Switch on an access point will kill the internet connection

[Ola Malmstrom]

Hi!

I have a AX88U as my main router. To increase coverage there is an AC87U set up as an AP at
the other end of the house. I also have a AC66U B (also an AP) that I use occasionally when
we have guests in a remote corner of the house. The AC66U only use the 5GHz band and at
lowest possible power. This setup works fine and after some tweaking of transmit power
the roaming works very well.

However, we live in Sweden. We're now in Spain for the winter. Our neighbour called and
asked if he could use our internet since his fiber supplier had a major problem. I said of
course. I told him to power up the AP in the remote corner (closest to their house). We have
done this many times in the past. Then let me know so that I can switch on the 2.4 GHz band.

Something strange happened. Normally I reach my equipment at home through an
OpenVPN server on the main router. Suddenly I couldn't reach the main router. The IP address
couldn't be reached anymore.

I told him to disconnect the AC66U and reboot the AX88U. After this I could reach my
home network over OpenVPN as expected.

I tried to find some indication in the log file of the router. There was nothing to indicate
that we had lost the internet connection.

I also looked in the log file of my NAS. It had lost internet connection at exactly the same
time as my neighbour powered up the AC66U.

According to the router log file, everything seemed to work perfectly well, both before
and after he switched on the AC66U.

Does anyone have a clue to what happened?

My only guess is that my neighbour accidentaly pressed the reset button which made
the AC66U work as a router which somehow confused the main router or my ISP
supplier. He may also have connected the AC66U on the WAN port, not on one of the
internal ports.

I don't want to bother my neighbour with tracing the problem. His internet works
fine again and he will go on vacation tomorrow.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi!

I have a AX88U as my main router. To increase coverage there is an AC87U set up as an AP at
the other end of the house. I also have a AC66U B (also an AP) that I use occasionally when
we have guests in a remote corner of the house. The AC66U only use the 5GHz band and at
lowest possible power. This setup works fine and after some tweaking of transmit power
the roaming works very well.

However, we live in Sweden. We're now in Spain for the winter. Our neighbour called and
asked if he could use our internet since his fiber supplier had a major problem. I said of
course. I told him to power up the AP in the remote corner (closest to their house). We have
done this many times in the past. Then let me know so that I can switch on the 2.4 GHz band.

Something strange happened. Normally I reach my equipment at home through an
OpenVPN server on the main router. Suddenly I couldn't reach the main router. The IP address
couldn't be reached anymore.

I told him to disconnect the AC66U and reboot the AX88U. After this I could reach my
home network over OpenVPN as expected.

I tried to find some indication in the log file of the router. There was nothing to indicate
that we had lost the internet connection.

I also looked in the log file of my NAS. It had lost internet connection at exactly the same
time as my neighbour powered up the AC66U.

According to the router log file, everything seemed to work perfectly well, both before
and after he switched on the AC66U.

Does anyone have a clue to what happened?

My only guess is that my neighbour accidentaly pressed the reset button which made
the AC66U work as a router which somehow confused the main router or my ISP
supplier. He may also have connected the AC66U on the WAN port, not on one of the
internal ports.

I don't want to bother my neighbour with tracing the problem. His internet works
fine again and he will go on vacation tomorrow.

Interesting scenario. Given the clean router log, I would guess the issue was outside your network, and assure your neighbor that it wasn't something they did, even if it was.

OE

 

[Ola Malmstrom]

Agree! They are very good neighbours, I won't say anything. I hope he doesn't need it until we are back.

 

[Samir]

Sounds like just a glitch that can happen--especially if after rebooting everything was working as expected.

I've made it a habit to reboot all equipment a day or so before leaving a site so that long uptimes won't cause issues.