Mesh Behavior between MR84 and MR52

RumorConsumer
Head in the Cloud

Mesh Behavior between MR84 and MR52

Hello!

 

I took an MR52 from another part of the property and plopped it down near a MR84. It doesn't see the 84 at all in its RF profile or mesh neighbors and I can't for the life of me figure out how to make it drop its entire config memory of all the networks around it and just start over from scratch. Luckily it does understand that its now a gateway not a repeater but it shows its mesh gateway as another one across the property which is obviously wrong as it should be "self". When I get close enough to it that its signal is better than the MR84, it works great, but its not quite playing nicely with the other AP.

 

I have removed the device from the network, readded it, unclaimed it, reclaimed it. It won't start over. It just picks its configuration back up right where it left off completely confused about where it is and what's around it. 

 

I forced it over to the same channels as the MR84 and that seems to have worked, but Id rather just have it autodiscover. Any thoughts? 

 

 

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.
5 REPLIES 5
RumorConsumer
Head in the Cloud

@PhilipDAth please save me.

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.

Did you try to factory reset it? Had this with Mesh to, that they keep a not working config and factory reset solved it most times.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Installation_Guides/MR84_Installation_Guide#Factory_reset_button

Yep it just pulls it’s config and associated history of mesh neighbors again, thinking its a thousand plus feet away on those channels while ignoring the MR84 on its channels right next to it. 

 

I tried something this morning which is unplugging it from the switch where it was getting its PoE+ connection and plugging it into an injector which has forced it to look for a new gateway in repeater mode. It *did* finally find the MR84 and auto switched to the right channels. Current mesh route is now correct. Also of note- this particular AP, when it changes channels, seems to cue all the other old APs on the other side of the property that I guarantee cannot see each other wirelessly, to change channels with it as if they are close by and are adaptively doing so to maintain their mesh. So weird. 

 

Question - should the AP it shows in mesh route as the gateway also appear in mesh neighbors? I look in the mesh neighbors page for APs close by and they do show this new transplanted one but it still refuses to show them!

Question 2 - to force a mesh via manual channel changes do both channels have to match on the respective APs? Is that advised? 

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.

Question 1: yes, you should still see the gateway as a mesh neighbor on the repeater and vice versa

 

Question 2: Normally, the AP will scan through all the channels when set to Auto but if you are using manual channels, it is worth keeping both the gateway and the repeated on the same channel.

If you found this post helpful, please give it kudos. If my answer solved your problem, click "accept as solution" so that others can benefit from it

Thanks @Raj66 

 

Why would this newly transplanted MR52 set on repeater mode which is now a Gateway have so much trouble seeing current mesh neighbors? Does it take time to find them? Automatic should allow that discovery on boot, no? 

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.
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