No WDS connection after upgrading firmware on Flint 2, Slate 7

Router
1

After upgrading the firmware to current versions on my Flint 2 (4.8.4) and Slate 7 (4.8.3), the WDS connection from Slate to Flint fails. The Slate does not appear in the Flint’s client list (or rather, it only appears as offline client because it was connected before the firmware upgrades). I did a factory reset on the Slate, I configured its WiFi networks to have different names – no luck. When setting up the WDS connection (Network Mode > WDS > Select Flint 2 network > Enter password), it seems to work – or at least, there are no error messages. I also deleted the client entry on the Flint. Is there anything else I could try?

2

Hi,

Please try downgrading the Flint 2 firmware to 4.8.3-op24 and see if that helps—this combination works in our local testing.

As far as we know, WDS mode in closed-source SDKs (Stock firmware) tends to have poor compatibility across different chip vendors/models. Therefore, we recommend using devices with the same chipset/vendor if you plan to use WDS, or trying the open-source-based op24 build instead.

Download link:

Upgrade guide:

4

Thank you, that helped a bit. With 4.8.3-op24, the Slate 7 appears as a client again, and I can technically connect to the Internet from other clients via Slate 7 and Flint 2. But the connection is extremely slow when going through the Slate 7 (as opposed to clients connected to the Flint 2 directly). Could this be related to the Slate 7 using the 80Mhz bandwidth setting, while the Flint 2 uses 160Mhz?

BTW, downgrading the firmware removed my entire configuration (while the previous update 4.8.4 kept all settings).

5

When using WDS as a wireless backhaul, your throughput is naturally reduced. This is because WDS operates in a mode: the router must simultaneously use the same wireless channel to receive data from your device and then retransmit that data to the main router (Flint 2).

As a result, the available bandwidth for connected devices is inherently cut by approximately 50%.

If the channel bandwidth is set to 80 MHz instead of 160 MHz, this may further reduce the speed.