GR10/GR60 lost network connections

[bswens18]

I just replaced an older mesh setup with a combination of 8 GR10 and GR60 APs.  I have two networks set up, in bridge mode, with a GR10 connected to my Verizon Fios modem.  I'm having regular instances of drop outs and very slow performance.  Web sties fail to load, Zoom calls drop, etc.  I reactivated the SSID on my Verizon modem as a local test of the service.  Every time I have issues with my Meraki Go SSID, I switch over to the Verizon SSID and connectivity is flawless.

I've heard good things about these devices for mesh networking, so I'm assuming there is something in the setup perhaps I should be looking at.  So before I give up and box everything up I want to pursue all options.  Any feedback would be appreciated

Thanks,

Brad

[hidden0]

Hello @bswens18 

I think it is certainly worth opening a support case given the lack of any community feedback this weekend. 

There are some caveats to mesh that may be interrupting client traffic, or perhaps a new band is. being used in this deployment as opposed to your previous one (for example maybe all the clients are choosing 2.4 Ghz instead of 5 Ghz).

These are things support can help you suss out and see if there are any tweaks that can be made to optimize the experience you are receiving.

What was your previous mesh deployment?

[bswens18]

Thanks...yes, I think I will open a support case.  My previous set up was with Linksys Velops.  I moved from that for two main reasons.  One, they did not have outdoor APs like the GR60, and most of my APs are now attached to the outside of the outbuildings in our farm yard.  And two, I had sporadic outages when running Zoom on that setup when not connected to the AP that was hardwired to the modem.  Ironically I'm having worse performance now with the Meraki setup, but I have to believe there is something I can change to improve this.  I'm having outages inside my house with the network just dropping out or very slow to respond.  As a test, I enabled the wifi on my Fios modem and whenever I have a network drop on Meraki, I switch over and everything is fine....so I know it's not the service.

[BoomerBaggins]

I don't have a mesh network setup yet, as I'm figuring out how to cleaning get a CAT6 line outside and hidden through walls for a GR60, but are you going directly from the FIOS router/modem into the GR10? Or does it run into a GX20 and then into the AP?  If you spelled that out initially, sorry! I read over twice to make sure I didn't miss.

I have FIOS, too, and run from the modem/router into a GX20, then to a GS110-8P and then to the GR10 with zero issues and three SSID's (all with different settings for restrictions and bandwidth).  Moved from Comcast and my speeds have been dramatically better. I produce Virtual Events/webcasts for a living and test UC technologies so run TONS of upload/download traffic from an obnoxious amount of devices to produce content and test tech.

Is there any theoretical concerns that could be causing security issues by not going through a MGo security gateway first? I can't imagine Verizon's equipment creating any kind of firewall issue with the AP. 

The most annoying issues I've had is that all the FIOS set top boxes run off FIOS's SSID by default and sit outside of my LAN so device controller apps don't work unless I temporarily switch to that SSID.

[hidden0]

Hey @BoomerBaggins 

• but are you going directly from the FIOS router/modem into the GR10? 
  
  • This is acceptable if the router/modelm is performing NAT, meaning it holds the public IP address (and not the GR). The GR should not be directly connected to the internet with a public IP unless you have a quite specific need to do so.
  • You gain more benefit from managing the equipment under a single pane of glass in the Meraki Go app. I recommend using the GX20 -> GS -> GR toplogy, as you've described. Although this isn't a hard requirement.
• Is there any theoretical concerns that could be causing security issues by not going through a MGo security gateway first?
  • It all depends on what your previous hardware was capable of. You'd have to know what capabilities are there to identify if there is a valid concern or not by switching out the two. Do you have the optional security license on the GX? That likely provides some feature set that most firewalls don't provide out of the box.

As for the SSID's bit, just shut off one set of them so every device gets on the local neighborhood and can talk to each other, that should make life easier.

[hidden0]

Yeah support is the way to go here to see if we can figure it out. 

