I am having an issue with my GL-MT3000 Beryl AX when using Repeater mode and connecting to a 5 GHz upstream WiFi network.
Summary of the issue
When the router is set to repeater mode and connects to a 5 GHz network, the repeater reports a successful connection and shows the WiFi as available, but I cannot connect any client devices to the WiFi being broadcast by the Beryl AX.
Current setup
GL-MT3000 Beryl AX
Repeater mode
Upstream network: 5 GHz
Separate SSIDs and passwords for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz on the Beryl AX
Firmware: latest available (please advise if a specific version is relevant)
What happens
The router UI shows the repeater as connected to the upstream 5 GHz network
The Beryl AX broadcast SSIDs (both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) are visible on client devices
When attempting to connect, the device prompts for the WiFi password repeatedly and fails to connect
No error is shown on the router UI
What works
Turning off repeater mode and using:
USB tethering from my phone, or
Ethernet WAN
In both cases, the router and WiFi work perfectly
Forcing the repeater to use the 2.4 GHz band
When I manually set the repeater to 2.4 GHz:
The repeater connects successfully
I can connect to both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz SSIDs broadcast by the router without issue
What does not work
Setting the repeater band selection back to Auto
Connecting the repeater specifically to a 5 GHz upstream network
As soon as the repeater is set back to Auto and connects to a 5 GHz network, client devices can no longer authenticate to the router’s WiFi, despite the SSIDs being visible.
Question
What is the correct configuration to allow the Beryl AX to repeat a 5 GHz network while still allowing client devices to connect reliably to the broadcast SSIDs?
Is this a known firmware issue, a limitation of single radio usage, or a setting I am missing related to WPA, channel width, DFS channels, or WiFi coexistence?
It should be working for both the repeater and for the local clients on the 5ghz band.
Are you on the latest firmware? Also try setting your WiFi channels on your SSID to manual. Choose channel 36 for example for the 5ghz radio, also play with your encryption settings depending if you are using older clients.
But your upstream repeater connection should have no impact on your 5ghz radio for your clients.
I think I’ve sussed the problem. I have a unifi network with two APs. I use nightly channel optimisation because my location is congested. Downstairs the AP was broadcasting a DFS channel. According the instructions the travel router copies the broadcast channel of the signal it’s repeating. This meant the travel router was trying to broadcast on a DFS channel
I set the channel manually to 36 (which you can only do when not repeating). Moved upstairs where the AP was broadcasting on channel 40 and noticed that the travel router switched to channel 40 also. However, I can connect clients as expected when repeating from the upstairs AP on channel 40.
I know DFS channels are largely frowned upon but I don’t seem to have any issues with them. Under normal circumstances I won’t be using the travel router to repeat my home network signal. Hopefully it works as expected when I’m away at the weekend.
GL-MT3000 Beryl AX (Repeater, DFS ch.100) occasionally becomes unreachable on 5 GHz; (but reachable thru ethernet) in router UI shows “Cannot connect to upstream”
My case looks similar to an existing topic, but with some differences.
Current setup
Router: GL-MT3000 Beryl AX (GL-MT3000)
Mode: Repeater
Upstream network: 5 GHz, DFS channel 100 (Slate AX 1800)
(Lower 5 GHz channels are very crowded in my environment, so DFS was the only usable option)
2.4 GHz: Disabled on the Beryl AX
Firmware: Latest available (4.8.1)
What happens
Occasionally, the Beryl AX seems to enter a Wi-Fi freeze / sleep-like state.
In the Beryl AX web UI, it shows “Cannot connect to upstream”
At the same time, Wi-Fi client devices cannot connect to the Beryl AX itself, even though they can still see its 5 GHz SSID
On clients it looks like a generic “Can’t connect” / “Failed to connect” type of error
Also, during the incident:
The Beryl AX cannot see the upstream 5 GHz network
It also cannot see any other nearby 5 GHz networks
Power off/on always fixes the issue
This happened 3 times over the last two weeks.
Not sure if relevant: each time it happened, a notebook connected via Ethernet to the Beryl AX was in sleep mode.
Additional notes
The upstream 5 GHz network is fine: other devices can connect to it directly without issues.
Summary
It looks like the 5 GHz radio on the Beryl AX sometimes stops scanning / working properly in repeater mode (DFS channel 100). The router still broadcasts its SSID, but becomes effectively unreachable on Wi-Fi until rebooted( but reachable thru ethernet).
Based on what I’ve learnt from my case, try a non-DFS channel on the upstream connection and retest to see if it fixes it. On the face of it there seems to be an issue when repeating DFS channels.
Continuing what I described earlier. Today the situation repeated itself. I waited for more than an hour for the router to restore the connection, but it never did.
After that, I powered on (or woke up — I’m not sure whether it was sleep mode or hibernate mode) a laptop that was connected to the router via Ethernet cable. Immediately after that, the router suddenly restored its Wi-Fi uplink connection and also became accessible over Wi-Fi.
In my opinion, this is a 100% reproducible bug. If no one from the GL.iNet team notices this issue here, I will have to repeat myself and open a separate topic for it.
There is an other option if the lower channels on 5GHz are crowded: SRD-channels (above 144). The disadvantage is that depending on where you are, only 25mW/200mW power is allowed. But you don't need to scan the frequencies in regular intervals.
This is what I do with my GL A1300 here in the hotel. 2.4GHz and lower 5GHz is crowded, so I connected the A1300 on 2.4GHz to the hotel-wlan and have my own wlan on channel 151.