@Sparky672 

Thank you for pointing those out.

Have you tried using different browsers and devices to verify if it is coming from the router or the computer being used?

Tony wrote

@Sparky672 

 

Thank you for pointing those out.

 

Have you tried using different browsers and devices to verify if it is coming from the router or the computer being used?

@Tony 

The first bug where the icons are wrong is being seen on Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.  I also can see the problem in iOS.  This is definately coming from the router.  I've rebooted the router and the icons are still wrong.  This is obviously a big issue if I need to see how a device is connected... right now, I cannot trust anything I see on this screen.  The accuracy of the information on the entire screen is in question.

The second bug where the columns are shifted on the DHCP list page 2.  This is only an issue in Safari.  Chrome and Firefox are showing it fine.  However, this too is obviously a router GUI bug since the HTML for these screens is coming from the router.  If Safari is behaving differently than the other browsers, then your HTML might not be fully compliant with markup standards.  Note that when I resize the Safari window, the issue goes away on redraw, but when I reload the page the issue comes back.  This is not a huge issue since it has no effect on performance or accuracy of information.

There are more GUI bugs, but these are being addressed in another thread.

Thank you.

@Tony 

So after 24 hours, I'm still seeing the issue.  The Nest Thermostat is showing Wifi, but the three Samsung appliances are not showing Wifi icons despite being connected only wirelessly.  And the TV is being recognized with a phone icon.

Then two iphones are not being shown as two phones.  Only one is shown with a phone icon...

@Sparky672 

One of our techs tried to reproduce the issue but could not. They wanted to follow up with you directly.

Please look at your direct messages for more information.

Tony wrote

@Sparky672 

 

One of our techs tried to reproduce the issue but could not. They wanted to follow up with you directly.

 

Please look at your direct messages for more information.

@Tony 

Because of the time difference between Hong Kong and Chicago, I made myself available at the last minute, at 8 PM last night, and the whole session lasted nearly 2 hours.  This buggy GUI issue is not critical to me, and since it is obviously some kind of a bug or design flaw, I thought I was doing TP-Link a big favor by allowing them full access to my computer, to play in my terminal, to close my browser windows and mess up my tabs, to install the Wireshark application, to use my Network Utility, and to click back and forth endlessly between the various router settings screens. 

1.  The wrong icons one-by-one fixed themselves over a period of the previous days and by the time this screen session started last night only one wrong icon was left... the Samsung Stove.  The tech had me cycle power to the stove and the icon fixed itself.  Seriously, I could have done that myself without talking to Hong Kong for two hours... the whole point of not resetting any network devices previously was so that TP-Link could SEE the problem for themselves and maybe learn something more than what I already showed them in screenshots.  I guess I was wrong about that.

2.  The engineer could not reproduce the issue because he claimed to be unaware the whole thing was caused by activating the "Smart Connect" option.  This is pretty critical bit of information that I clearly mentioned here in this thread.

3.  While I had him in the screen-sharing session, I wanted to know why two devices connected to the Ethernet ports also were not showing up in the devices list.  This is also abviously a bug since these devices should be showing on the list, and yet this engineer was acting like he was doing me the favor.  I made him "uncomfortable" simply by asking if we "found a bug?"  Like I said, I thought I was helping TP-Link by allowing full access and two hours of my time to troubleshoot these GUI bugs.

I must say that while I appreciate TP-Link's great interest in the bug report, I'm somewhat disappointed in the arrogant, unappreciative attitude towards my valuable time.  Although he did apologize by the end of it, FWIW.

The full chat transcript below:

WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:15):
Hi there
This is Fitz senior engineer from TP-Link support
 
John K. (20:15):
hello
right now the only icon still showing incorrect is Samsung-Range
it's connected with 2.4 wifi but icon shows ethernet
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:16):
May I ask what's the samsung range?
a Range Extender?
 
John K. (20:17):
It's a large kitchen appliance.  Samsung Oven/Stove combo
is called a Range in the US
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:17):
I see~
 
John K. (20:18):
Icons only went wrong afer I tried the "Smart Connect" option.  before that, they were all correct
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:18):
but they didn't recover after disable smart connect
right?
 
