meters from the satellite router with signals passing through 2 walls. This second extender normally connects to the satellite router.
In normal operation, the topology map in the main router’s GUI is shown as follows:
For the first test, the satellite router was rebooted using the GUI of the main router. During the reboot, the GUI was monitored and something very strange appeared (perhaps because other icons were clicked in the GUI before returning to the EasyMesh page). The GUI displayed the following:
I have never seen this before and I’m sure your engineers will know what it means and why it was displayed.
It was then necessary to reboot the main router to restore normal operation. After the reboot, the satellite router was shown correctly in the GUI of the main router but the second range extender remained connected to the main router instead of connecting to the satellite router. An attempt was made to reboot the extender from the GUI of the main router but nothing happened. It was necessary to power down, power up the extender after which everything was normal.
A second test was done and the satellite router was rebooted using the GUI of the main router. The satellite router rebooted successfully and was shown in the GUI as “wired”. It was not necessary to unplug the cable from the main router. The second range extender again failed to connect to the satellite router. The network was then left alone for some 4 hours to see if things would return completely to normal.
After the mid day break, the satellite router was again rebooted. The main router’s GUI displayed the following:
After the reboot, the satellite router connected wirelessly to the main router and it was necessary to unplug and reconnect the cable two times to get the wired connection restored and everything back to normal (except for the extender).
A fourth test was done. This time, while the satellite reboot was in progress, the GUI of the main router became unresponsive. An attempt was made to view the CPU data but the page did not respond. After several minutes, the GUI began to respond very slowly and the following was displayed:
The satellite router did not respond to a ping. The cable to the main router was then unplugged and the GUI displayed the following:
The cable was reconnected and everything returned to normal.
A fifth test was done and the satellite router connected wirelessly and then switched to “wired” after a short period.
Because each test produced different results or required different actions, it was decided to power down everything and rebuild the network from scratch. First the main router was powered up. A few minutes later the satellite router was powered up. Then the extenders were powered up and everything was normal.
One last test was done. The satellite router rebooted OK and rejoined the network without having to unplug the cable. The second extender remained connected to the main router and again it was necessary to reboot the extender to get back to 100% normal.
Closing comments:
1. As time permits, I will continue to do some testing and will let you know of any anomalies.
2. The RE700X range extender firmware needs a fix so that it will switch to a stronger signal when network changes occur.
3. There is a grammatical error in the AX55 GUI coding. When rebooting a satellite device on the EasyMesh page, a brief message is displayed that says “[Device] has been reboot.”. It should read “[Device] has been rebooted.”. The past tense of reboot is rebooted.