Zyxel NWA210AX

[Tech Junky]

I was going to ask if it was the 110 and not the 210 but the port output shows both ports and connected to the correct port.

There should be a no negotiation option IIRC for the port and add pvid 1 to UPLINK.

It should take the port setting command using UPLINK since it's a known interface.

 

[Tech Junky]

Router# show port status
Port Status     TxPkts     RxPkts     TxBcast    RxBcast    Colli.  TxB/s      RxB/s      Up Time      PVID       TxBytes              RxBytes             
=================================================================================================
1    2500M/Full 2228789115 3762399466 59293      250872     0       6331       9995       1198:17:44   1          893163951919         2811568876201       
2    Down       0          0          0          0          0       0          0          00:00:00     1          0                    0                   
Router# show port setting
Status      Name     Port VID    Negotiation Duplex Speed
===============================================================================
Active      UPLINK   n/a         disable     full   2500 
Active      lan1     1           disable     full   2500

interface-name ge1 ge1
!
interface-name br0 lan
!
port status UPLINK
 speed 2500
 pvid 1
!
port status lan1
 speed 2500
 pvid 1
!
interface vlan1
 port ge1
 vlan-id 1 untag

The speed command should auto disable the negotiation as there's no option to disable it otherwise. The commands are case sensitive though if it's spitting errors.

 

[tgl]

That looks a little backwards to me. The "UPLINK" port is the one that can do 2.5G. The "lan1" port can't.

 

[RacerX330]

Yeah i a

That looks a little backwards to me. The "UPLINK" port is the one that can do 2.5G. The "lan1" port can't.

yeah me too, this thing has me very confused

 

[RacerX330]

so i just crimped a brand new cat6e cable, it's about 24 inches long.
i shut the poe 2.5gbit switch off, and plugged one end into the switch and the other into the yellow uplink port on the WAP, then turned on the switch.

it's still only connecting at 1gbit.

 

[RacerX330]

it's just acting really funny, when you plug in the WAP you can see the green light blink, and on the switch it blinks green (green is 2.5, yellow is 1gbit on the switch) like it's trying to do 2.5 but then when it fully connects it's yellow on the wap connect and the switch (meaning 1gbit).

I have tested every port on the switch with the pfsense adapter card, and they all immediately connect at 2.5gbit

ETA: all the interfaces on pfsense are configuered to autoselect

I even grabbed the power adapeter from the zyxel box and powered up the WAP using the power adapter and THEN connected the cable to it, still 1gbit

 

[tgl]

Can you verify that the cable is good using some other equipment?

It's starting to sound like you have a faulty AP, but it'd be good to eliminate the handmade cable from the equation before you RMA it.

 

[RacerX330]

just tested the new cable with the pfsense machine, immediately connects at 2.5gbit (to the switch)

 

[tgl]

Hard to avoid the conclusion that you've got a lemon, then. The uplink port on mine definitely runs at 2.5G, and I did not have to jump through any hoops to make that happen.

If you felt like putting more effort into it you could try a hard reset, but I gather you already did. Perhaps another long shot would be to do a firmware update, if it's not the latest? (But the last several updates have all worked fine for me.)

 

[RacerX330]

o

Hard to avoid the conclusion that you've got a lemon, then. The uplink port on mine definitely runs at 2.5G, and I did not have to jump through any hoops to make that happen.

If you felt like putting more effort into it you could try a hard reset, but I gather you already did. Perhaps another long shot would be to do a firmware update, if it's not the latest? (But the last several updates have all worked fine for me.)

firmware was updated yesterday

and it's been through about 10 factory resets LOL

 

[RacerX330]

I have initiated the return process on amazon (where I bought it), so I will live with the gigabit uplink for now until the new one gets here.
I've been f-ing around with it since friday night (sept 30) when it arrived, so I think I've given it a thorough vetting at this point.

Looks like the new one will be here tomorrow.

@Tech Junky I did put the last code snippet that you suggested. It just sat there during boot trying to connect at 2.5gbit but wouldn't connect. I let it try for about 10min before I unplugged it and it botted back to lastgood config.

 

[RacerX330]

FYI i removed the full config from one of the previous posts.

If anyone else has any suggestions I might try and mess with it later tonight.

 

[Tech Junky]

It's rare but maybe it is a lemon. Swap it and you already have a config to dump into the new unit which speeds things up. Like @tgl said it shouldn't be too complicated with the correct settings. If the second one is a lemon then I don't know what to say. Though there's a new 6ghz only Arris AP out now if you have another 2.4/5 WiFi available for other devices.

 

[RacerX330]

Yeah I thought long and hard about getting a WAP that does 6GHz, however I don't own a single device that supports it, the new iphone 14 doesn't support it yet. The only phones that do are the very brand new samsungs (barf), and the very brand new pixel (eww).

Plus they were significantly more expensive. Plus plus it won't be long until wifi 7 hits, so I'm not sure the intermediate 6e is really worth splurging on. However the suggestion is much appreciated.

ETA i just noticed you said 6ghz only, i might look into that.

 

[Tech Junky]

Yeah, for ~$190 you get a single band addon to an existing setup. I've been toying with the idea of making my own AP again using a M2 but there's inventory issues and the card's ~$75 plus shipping and not so friendly returns like Amazon. I ordered a couple of them and they turned out to not be in stock. But, it gives you an idea of an off the shelf cost / profit.

WIFI 7 is more ideal but, some sources say 2024 which could mean late 24 early 25 before things hit the street. I mean I've had a M2 client that does 6ghz since Intel released them when nothing on the market was capable on the AP side. It's always a horse / cart situation with this crap. On the flip side the single 6ghz adapters are running close to $200 on their own w/o the enclosure/power/antennas so, meh, it's on par for pricing.

Zyxel though was supposed to release a 6E AP this summer but they ran into logistics issues and pushed to the EOY. Under $300 too which is nice compared to the router prices. Netgear has one out though that's ~$360.

 

[RacerX330]

The new WAP just arrived from Amazon, I plugged it in to the POE switch using the short test cable I made yesterday and it immediately connected at 2.5gbit, so far so good, we'll see how it goes....

 

[RacerX330]

reconfigured, and put in it's proper home, connection is 2500mbit, swap is done, looks like the old one had a problem in that uplink port. glad we figured it out, because honestly this thing is pretty solid now

 

[Tech Junky]

Good to hear. Very odd though the port seemed to the the issue. When you do the show run for does it have both ports showing now with lan1/uplink?

 

[RacerX330]

It's running like a champ, zero issues.

from SSH:

Router> show port setting
Status      Name     Port VID    Negotiation Duplex Speed
===============================================================================
Active      UPLINK   n/a         auto        full   1000
Active      lan1     1           auto        full   1000
Router> show port status
Port Status     TxPkts     RxPkts     TxBcast    RxBcast    Colli.  TxB/s      RxB/s      Up Time      PVID       TxBytes              RxBytes
=================================================================================================
1    2500M/Full 5883594    18720321   6706       187        0       12580      3246279    08:57:58     1          781665673            26848417351
2    Down       0          0          0          0          0       0          0          00:00:00     1          0                    0
Router>

 

[tgl]

Yeah, so you left it on auto-negotiate and it did the right thing. Cool, but as expected. Definitely proves that the first unit was busted.