Users reporting "No Internet" on certain subents.

[Ytrakas5]

Hello community 👋🏼

I volunteer at a Catholic school with ~1,000 users, helping to manage IT. We've been receiving complaints that some devices lose internet access.

Network Setup:

• Firewall: MX450

• Switches: MS355

• APs: MR56

• Infrastructure: Full fiber across 5 buildings

• ISP: 2 Gbps fiber (Cox)

• DHCP: Windows Server

• Authentication: RADIUS

• DNS: Cloudflare for student VLAN, local for primary VLAN

Issue Details:

Devices auth successfully and lose Internet on VLANs other than VLAN 1.

After ~5 minutes of idle time, the device loses internet access and cannot reconnect.

This does not affect VLAN 1 (primary); devices on VLAN 1 remain stable.

The only fix I’ve found is refreshing the connection using Ubiquiti’s WiFiMan app.

Troubleshooting So Far:

Tried switching student VLAN to local DNS → No improvement.

RADIUS authentication works fine, so it doesn’t seem like an authentication issue.

Any thoughts on what might be causing this?

Thanks in advance!

[DarrenOC]

Is the issue site wide or are you able to isolate to a building and switch stack?

On your MX - do you have firewall rules in place here that restrict port 8080 and 443?

Is this affecting both wired and wireless users?

[Ytrakas5]

8080 and 443 aren't blocked, when I get no internet I cannot ping the gateway, whole campus has issue, not sure if wired has the issue.

[Mloraditch]

Can you ping the gateway? Do the devices show authorized in the Meraki client info? Do the ports show any errors? If you disable the access policy on the port do the devices work?

[Ytrakas5]

Cannot ping the gateway after receiving no Internet, no port errors, I'll diagnose the access policy.

[DarrenOC]

Throughout all this I assume your network devices have remained stable and haven’t lost registration to the Meraki dashboard?  These devices are on VLAN 1 or another Management VLAN?

[Ytrakas5]

User Devices are recognized by the dashboard, all staff devices are on vlan1, networking equipment has a reservation in that DHCP scope on vlan1.

[DarrenOC]

Assume this is a long standing network and the issues have just started happening?

Dont rush into making lots of sporadic changes in the hope of resolving the issue.

[Ytrakas5]

Not in a rush, I've set up temporary natted networks on vlan1 for users for now.

[Ryan_Miles]

You'd get a faster resolution by opening a Support case with Meraki. That way the Engineer can see your network and config and help with troubleshooting.

[PhilipDAth]

What does Wireless Health report?

Also check out this general health troubleshooting guide.

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Cross-Platform_Content/Meraki_Health_Overvie...

[BlakeRichardson]

Do the radius logs show anything, is the device connecting and then timing out after 5 mins and the connection is collapsing?

[Ytrakas5]

Is radius auth every time I roam, or is it only when I authenticate? The internet connection seems to collapse but I still have an IP.

[chakshu]

First things first!

Is this affecting wired devices as well or just the ones over WiFi?

Can you test it with a PC on a vlan(other than 1) without RADIUS auth?

What happens after 5 minutes of inactivity, does the PC goes to sleep?