MR 30.6 Medium and High Packet loss and Chromebook connection failures

[Erik2]

Hello

We moved our MR 46 access points to 30.6 to solve a major issue where the rates were not being broadcast in probe response packets.  Restarting the APs would fix them for a while, but suddenly they would stop taking Chromebook clients again and require another reset.  30.6 was put forth as a solution to this issue by Meraki support and seems to have done that.

The problem is that it seems to have introduced other issues.  One issue is persistent low level authentication failure for Chromebooks, which have a managed SSID password that is encoded through the Google Admin Console.  Another issue is medium to high packet loss on a lot of the access points.  Prior to upgrade these access points were reporting low packet loss. 

We have another network that we have left on 29.7.1 that does not seem to have these issues.   Anyone else having those issues.

I feel like there may be some major firmware bugs in the 30.6 release.

[Erik2]

 Oh and I do have a ticket open with support with some MAC addresses to investigate etc.

[RSU21it]

On the medium to high packet loss on the APs, is this being reported on the AP Neighbors page? 

I noticed the same when I upgraded my networks to 30.5 a couple months ago. Packet loss was constantly reporting very low prior to the upgrade then medium to high after.  Interestly, the packet loss is exactly the same percentage on both 2.4 and 5Ghz.  This along with not a single reported issue at any of our schools (1 to 1 Chromebooks in all locations) leads me to believe this is a dashboard reporting/display issue rather than an actual packet loss issue.

[Erik2]

Yes.  That is exactly where. And yes I am also seeing the same number on 2.4 and 5.  We are having weird issues with Chromebooks at our schools, but I also agree that that piece sounds like a dashboard display issue.

[Erik2]

Question for you RSU2it.  Can you do me a favor and check something for me on your networks running 30.6?

Can you go to your access points list and go to connection log.  Can you filter to your Chromebook network and look how many failures on filtered to step association you have with error code 30 in the last day or so?

I have one network that is still on 29.7.1 that when I go to it has around 30 code 30 failures for a day.  Our network that is on 30.6 has around 300 per day.  Seems to be causing Chromebook connections to sort of flap.

I am discussing this in my ticket with Meraki, but wondering if anyone on 30.6 is also seeing these extremely high error code 30 errors.  Also, btw error code 30 translates into:

Association request rejected temporarily; try again later

as show by this page linked to me by Meraki support.

[RSU21it]

I check a couple of my largest networks and do not see any error code 30 on either network going back 30 days.

A couple details of note.  I am running 30.5 - not sure if there will be a difference between .5 and .6 that you are running.  I have MR42 and MR52 APs which I believe are a wireless generation older than yours.  Client balancing and band steering are off.

For reference, we use various HP, ACER and ASUS Chromebooks.

[Erik2]

We did not see this issue on 30.5

[Erik2]

Also  the issues we are facing is association errors not authentication as stated in my main thread.

[Erik2]

So, I did some research in these forums.  One suggestion was to turn off 802.11W on our Chromebook network.  I did this Friday after school and have not had any issues so far today with error 30 on the CB network.  I believe 30.6 may have an issue with 802.11W.

I have my ticket with Meraki and will be reporting this.  Hopefully they will fix so we can turn it back on.