Deco S4 - Some WiFi devices are cycling every thirty seconds or so between seeing
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Three Unit system bought.
On the bottom of each units it says Model: Deco S4R
In the app interface at 192.168.XX.1, it says S4(2.0)
Using a TP-Link Gigabiit switch Model TL-SG1008D to include other ethernet items and to add backhaul.
Router and S4 Access Point units are all on Ethernet backhaul, so this isn't likely about backhaul.
Latest version of the firmware. 1.5.0 Build 20210607 Rel. 56436
All ethernet-connected devices are trouble-free.
The one Roku WiFi device is trouble-free.
Two Laptops (WiFi)
Two Desktops (Ethernet)
Two Roku's (one WiFi, one Ethernet)
Several other Ethernet devices.
Connected directly to Motorola Surfboard Docsis 3.0 modem, model SB6121.
Our phones and our laptops are cycling every thrity seconds connected vs. disconnected to WiFi. This happens randomly.
This did not happen previously with our ASUS modem using a Tomato firmware.
It doesn't matter whether my phone is sat right in front of the main router or one of the AP's or somewhere else. It shows the name of my SSID and "no interent".
And then suddenly I'll have a connection out of the blue for a while that's good for half an hour on my phone. Then it begins cycling again.
I originally bought this mesh system so my wife and I could talk with people on Google voice from an app on my phone regardless of what room I'm in.
Except that's being hampered by the unfortunate connect/disconnect cycle. And then sometimes it just decides there is no internet. Even though it's obviously there, it refuses to connect after continually trying. I have to manually click the disconnect/connect button on my phone to jumpstart the cycle of trying to connect again.
Tried disabling 5GHz. No help.
IPV6 disabled. (Spectrum doesn't use it.)
IPV4 DNS set to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
Tried leaving DNS unset (default) but that made no difference.
Phone VPN Disabled.
I want to be able to use WiFi consistently. Please help me fix this.
Here's more information. The issue seems mostly resolved after we realized the problem was mostly with our phones. We still see some attempts when wandering from one room to another for our phones or laptops to attempt to continue to hold on to the original AP, but more often than not, the AP with the better connection does take over when it's close enough.
Regarding the phones:
The phones we bought are the UMIDID A7 Pro. February and March of 2021.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08924QPQZ
4GB RAM, 128GB Storage, Unlocked... in a pinch the cameras are okay. Video recording is useless. We bought these more for phone use and checking news online.
This is almost completely stock Android 10, and UMIDIGI are updating the OS for these devices once or twice a year.
They even forgot to replace the "Customize Your Pixel" setting at the top of the settings interface.
The question becomes how they derive the "random" mac id to help keep the device more secure. The MAC ID has to be different for each SSID, yet remain the same when you hook back up to that same SSID. I suspect they take the SSID and the phone model together as a salt to create the "random" MAC ID generator, but they don't make it random enough. This could ostensibly be a security issue if someone intentiionally buys the same phone model and uses it to hack someone else's router or phone. The question becomes whether it's an UMIDIGI thing or an Android 10 thing... If it's an Android 10 thing, the possible security issue is larger than the scope of a single model or a single phone maker.
Anyway, in Android 10 for both phones > Settings > Network & Internet > WiFi > Add Network > Advanced > Privacy >
Change from "Use randomized MAC (default)" to "Use device MAC".
Save.
Here's more information. The issue seems mostly resolved after we realized the problem was mostly with our phones. We still see some attempts when wandering from one room to another for our phones or laptops to attempt to continue to hold on to the original AP, but more often than not, the AP with the better connection does take over when it's close enough.
Regarding the phones:
The phones we bought are the UMIDID A7 Pro. February and March of 2021.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08924QPQZ
4GB RAM, 128GB Storage, Unlocked... in a pinch the cameras are okay. Video recording is useless. We bought these more for phone use and checking news online.
This is almost completely stock Android 10, and UMIDIGI are updating the OS for these devices once or twice a year.
They even forgot to replace the "Customize Your Pixel" setting at the top of the settings interface.
The question becomes how they derive the "random" mac id to help keep the device more secure. The MAC ID has to be different for each SSID, yet remain the same when you hook back up to that same SSID. I suspect they take the SSID and the phone model together as a salt to create the "random" MAC ID generator, but they don't make it random enough. This could ostensibly be a security issue if someone intentiionally buys the same phone model and uses it to hack someone else's router or phone. The question becomes whether it's an UMIDIGI thing or an Android 10 thing... If it's an Android 10 thing, the possible security issue is larger than the scope of a single model or a single phone maker.
Anyway, in Android 10 for both phones > Settings > Network & Internet > WiFi > Add Network > Advanced > Privacy >
Change from "Use randomized MAC (default)" to "Use device MAC".
Save.