Repeater Mode - Won't reconnect

Routers
1

Hello,

I’m a manager of a fairly large fleet of gl-inet routers. Currently in the 850+ range of units. The vast majority of them are AR300m.

The model is identical on nearly all of them - or rather the issue i’m having on many is for a particular common configuration set.

Here are the common elements for the issue that I’m able to track
Firmware v4.x (firmware 3.x unaffected)
Repeater mode

Our workflow is that we pre-setup the router with goodcloud templates and deploy them in the office. Our field team installs the unit inside the other hardware onsite. They login to the router’s interface and using repeater mode, attach it to the local Wi-Fi network. This part goes fine.

Part of our workflow is some of the sites we work on get shut down for days/weeks/month before being turned on again. We are finding that on occasion, but more than is normal - when the whole system gets turned back on, the repeater mode never reconnects. Even with no changes in the SSID of the connected endpoint.

Further - We’re getting very frequent disconnects and then no reconnection. We have to either go back onsite to reconnect the repeater or have the homeowner do the task. It’s gotten so bad, i’d say at least 25% or more of the sites are like this. I’m not sure if its an issue with the specific equipment settings on the other side, or if there is a bug in your reconnect logic. It just seems like it gives up after a time. Is the reconnect frequency to high and getting blocked? but if that were the case, we wouldn’t be able to manually reconnect either.

I’m surprised im not seeing more reports - other than it sounds like this issue here: https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/ar300m-nor-repeater-auto-reconnect/66260

-Cory

2

Hi

As mentioned in the previous thread, we were unable to reproduce the issue in our local testing. We have conducted a similar test again:

  1. Connected the AR300M to a network (in this case, the 2.4GHz SSID of a BE9300).
  2. Turned off the BE9300's 2.4GHz SSID and rebooted the AR300M.
  3. Confirmed that the AR300M still attempted to connect to the BE9300's SSID after startup.
  4. Left the AR300M idling for approximately two hours, then re-enabled the BE9300's 2.4GHz SSID.
  5. The AR300M was able to automatically reconnect.
    output

Could you please check the following on the devices that fail to reconnect automatically:

  1. Check Repeater Status: Access the Admin Panel and check the Internet section. Does the Repeater status display "Connection Failed, will retry later"?
  2. Export Logs: Please export the system logs from the device and send them to us via private message so we can investigate further.

How to export logs:

image
image1430×911 87 KB

How to send private messages:

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image632×233 19.1 KB

4

This’ll take some time, won’t be until next week. I’ll have to wait till I send a technician out onsite.
I’ve been out to fix a few of them myself and don’t recall seeing any failure messaging.

My suspicion is that it’s something to do with the parent AP not being handled correctly. The behavior of the 3.x firmwares not presenting the behavior is telling.

5

This is also not a good test scenario that replicates what is happening now that I think of it.

These AR300’s are being installed in electrical equipment behind a breaker. When we shut down the system to wait for inspection by city/power utility, my technician just shuts off power to the breakers. Flips a breaker which is a hard down, not a graceful reboot like you laid out.