@DeGeekIT 

 

The biggest issue with turning on router mode and letting it do it's thing, is they crippled the M3 I have by only giving it a 100MBit ethernet connection.

 

If it had a Gb ethernet, then it's performance would be better and I would not have a problem with it.

 

Some may say the the Internet connections are not that fast,  I have fiber and have 1Gb connection to the world.  Why would I slow it down to 100Mb?

 

 

@TP-Link_Deco 
In a way the problem isn't the fact that, as an emergency measure, the decos hand out IP addresses when the upstream router loses internet connectivity.  The core problem is that the Deco's don't force the clients to requests an ip address from the upstream router once it regains a connection.

I'm not sure, but I wonder whether this could be solved by the Deco's setting an extremely short lease times on the IP addresses, polling for an internet connection every few minutes, and immediately disactivating it's own DHCP server as soon as it discovers a viable internet connection.  
My thought is that then all connected clients would be forced to request a new IP address from the upstream router very quickly once it had recovered.

@DeGeekIT 

 

No, no and more no.

Bridge mode is meant to be passive. No one wants any service springing up, however sane the defaults might be.

 

tp-link could easily highlight the consequences of bridge mode, let the paying customer who is responsible for their own network accept this and then get out of the way. Every other device I've used in bridge mode operates like this, no idea why tp-link want this hybrid mess.

@GPGeek 

 

I agree that when in bridge mode, your in bridge mode, no DHCP.  

 

If I am also in bridge, I should be able to define my local address for the decos.  That would let me access them when my DHCP serve goes down for some reason.

 

There is no way for a DHCP server to force a client to do anything.  The client has to make a request, then the server replies with an offer.  Short lease times is the only way to get an address after that happens.  Problem is primarilly windows, it does not want to release an address if it had it.  It always requests the last address it had in the discover.

 

 

If you think about it,  since the Decos have a DHCP Client built in, they could do a DHCP request on the LAN to see if a DHCP server is on the network.  That would give them all the network parameters, and primarily let them know there is another server present and not to enable its DHCP server.

 

May not be 100% fail proof, but better than what is available now.

 

I have no problem with a factory reset if I need to.

 

Until there is a fix, mine has been turned off.  I may re-enable it someday for the grand kids on a guest network so it does not kill my primary network.

 

Now if they would only update the firmware for my TPLink AX-3000 Router to become part of the mesh, it has a GB connection.

 

Wishful thinking.  Lets fix the current problem...

 

@TP-Link_Deco 

 

I realize that by disabling DHCP Server there might be a situation where no device is handing out dynamic IP assignments then it might be possible for the Deco to be inaccessible.

Anyone who knows enough to set the Decos to AP mode (and turn off the DHCP Server) should also know how to assign Static IPs to his own subnet and access the Deco.

I mean, come on, isn't that how proper Access Points are supposed to work since the beginning of Wifi history? Isn't that how it's called in the Deco app? I'm pretty sure it's called ACCESS POINT MODE.

 

Rogue DHCP Server springing up to life (seemingly) randomly and then screwing off the whole network. That's a big headache to any network administrator.

Give us an option to completely toggle off the DHCP Server in the Decos.

Just put a warning there to scare off the ones who don't really understand about dynamic IPs and DHCPs.

 

I'm sure there's plenty of workarounds you can do.

Same issue here.

 

TP-Link MUST solve this. 

 

I got multiple LAN losts before finding this thread and aknowledging that it was not a faulty configuration on my side which was responsible of all the mess.

 

We need answers.

@Jeliel 

Agreed, they MUST.

Sadly, even with their latest response, it's clear they WON'T.

 

 

@phillip_mcmahon 

+1 on the disable option

Same. My ecobee keeps getting weird IP addresses allocated each day. If they are not going to fix it soon, I am gonna return my decos.