Deco XE5300 intermittently dropping WiFi
I moved to a new house & wanted to set up multiple IoT devices for Apple HomeKit. I use Meross switches. Have several HomePod Minis & a couple AppleTV's. When I started building the network I set the main network as 5GHz only (for now) for now & gave it a unique name. I turned on IoT Network & gave it a separate name, 2.4 only. Initially, I could jump on either the primary or the dedicated IoT Wi-Fi's without an issue.
I kept my phone logged into the IoT (2.4) & "forgot" the primary 5GHz to make adding devices to Apple Home app easier.
The AppleTV's are hardwired in.
I added all the HomePods on to the Home app using the IoT network on 2.4GHz only. Then I began adding all the Meross switches & Hunter ceiling fans (these are a PITA, IFYKYK).
I then began putting the Meross switches in to WiFi pairing mode & adding them one by one. I would add one, then insure under Connection Preference that "2.4GHz" was checked. After adding ~ 11 of them I could not get any of the others to add. Despite following similar steps as the first 11, the others do not connect to the Home app.
1-2 of them have stayed in WiFi pairing mode & I can see the network the switch broadcasts under my WiFi settings.
Here is where things get very odd. My WiFi began to drop intermittently. Every few mins I was unable to connect to either the primary (5GHz) or the IoT (2.4GHz) wifi's. And now, when I do, I get the message "No internet connection." In the Deco app there is only minimal network traffic to confirm nothing is connecting.
I am at my wits-end trying to figure out why the WiFi keeps cutting out. I have tried rebooting the Deco's, hard resetting my phone, etc. I just don't know how to get the WiFi to stabilize. Wife came home & she cannot connect to wifi (primary or IoT) on her phone, laptop, anything....All wired devices are doing fine.
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@xjsimon Guest network already off.
I would also concur that if I turn off the IoT separate wifi the network is stable once again.
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@xjsimon Good form, sir. Sounds like a dream set-up & a nightmare to manage.
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@Aloha77 Hi, nice to see you again. I see your case #TKID230923195 has been forwarded to the engineers already. It would be highly appreciated if you could also give an update to the engineer via email so that they could arrange further assistance as soon as possible.
Best regards.
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Hi, Thank you very much for your feedback.
Did you want to download the firmware back to 1.1.x when the IOT network hasn't been added?
And if you are interested, you could run the following test:
1. Pick one satellite Deco XE5300.
2. Run a firmware recovery on this unit and upload the 1.1.11 firmware.
Deco XE5300(US) 1.6_1.1.11 Build 20230302 Rel. 51700
3. Then add it back to the previous Mesh system.
How to add an additional unit to your Deco network
4. Switch this unit with 1.1.11 firmware as the main Deco.
How to Set up the Satellite Deco or a new Deco to be the Main Deco
After that, please check whether the old firmware 1.1.11 helps improve the network stability.
Wait for your reply and best regards.
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Hi, welcome to the community.
I have viewed your comments on several other posts. Since your model is Deco X55_V1.2, It uses different firmware from V1 so the 1.9.0/1.3.0 of Deco X55_V1 is not applicable for V1.2. Frankly speaking, there hasn't been much feedback about V1.2 before.
Later I would like to follow up on your case via email in case I need to consult the engineers for further assistance.
Please check whether you can get my email later.
Thank you very much and best regards.
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David-TP wrote
Hi, welcome to the community.
I have viewed your comments on several other posts. Since your model is Deco X55_V1.2, It uses different firmware from V1 so the 1.9.0/1.3.0 of Deco X55_V1 is not applicable for V1.2. Frankly speaking, there hasn't been much feedback about V1.2 before.
Later I would like to follow up on your case via email in case I need to consult the engineers for further assistance.
Please check whether you can get my email later.
Thank you very much and best regards.
Is there a functional difference between V1 and V1.2? What differentiates them?
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David-TP wrote
Hi, Thank you very much for your feedback.