If it helps at all, I found my GR was using a weather radio wireless channel on 5 Ghz and was backing off to different channels every time a plane flew over (which is expected behavior if you use a channel like that). My experience in that scenario was the wireless totally dropping as my phone would re-connect on the new channel.

Try changing channels and use an app or something to check which channel has the least interference (on top of opening a support case).

[bswens18]

Thank you both for the feedback.  For starters, my Fios router is connected directly to a GR10 as the base of the wireless network.  As I progress, and read your feedback, I'm feeling more like this will come down to analyzing channels and interference.  The inconsistency seems to lend itself to this.  I can go a whole day on Zoom calls connected to any one of my GR10/GR60 APs then all of the sudden I lose internet.  I also woke up this morning to all of my APs randomly disconnecting and reconnecting all night.  I'm now just looking for a good iOS app for analyzing wifi signals that will give me some insights to channels and potential conflicts.  Will post results back here.

Ironically the Fios wifi network that I re-enabled and fall back to inside the house is only 2.4Ghz, and is remains rock solid.

[hidden0]

Sometimes that push to use 5 Ghz is so aggressive, the 2.4 Ghz band gets comfortably left alone. It is worth a shot to try forcing a client to use 2.4 Ghz while connected to the GR.

[bswens18]

To close the loop on this.  I opened a support ticket and the the feedback I received was helpful.  Basically, while mesh allows you to extend a network, it still has dependencies on wired connections for best performance.  The architecture of the mesh is actually to have as many wired access points as possible, with unwired 'outposts' to reach those hard to reach areas.  I was architecting almost opposite, with one wired anchor point, and many unwired access points in the effort to extend and reach a lot of hard to reach areas.  

What I learned is, every unwired AP has to depend on a wired connection as a source.  So if I only had one wired connection and seven unwired, each was taking up a slice of bandwidth of the source connection.  I disconnected a few of the unwired APs and almost immediately achieved a level of stability in the network.

So, my next steps will be to do some wiring.  I'll be able to tap into my second floor in the house via a coax line and a MoCa adapter, and I already have a spare conduit out to my garage which I'll pull some Cat5 through and set a switch out there to connect two GR60s into.  This will give me 4 wired APs.  From there I'll see where I might still need some unwired APs to supplement the coverage for my cameras and IoT controllers in other outbuildings.

[hidden0]

Hope all goes well, @bswens18 ! I'm glad support was able to give some solid information for you to work with.

I too have used MoCa adapters and that will, usually, get you a better performance than a mesh connection on the GRs. I'm currently using a power inline solution that has been less than ideal for a consistent connection.

[bswens18]

Thanks @hidden0.. I'll update once the wiring is finalized.  I should have the CAT6 to the garage early next week and the MoCa in place this weekend.  I did use powerline adapters in my old house and like so many others found it to be 'just ok'.  It gets the job done but not with any great performance.

[bswens18]

@hidden0 checking in...I finally got my wire to the garage.  Strange part is, the AP I plugged into it is still showing as a meshed repeater.  For some reason it's not getting a LAN IP address from my router, despite being connected back to my FIOS modem the same way as my indoor AP is connected.  Looks like I'm going back to support!!!

[bswens18]

Update...I guess if you wait long enough.  The wired GR60 in the garage just got an ip address after a couple of days in Alerting mode (multiple reboots during that time), and a day or so as a meshed repeater without an ip address.  At the same time I connected to MoCA adapters to either end of a coax that runs from my basement to the attic.  One end connects to my FIOS router and the other end to a GR10 in the attic.  It's been Alerting all day.  Then like magic, both APs snapped into online mode with ip addresses obtained from my FIOS router. So all looks good at the moment.

[hidden0]

That sounds pretty flaky, still. I'd run a ping against the wired access points to see if there is any loss to them. This behavior is similar to what I see using my power inline ethernet adapters. Constant flapping that, I'm assuming, fluctuates with the house electrical noise.

That is sometimes a trade off we take to get coverage is some places. The end user experience may actually not be that bad even with a bit of loss or a sub par physical medium to operate on. How does it work?