John K. (20:18):
right
it's been days and they slowly came back except for the Samsung Stove
Can't trust this screen if these connections don't report correctly at all times
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:20):
lol~ I think in this case, it could do have effects with our Smartconnect logical
 
John K. (20:20):
yes.  that's when it started being a problem
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:20):
When I check the problem from our side, I didn't use the Smart Connect for checking
I should give that a check too
 
John K. (20:21):
right... that's how I reported the problem in your online forum
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:23):
hereis the problem
 
John K. (20:23):
what is the problem?
browser HTM L issue
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:26):
I shallcheck this problem by the Wireshark,can we get this one installed?
 
John K. (20:30):
i'm rying to launch it
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:30):
thanks~
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:35):
Hi there, Can we reboot the Range for once?
So it can rejoin the network\
 
John K. (20:35):
there is no reboot unless I shut off the main breaker for it
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:35):
power off then power on,XD
 
John K. (20:35):
stand by
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:35):
ok
I want to open a command in your system
to check the connection with the Range
 
John K. (20:37):
ok
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:38):
it seems the range has recovered...
 
John K. (20:38):
now Range is showing Wifi
As per previous screenshots from several days ago, a lot of these icons were completely wrong
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:38):
Just after the smart connect, right?
 
John K. (20:38):
yes
immediately after
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:39):
ok, I will check it by our side later
and 
let me check the dhcp list again
The Range get the IP address again from the Router, so the status also come back, I think\
 
John K. (20:41):
I have four things plugged into ethernet ports.  why does it only show two?  Dish and MagicJack correct.  But a ethernet switch and a netgear router both missing.  HP printer connected to ethernet switch
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:42):
are they offline or wait for activation?
 
John K. (20:42):
192.168.1.101 and .102 are printers on switch and .102 was off until just now.  I woke up .101
Netgear router is always on but not shown since smart connect
192.168.1.99 is netgear router
yes... where is .102
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:43):
The HP .101 seems showing by now after activation
.102 was off until just now.
if it's still offline?
DHCP server is also not showing
 
John K. (20:44):
should be powered up now
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:45):
should we wait a little longer time for it to boot up?
 
John K. (20:45):
i fiddle with ethernet cords
there it is
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:49):
ap mode?
 
John K. (20:50):
yes
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:52):
can we check the MACaddress of the netgear router?
should be the effect of static IP without arp packet
 
John K. (20:54):
so why did that go away since smart connect turned on?  I used to have it because as you can see I renamed it
and 102 never shows in the list
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:54):
102 is also static IP by it self?
 
John K. (20:54):
yes, 102 is prgrammed into the printer
101, 102, and 99 
are statid
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:55):
can we get the MAC address of 102?
 
John K. (20:55):
static
I don
I don't know where... hang on
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:55):
ok
 
John K. (20:56):
no idea
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:56):
let me see if I can find it out
 
John K. (20:57):
1.102
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:57):
here we go~
 
John K. (20:59):
I never named it because it never showed up before
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (20:59):
Let's see if  we can find it
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:12):
can we try to push a test file to the .102 printer? it seems there's no any packet sending from the .102 first~
 
John K. (21:14):
102 printer is now printing.
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:14):
Thanks
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:32):
There it is
 
John K. (21:33):
why all that trouble??  Why are these things not working?
shouldn't the network map be automatic?
garage-netgear vanished after smart control, and 102 was never there before you did the binding
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:35):
... I'm sorry about the bad experience
 
John K. (21:35):
makes me wonder if I should be binding 101 too.  101 and 102 go through same switch.
So there are bugs in the router software??
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:36):
the 102 didn't show up in the learning of ARP process
so it was taken as not exist
 
John K. (21:37):
but why??? should this not be working by itself without these issues?
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:37):
I'm not the RD engineer, so I have  to say I also don't know about the basic level reason too
 
John K. (21:37):
looks like a bug to me
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:37):
sorry again for the bad experience again.
 
John K. (21:38):
plus all the goofy icons that went wrong after smart control
I accept your apology... I just would like to know what is going to happen now?  Is somebody going to fix this soon?
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:39):
i will feedback to RD engineer for the smart connect and connection type error after I verify it.
 
John K. (21:40):
but really... I don't understand why one item needs this binding... can I ever turn that off?
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:40):
I was just trying to help solve your problem
you can turn it off
 
John K. (21:40):
I appreciate that. 
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:40):
definitely~
 
John K. (21:40):
so if I turn off binding, everything will continue to work?
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:40):
the arp binding is to solve the .102 cannot be found
let we give it a check shall we?
 