Did you want to download the firmware back to 1.1.x when the IOT network hasn't been added?
And if you are interested, you could run the following test:
1. Pick one satellite Deco XE5300.
2. Run a firmware recovery on this unit and upload the 1.1.11 firmware.
Deco XE5300(US) 1.6_1.1.11 Build 20230302 Rel. 51700
3. Then add it back to the previous Mesh system.
How to add an additional unit to your Deco network
4. Switch this unit with 1.1.11 firmware as the main Deco.
How to Set up the Satellite Deco or a new Deco to be the Main Deco
After that, please check whether the old firmware 1.1.11 helps improve the network stability.
Wait for your reply and best regards.
@David-TP That's a lot of effort. Can I just not do a manual firmware update to the old version from the web login?
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Just to bubble this up again. Any update from TPLink on network instability?
I can't enable Guest network or IOT or all clients start to drop intermittently.
Since the last firmware update (1.2.7 Build 20230728 Rel. 54059), my 2.4Ghz cameras have really bad connectivity. Everything else is stable as long as I don't enable IOT or Guest modes. (FYI - I have taken all the steps to resolve the 2.4ghz only devices including disabling Beamforming, Fast Roaming, and disabling Mesh Technology and setting Connection Preferences for all devices).
Can we easily revert to the prior firmware without losing all our settings? If so, what was the last firmware version and where can we get it?
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Hi, the software functions are basically the same on Deco X55_V1 and V1.2 after updating to the latest firmware versions.
As for the firmware downgrade of Deco XE5300_V1, it depends on which firmware you want to downgrade.
Downgrading firmware from 1.2.7 to 1.2.6/1.2.2, you could directly complete via the web UI since these three versions are on the same firmware platforms.
While downgrading from 1.2.7 to 1.1.x, since they are crossing different firmware platforms, a firmware recovery is needed first.
Thank you very much and best regards.
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Sorry, I don't mean to muddy this thread, but I wanted to share my response to TP-Link regarding my instability issues with my AXE5300 units. This is for the sake of documentation for anyone else that has similar issues.
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Thank you for reaching out to me on the issues I'm having with my AXE5300 network.
I realize that my network is not average, but I'm highly confident that the Deco system can actually serve my purposes well because there have been a couple points where all my devices worked really well - before the last firmware update and for a few hours after making a simple change to the WIFI security to WPA2 only. Since that point, I haven't been able to restore the stability.
Just to recap, I have 9 AXE5300 Deco units (map is below). All the Deco units have good wireless connectivity to each other. One is connected to the main unit via ethernet backhaul.
At the furthest points (labeled River Bend, Cedars) my signal is still strong and internet speeds are good when testing from my mobile device.
All the devices on the network are working well, except my Reolink 2.4Ghz wifi cameras. All of these cameras are within a good range of their closest Deco unit. As stated before, the previous firmware allowed these cameras to quickly connect with very stable video streaming.
With the new firmware, the cameras are very difficult to connect to from the Reolink mobile app and the Reolink Windows client. It often takes several attempts to connect to the camera and once a connection is established, it often drops out after only a few seconds. Sometimes the camera will connect on the first try, but there is no pattern to this. One camera that initially connects well can be very difficult to connect to at a later point.
I'm not sure why after the WPA2 only setting allowed all the cameras to stabilize, but only for a few hours - without touching the Deco configuration.
So as of now:
- All cameras are given a reserved IP address
- Mesh Technology is disabled for each camera
- Connection Preference is set to the closest Deco unit
- Fast Roaming is disabled
- Beamforming is disabled
- Guest Network is disabled
- IOT Network is disabled
- Deco hardware is XE5300(1.0)
- Firmware version is 1.2.7 Build 20230728 Rel. 54059
I have tried to monitor the Deco log, but it is throwing many many errors that I can't understand. I'm attaching my log to this email
I'm interested in going back to the previous firmware. Could you provide that file? Will my configuration settings remain when changing firmware versions?
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Replies: 51