8900AX-2400 as a WiFi AP

[jez_uk1]

Hi,

I recently purchased an 8900X R3 which is now acting as the main router. The 8900AX-2400 is a backup router but has been repurposed as a pure WiFi access point to improve coverage downstairs.

I've given it a different internal IP address, disabled most stuff including DHCPv4 and v6 servers, turned off router advertisements, turned off most other stuff like uPnP and anything that generally isn't needed.

It works fine, my Android phone hops to it when downstairs just like it used to when it was being a router.

There is one problem though, I keep getting random Wifi exclamation marks on Android and it doesn't seem to be able to fully connect. It just sits there not doing anything. This seems to be entirely random at times during the day and has only started happening when I reporposed the 8900AX-2400 as an AP.

There are no Mac rules or any changes to WiFi from when it was acting as a router. Purely config changes as above to make it a pure AP.

Any ideas what might be the problem? Running 2.52.d41

Thanks

[billion_fan]

Hi,

I recently purchased an 8900X R3 which is now acting as the main router. The 8900AX-2400 is a backup router but has been repurposed as a pure WiFi access point to improve coverage downstairs.

I've given it a different internal IP address, disabled most stuff including DHCPv4 and v6 servers, turned off router advertisements, turned off most other stuff like uPnP and anything that generally isn't needed.

It works fine, my Android phone hops to it when downstairs just like it used to when it was being a router.

There is one problem though, I keep getting random Wifi exclamation marks on Android and it doesn't seem to be able to fully connect. It just sits there not doing anything. This seems to be entirely random at times during the day and has only started happening when I reporposed the 8900AX-2400 as an AP.

There are no Mac rules or any changes to WiFi from when it was acting as a router. Purely config changes as above to make it a pure AP.

Any ideas what might be the problem? Running 2.52.d41

Thanks

Try renaming the SSID's on the 8900AX-2400, so they don't match the upstairs AP

[jez_uk1]

I really don't want to have to do that, it was never a problem when the 8900AX-2400 was acting as a router. I much prefer the seamless hopping within the same SSID.

[billion_fan]

I really don't want to have to do that, it was never a problem when the 8900AX-2400 was acting as a router. I much prefer the seamless hopping within the same SSID.

If you want roaming then you should look into a mesh network (which is designed for roaming around)

I can only assume the issue you are having is the android device is trying to connect to the AP upstairs instead of the 2400 (but it can't properly)

[jez_uk1]

I really don't want to have to do that, it was never a problem when the 8900AX-2400 was acting as a router. I much prefer the seamless hopping within the same SSID.

If you want roaming then you should look into a mesh network (which is designed for roaming around)

I can only assume the issue you are having is the android device is trying to connect to the AP upstairs instead of the 2400 (but it can't properly)

You're certainly right yes, I probably should! All I know is that when the AX was a router clients would seamlessly hop between the DLink upstairs and the Billion downstairs. Now that it's just sitting as an AP it still seamlessly hops fine, just randomly when trying to hop to the Billion I get an exclamation mark on the phone which won't go away until I turn wifi off/on.

[billion_fan]

I really don't want to have to do that, it was never a problem when the 8900AX-2400 was acting as a router. I much prefer the seamless hopping within the same SSID.

If you want roaming then you should look into a mesh network (which is designed for roaming around)

I can only assume the issue you are having is the android device is trying to connect to the AP upstairs instead of the 2400 (but it can't properly)

You're certainly right yes, I probably should! All I know is that when the AX was a router clients would seamlessly hop between the DLink upstairs and the Billion downstairs. Now that it's just sitting as an AP it still seamlessly hops fine, just randomly when trying to hop to the Billion I get an exclamation mark on the phone which won't go away until I turn wifi off/on.

So basically forcing a reconnection works, I think the android device is still holding on the connection for the Dlink, and hence you get a exclamation mark, when you turn of the wifi and on again it checks for the stronger signal and connects, which would be the 2400.

That's why I always advise a different SSID to avoid this issue, or look into a mesh network

[billion_fan]

If you want roaming then you should look into a mesh network (which is designed for roaming around)

I can only assume the issue you are having is the android device is trying to connect to the AP upstairs instead of the 2400 (but it can't properly)

You're certainly right yes, I probably should! All I know is that when the AX was a router clients would seamlessly hop between the DLink upstairs and the Billion downstairs. Now that it's just sitting as an AP it still seamlessly hops fine, just randomly when trying to hop to the Billion I get an exclamation mark on the phone which won't go away until I turn wifi off/on.

So basically forcing a reconnection works, I think the android device is still holding on the connection for the Dlink, and hence you get a exclamation mark, when you turn of the wifi and on again it checks for the stronger signal and connects, which would be the 2400.

That's why I always advise a different SSID to avoid this issue, or look into a mesh network

or try swapping the dlink and billion around (so like before and see how it goes)

[jez_uk1]

If you want roaming then you should look into a mesh network (which is designed for roaming around)

I can only assume the issue you are having is the android device is trying to connect to the AP upstairs instead of the 2400 (but it can't properly)

You're certainly right yes, I probably should! All I know is that when the AX was a router clients would seamlessly hop between the DLink upstairs and the Billion downstairs. Now that it's just sitting as an AP it still seamlessly hops fine, just randomly when trying to hop to the Billion I get an exclamation mark on the phone which won't go away until I turn wifi off/on.

So basically forcing a reconnection works, I think the android device is still holding on the connection for the Dlink, and hence you get a exclamation mark, when you turn of the wifi and on again it checks for the stronger signal and connects, which would be the 2400.

That's why I always advise a different SSID to avoid this issue, or look into a mesh network

Certainly something on the list for the future

The 2400 has really good WiFi capabilities so it would be nice to find a solution. I'll investigate further and failing that go down the different SSID route. Thanks

[billion_fan]

don't forget to try swapping the dlink and billion around (so like before and see how it goes)

[jez_uk1]

don't forget to try swapping the dlink and billion around (so like before and see how it goes)

Oh, they have both always been in the same place. The 8900AX-2400 is sitting next to the 8900X R3, it just got repurposed to AP mode only.