2.4ghz Guest #2 randomly refuses connections, SSID still visible. Non-guest no problems.

[FSTL]

Hello everyone. I know there are a lot of guest network problem threads in this forum, but after reading many of them, I think this problem is somewhat unique.

I am running Merlin 386.2_6 on an RT-AC5300. The firmware was cleanly loaded. I have two guest networks enabled, one on 2.4Ghz, the other on 5Ghz-1. Both are on guest slot #2. The 5Ghz network is rock solid, never a problem. The 2.4Ghz guest net will run well for 1 to 10 days, then stop accepting connections. The SSID remains visible. The 2.4Ghz non-guest SSID continues to accept connections and works fine. All I have to do to get the Guest 2.4Ghz back up is edit the properties in the web interface, and click apply. I do not have to remove and re-add it. Just the apply button. Clients will immediately reconnect and work fine.

Anyone have any thoughts on this problem, or troubleshooting steps I should perform?

Failing a fix, is there a shell command I could schedule that would disable/enable the 2.4Ghz guest network to reset the failure timer? It is always solid for at least 24 hours.

Thanks in advance for any feedback that is shared. This forum is a wonderful resource, and Merlin is a great system. Thank you!

 

[L&LD]

What, specifically, does 'the firmware was cleanly loaded' mean?

 

[FSTL]

Hi L&LD, thank you for the reply. I'm pretty familiar with yours and other's advise on the topic. I usually do a factory reset via the GUI, then follow that up with a WPS reset. Load up the firmware, and reconfigure manually, not loading any previous config files. I actually followed your M&M post on this unit a few months ago when I loaded Merlin. I have not gotten into the deeper wifi radio config stuff such as manual control channel settings, etc. though.

 

[SammyG]

I had the same issue with you a few firmwares ago using Guest #2 (because IP addressing on Guest #1 was stupid). I ended up dropping it and just using my normal 2.4 network for IOT devices but an interim solution was to use the shortcuts app on my iPhone to run an ssh script whenever I noticed that my IOT devices weren’t connecting.


radio off 0; radio on 0

 

[FSTL]

Thanks SammyG, I'll try bouncing the radio the next time it happens to see if that gets it back online.



Does anyone know if there is a command line equivalent to clicking the apply button for a guest network? Thanks.

 

[john9527]

Does anyone know if there is a command line equivalent to clicking the apply button for a guest network? Thanks.

You restart one SSID, your restart them all...

service restart_wireless

 

[macster2075]

I have 3 different models.. AC68P, AC86U and AX86U and I see if I enable the 2.4ghz Guest Network, it causes conflicts or some kind of interference with my 2.4 ghz security cameras.
I've seen this on all 3 models and was hoping this would go away with newer and better models, but I see they all have this issue.

As soon as I disable the guest network, I get no more interference and the camera feeds are back to being smooth (meaning no more disconnects). No issue when enabling the 5ghz Guest Network...only the 2.4ghz.
Is this a known issue?

 

[L&LD]

Use Guest Network 2 or 3 instead.

 

[FSTL]

Had to wait a while for the problem to recur this time around. When it did, bouncing the 2.4ghz radio with 'radio off 0; radio on 0' worked to get things back online. I am going to schedule a radio bounce to occur nightly to see if that prevents the issue in the future. If that does not help, I'll try scheduling a 'service restart_wireless' nightly.

 

[Amiga]

I'll try scheduling a 'service restart_wireless' nightly.

I schedule the router to reboot nightly via the GUI because of 2.4 GHz woes. Mind sharing the exact script you're going to use?

 

[FSTL]

I schedule the router to reboot nightly via the GUI because of 2.4 GHz woes. Mind sharing the exact script you're going to use?

Sure, I'll keep this thread update with my efforts and the details.


I wonder if the wireless scheduler under the professional tab would work for this purpose. Can anybody share what occurs when the wireless scheduler is used to disable a wireless band (disable radio, turn a service off, something else)? Thanks.

 

[alan6854321]

Something you might want to think about...

I've posted in another recent thread that I've found that the 'reboot scheduler' in the UI does something different from running 'service reboot' from the command line.

In particular, I had problems with the 5G performance slowly deteriorating and eventually hanging after a scheduled reboot (I know you're talking about 2.4G, but this is just something to consider).

I was going to compare this with adding a cron job to run 'service reboot', rather than using the UI option. Haven't got around to it yet.

 

[FSTL]

So it took a while for the 2.4 guest side to die this last time around. Once it did and was confirmed in the error state, I went to the Pro settings under the Wireless tab and tested the wireless scheduler. I shut down the 2.4 radio for 2 minutes via the scheduler and that brought the guest network back up. I went ahead and scheduled it to shut down the 2.4 radio nightly for a couple of minutes to see if that prevents the guest network from going offline in the future. I'll let it run a while and report back here. This may be an easier alternative to scripting a reboot of the radio. Hopefully it solves the issue. Thanks everyone.