I’ve tried different firmware versions; I’m running the latest snapshot after a full reset of the device.
I’ve noticed that
if Adguard Home is enabled and
if the router is configured to connect to connect to the Internet using the Repeater (STA) network interface and, as a fallback, an USB Tethering connection,
the connection drops constantly whenever Repeater (STA) is not available. It constantly tries to scan in the background if the Wi-Fi signal to repeat turns online, and while it’s doing that it apparently goes offline.
LuCI has not been touched since the last reset.
The only modification has been
#uci set wireless.mt798112.country='US'
since it wasn’t picking up 5GHz signals absolutely legal in my country, and used by the Wi-Fi signal to be repeated (Ch. 149)
When it’s falling back on “USB Tethering”, it’s using 5GHz only, Ch. 149 (fixed)
The disconnection whilst scanning doesn’t seem to happen if Adguard Home isn’t enabled.
For the time being, I manually “Abort” any further attempt to connect to the “Repeater” network interface when it has to work with USB Tethering only, and manually re-enable “Repeater” when it has to pick it.
I’ve recovered some logs while this hiccup happens, launching logread -f on the router and recovering it after the connection “flickers”; I’ve anonymized just some minor details (SSID, macaddress) and uploaded it here as a .conf file (.log and .txt files can’t be uploaded it seems, and there are just too many lines to insert them in a reply)
I think I found it now, the before option "auto switching without network" is already supported in the current firmware version, and it is the default and fixed behavior.
The designed behavior logic:
If Multi-WAN in Failover mode:
If Ethernet connected, the Repeater would not scan.
If Cellular/Tethering connected and their priority is higher than the Repeater, it is treated the same as Ethernet — no scanning.
If Cellular/Tethering connected but its priority is lower than the Repeater, the Repeater will attempt to scan every 30 seconds; after 5 consecutive failures the scan interval will be changed to 5 minutes.
If Multi-WAN in Load Balance mode:
If Ethernet connected, the Repeater would not scan.
If Cellular/Tethering connected, the Repeater will attempt to scan every 30 seconds; after 5 consecutive failures the scan interval will be changed to 5 minutes.
Technical background of the Repeater: When the repeater is enabled and it connects failed (like no saved WiFi SSID of WiFi Password error), it performs all channel scan every 30 seconds. During each scan, the AP must leave the current operating channel, temporarily interrupting communications between the AP and all connected clients, and causing packet loss.
In your case, the priority of USB tethering is lower than repeater, the repeater will intermittently scan if there is available WiFi connect to. This is normal behavior.
thank you for your explanation.
I’ve configured Multi-WAN in Failover mode, correct; and the priority of USB Tethering is lower than Repeater, correct.
In my usage case, I’ll have to manually enable “Repater (STA)” when I know it’s available in order to avoid those periodic disconnections.
Thank you for your time