John K. (21:41):
yes... I know.  But one item in my network now requires it all the time???
Looks like router has a huge bug
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:42):
not sure what to tell, i feel kind of awkward talking to you after trying to solve the problem
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII know 
ok?
 
John K. (21:43):
I am confused.  Either router is working normally or it has a bug.  Just tring to get you to answer that
So there is a bug?
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:44):
noi \
dasf
s'a
sad f' 
tried and have solved your problem 
Thanks
\Have a good night
 
John K. (21:44):
Why did this not show up by itself in the list?
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:45):
Can I say I also don't know by this time?
Can you stop asking me like pushing that hard?
It really relaly let me feel uncomfortable
 
John K. (21:45):
???  I just spent almost two hours of my evening on this.
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:46):
I also spent two hours and try to help you
 
John K. (21:46):
I am not being paid so sorry you are uncomfortable
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:47):
here it is , without the binding
 
John K. (21:47):
ok thank you.  please report this to your superiors.  Thank you.
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:48):
This could have effect with the printer's response status
So ca nyou help take the .102 printer to power save mode?
 
John K. (21:48):
printer too slow you mean?  I do not have option to sleep it by force
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:50):
How can we manage this one?
Like changing the network parameter
 
John K. (21:51):
It has setting built in to sleep after x minutes... not sure how long.
change network IP for printer?
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:52):
nope just checking the network parameter
 
John K. (21:53):
ok
printer does not have a web portal
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:54):
ok
 
John K. (21:58):
It's on the list without any special settings so I am glad about that.  Please just let your team know about how it refused to show up easily.  Perhaps this is something they can improve?  Thank you.
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:58):
The Netgear route need to be added because it's working in the AP mode that is taken as kind like a wireless switch.
 
John K. (21:58):
I see.  I understand that is special case.
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (21:58):
....Sorry again for my bad to you
 
John K. (21:58):
Ok thank you
Please forward to team.  Looking forward to upcoming enhancements.
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (22:00):
Please let me know if there's still problem later
I will also would like to help check it out and work with RD engineer to solve it for you
 
John K. (22:00):
ok... will monitor this situation and let you know
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (22:00):
Thanks a lot
 
John K. (22:00):
thanks
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (22:00):
Good night~
 
John K. (22:01):
goodnigh
 
WIN-3E3G118AMSS (22:01):
bye

@Tony 

After all that, we still have problems.  I really think the TP-Link engineers should take a long hard look at this.  

Three are now showing the LAN icon where there should be Wifi...

And within the QoS section too.  

Shows "LAN" where it should be a Wifi connection...

@Sparky672 

Please continue to follow up with them as that is your direct contact.

Tony wrote

@Sparky672 

 

Please continue to follow up with them as that is your direct contact.

@Tony 

Yes.  Continuing to help TP-Link troubleshoot their router as you can see. 

Me:

Hello Fitz -
 
After our screen-sharing session last night, I checked the router today.   The Samsung Range is again showing a LAN icon, and the Samsung TV is also showing a LAN icon, but they are both really connected to Wifi.  Then in the QoS section, the icons are also wrong for these; showing “LAN" where it should be showing Wifi.  
 
I did NOT touch the Smart Connect option since we worked on this last night.  There is clearly some kind of bug within this product or it would be showing the correct connection icons at all times without special intervention.
 
See attached screenshots and please let your team know that they should be thoroughly examining this product’s firmware for bugs.

@Sparky672 

We thank you for continueing to work with our support. This is an issue we have not came across, and the more information they have to work with the better chance they have to look at adderssing your issue.

@Tony

I have not heard anything back from the factory but I'd like to document my continued observations here.

1.  Samsung Stove, Samsung Refrigerator, Nest Thermostat, and Samsung TV are all connected via Wifi but these will randomly show the Ethernet icon.   There is no pattern to this... they show Ethernet icon one day and the Wifi icon on another day.  Resetting the connected device clears up the icon.  However, rebooting the TP-Link router has the opposite effect... after reboot, all of these icons are incorrect.

2.  Three devices connected via the Ethernet ports and have static IP addresses.  Another router and two HP printers connected through an Ethernet switch.  These icons are correct but these devices just drop off the connected device list and do not come back.  These are all working connected devices that I can ping from my computer.  But only after I ping these addresses from the System > Diagnostics screen will they show up on the devices list.

Clearly the GUI has some bugs and I've been diligently trying to help TP-Link solve these issues, however, so far it does not seem like they are taking any of this very seriously.