5Ghz Wifi Problems - Drops

[ejmereen]

Hello,

I've been having issues with the 5Ghz band on my R3. I was not able to track down the root cause but I think I have it figure out.

Problem:

When I initiate a large download, such as downloading Avowed from the Xbox app on Windows, the 5ghz band will drop internet and all devices on this band will lose connection. I do not have SmartBoost enabled at all, as I thought this was the cause but it didn't matter.

Mitigation:

I can switch to 2.4ghz band and it works with no issues. I will be unable to join the 5ghz band unless:

1.) I reboot the router. 

2.) Wait about 30 minutes until it allows me to connect.

3.) If I go into the Duma App of Duma OS dashboard and remove the offline device that is trying to connect, it will connect after I remove it.

Assumed Root Cause:

I'm not sure the root cause maybe it's the download spike a high internet usage but my XR500 has zero issues with this. When I check the logs I see this entry at the time it drops:

Tue Feb 18 09:22:01 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wl1: STA c2:67:fc:37:8b:7c IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request

Then when I try to connect I see the logs show this error:

Tue Feb 18 09:22:36 2025 daemon.err odhcp6c[16328]: Failed to send SOLICIT message to ff02::1:2 (Cannot assign requested address)

 

Summary:

It appears that when using 5ghz wifi band and I initiate a large download that will invoke a high speed requirement, the router craps out, drop the 5ghz connections and won't let me rejoin it unless I do one of the three methods mentioned above. Also a sidenote, the 5ghz band has larger range than the 2.4ghz band which is weird.

 

I have attached the logs on the last event, and also enables remote login. Let me know how I can fix this. Thanks!

 

 

 

R3_2025-02-18T14_24_12.600Z_logs.txt

[Netduma Fraser]

What firmware version are you using currently? How do you have Congestion Control set?

[ejmereen]

Hey Fraser!

Firmware:

I'm using firmware v4.0.540 which should be latest.

Congestion Control:

During router setup it found 885 down and 345 up as my speeds. Right now the settings are 100% on both download and upload and Congestion Control Mode is set to Auto (recommended).

 

Maybe it's because I have both set to 100%? What should I change them to?

Edit: Just to add, I was the only on on the network so it wasn't like I was fighting for bandwidth. The only traffic was my download I saw Xbox Download category shoot up to about 350-400 MBPS and then it stopped working.

Edit #2: I changed the congestion to 70% on both upload and download and kept it as Auto Mode. I just tried to download a game again on my PC, and the 5ghz crapped out again after a few minutes, I'm the only one on the network. What is weird is this only impacts 5ghz and not 2.4ghz I can switch to 2.4ghz and the internet works. When I am finally able to connect back to 5ghz I can only download at 45 MBPS but after a reboot goes back up to expected results. Maybe this is a hardware issue? Attached new logs.

 

R3_2025-02-18T15_52_28.506Z_logs.txt

[Netduma Fraser]

Set it to your actual paid for/expected speeds then try with CC at 70 but on Always. Try these suggestions also:

1. Use a WiFi analyzer to find the least congested channel and change to that
2. Experiment with the widths to see what gives better results
3. Ensure it's in an elevated position - not on a metal surface
4. Ensure there aren't any electrical / wireless devices e.g headphones etc within close proximity ~3 feet if possible
5. Set the antennae to this position _ | | _

[ejmereen]

Just to confirm once the 5ghz goes down I cannot reconnect to it, if I attempt I get an error saying "Can't connect to this network" on Windows, on the logs I see: daemon.err odhcp6c[4074]: Failed to send SOLICIT message to ff02::1:2 (Cannot assign requested address)

So the router is unable to assign an address to any of my devices.

@Netduma Fraser Also I don't want to factory reset my device, if that is the next steps, I already done it about 3-4 times and didn't fix the problem. It takes me about an hour to name each device and setup internet rules each time since there is no export/import way to save these settings. My XR500 never had these kinds of problems. I have remote access setup, can you get one of your developers to take a look at the problem? I can reproduce the problem on demand, I just need to download an Xbox game.

Edit: Width changes don't matter I don't think this is a bandwidth issue but more when traffic spikes a crashes that band. It's current sitting, elevated on a wooden shelf with nothing above or below it, no metal touching. No electrical wires outside the power cable and cat cable. I set the antenna at that shape, but didn't make a difference. To me this seems like an OS issue or perhaps a hardware issue where the 5ghz chip is wonky.

[Netduma Fraser]

The log entry relates to IPv6 but I can see you don't use IPv6 so that won't be the issue. IPv6 is also disabled by default now so we can ignore that. What would be a good idea though based on the logs is set a reserved IP for each device by going to Settings > DHCP > Add Rules > Select Device > Save and repeating for each device, at least for the ones on 5GHz.

No need to factory reset, the devs don't conduct every day tech support, if we're unable to get the issue resolved and it does appear to be a bug then they may connect to gather information. Have you adjusted the channels as well? I don't think it will be a hardware issue, otherwise it just wouldn't work at all