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WDS (Dis)connection Issues

Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 5:16 pm
by mbfound
Hi

We have a wds setup for public wifi in a town square, the system is working fine for the most part but there seems to be an issue with some routers not being able to connect for more than a few seconds or minutes at a time. Offending routers are top and bottom blue points on the map. They do however sometimes decide to connect for a much longer time sometimes even hours.

Client View:
Image

MAC ending in :73 is a 951Ui-2HnD (bottom blue on map) placed in a window sill but has line of sight to our GrooveA-52HPn master. :95 is a Basebox2 (not on map but in the square of main building) with reduced power output since it only needs to cover a small area. The other 3 are also Grooves. Top blue is Groove ending in :57.

Current config:
adaptive-noise-immunity=ap-and-client-mode \
band=2ghz-b/g/n country="south africa" disabled=no distance=indoors \
frequency=2462 frequency-mode=regulatory-domain l2mtu=2290 mode=ap-bridge \
ssid="xxx" wds-default-bridge=wds-bridge wds-mode=static \
wireless-protocol=802.11

Previously, it was on freq=auto and dfs=no_radar_detect, but trying to isolate the issue I disabled that and chose the channel with the least usage and best noise floor (-106, currently -96 with the network running) which was good for signal strength but routers still kept disconnecting. I've also turned dynamic distance off since I've read that it might cause issues with WDS setups.

Choosing B/G or B/G/N or Only N made no difference. B/G/N being the preferred mode to have the most clients connect.

I'm no expert in networking and let alone wireless networking so any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. If any more info is needed, I'll gladly add it. Can't say that the area is very saturated with wifi, it is a small town but there are a few WISPs in the area. The top slave (blue) is close to an antenna for a security company but the bottom blue 951 is in a pretty dead spot, no strong signals close by.

Map:
Image

Distance between Main (red) and top slave (blue) is only 106 meters.

Thank you.
MB

Re: WDS (Dis)connection Issues

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:02 pm
by mbfound
Well I'm stumped, came back from the weekend to see the non-issue routers were up for 3 days while the 2 problem once had a few seconds.

Googling around for answers, I found a tip that said switch to static-mesh. It looked like it helped for the top problem Groove, but that was just a coincidence.

Bottom problem 951 had no such luck, kept disconnecting every few seconds. Played around with distance, noise immunity and signal strength but no luck. Strength was -78dB to main router.

Is there perhaps a limit on how many WDS devices there can be?

No idea what's left to do. Any suggestions or tips will still be greatly welcome.

Re: WDS (Dis)connection Issues

Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 12:23 pm
by mbfound
So I found (most of) the issue, a WISP had a 2Ghz hi-site close to ours. Turning it off fixed most of the disconnections. Still can't get 100% uptime.