Slate AX1800 not broadcasting 5Ghz WiFi

jgutman · September 30, 2022, 6:01am

I was using my Slate 1800 at location A in repeater mode - all was working perfectly.
I setup the Slate at location B and hardwired it with a Ethernet cable from the location’s main router to the WAN port of the Slate.
The 2.4Ghz SSID was being broadcast and worked perfectly. However, the 5Ghz SSID was not found anywhere. I checked with a few different wifi sniffer programs, and in every case the 5Ghz signal was not being broadcast.
I used the app (1.3.1 iPhone iOS 15.7) and verified the 5Ghz signal was active, and WAN port was getting a good IP address from the location’s main router.
I then noticed that the Slate’s Router mode was saying (words to the effect) “connection failed, trying again”. This “trying again” status was there for more than 10 minutes.
I deduced that somehow the Router mode was grabbing the 5Ghz signal and holding it hostage, meaning it wouldn’t let it broadcast, until the Slate was able to connect in Router mode. However, this clearly would never happen because Router mode was trying to connect to the original wifi ssid from location A.
I didn’t see any way to cancel or stop Router mode from it’s futile attempt to connect to location A’s ssid.
I ultimately connected to the browser interface in the Slate and was able to cancel the Router attempt.

Is there an easier way to do this? Some way in the app? A shorter timeout on Repeater attempted connections? I had to go through a lot of “what the hell is happening and why isn’t 5Ghz being broadcast, and oh yeah, maybe repeater mode is still on”, etc. Clearly there has to be a better way! (I hope!)

Thanks for any insight.

yuxin.zou · September 30, 2022, 6:59am

Router Mode？
Do you mean you want to disable repeater? You should see the “Disable Repeater” button on the App, just below the prompt.

In fact, 5GHz Wi-Fi will not always disappear. Just like in these images (sorry, my OS language is Chinese, but looking at the UI you should be able to see that the connection is successful). A detailed explanation is in the documentation.

If the router does not detect the target SSID, it should not enter the connection phase and the 5GHz Wi-Fi should not disappear. So this sounds like a bug. Have you saved other SSIDs and turned on the “Allow Switching To Other Saved Networks” option?

jgutman · September 30, 2022, 9:00am

Yes, I meant Repeater Mode. I guess I was just brain-dead and didn’t see the “Disable Repeater” button in the app.

I did not have “Allow Switching…” turned on, but the only saved network is the one from location A. Clearly, the Slate was trying to enter Repeater Mode and I could see the message in red, “Connection failed, retrying”. And while this was happening the 5Ghz was -not- being broadcast. From inside the web UI, as soon as I disabled Repeater Mode, the 5Ghz started to broadcast and was visable.

I think so!

yuxin.zou · September 30, 2022, 9:01am

Which version of firmware are you using?

jgutman · October 1, 2022, 4:26am

The Slate is currently running 4.0.3

alzhao · October 3, 2022, 9:01am

Maybe it was connecting to DFS channels and causing problems.

jgutman · October 3, 2022, 3:28pm

I’m not aware of any DFS channels in my area.

glinoob · February 2, 2023, 11:59pm

I just found this thread because I moved my Slate AX from one location to another, when using it in repeater mode, and it stopped broadcasting 5GHz wifi. Yet the web UI claims 5GHz is turned on and active. So this is definitely still happening.

At both locations, the Slate AX was connecting to house wifi, and VPN was turned on.

At location 1, I think the Slate AX was connected to a 5GHz network. At location 2, it connects to a 2.4GHz network.

Firmware version: 4.1.0 release7

Edit: adding a screenshot from Luci:

glinoob · February 3, 2023, 12:16am

In my case, going to Network > Wireless in Luci revealed the 5GHz interface as ‘disabled’

Toggling the 5GHz interface off, then back on again in the GL.inet UI enabled the radio, and I was able to connect normally afterwards.

I have a Wireguard VPN + internet killswitch enabled on the Slate AX, if that makes any difference.

alzhao · February 6, 2023, 2:41am

I just met a strange case when I use my router in Indonesia. 5G is not discoverred.

After a lot of testing I noticed that the reason is my iPhone is not detecting 5G wifi using band 36 to 60. It only detect 5G channel 149 to 161. The reason is that in Indonesia before 2019 only 149 to 161 band can be used for 5G wifi. So my iPhone is still working using the regulation before 2019 so it will not detect any 5G wifi out side of channel 149 to 161.

Loz · July 6, 2025, 12:42am

I have this issue right now on slate AX1800 firmware 4.7.0
Previous location I was using repeater mode and both my 2.4 and 5G wireless was available and everything was working perfectly.
I have just changed location and tried to set up the router again but the 5G wireless is not available to me only 2.4. Looking at the repeater settings it’s using 5G DFS and it seems that whilst this is enabled and connected my clients cannot connect to the 5G on the slate.

alen5193 · July 7, 2025, 9:54am

Can your terminal device search for 5GHz WiFi? You can try to manually select the 5GHz channel of slate AX1800 and use CH36-CH48.

Loz · July 7, 2025, 6:09pm

I can only see the 5G when the repeater is not connected. As soon as the repeater is connected only the 2.4G is visible.
I cannot change the 5G channel when repeater is enabled.

Loz · July 7, 2025, 6:31pm

I disconnected the repeater and changed the 5G wireless to ch36. Now I cannot connect to the router at all! Tried a power cycle but still “unable to connect “ to 5G or 2.4G

Loz · July 7, 2025, 6:42pm

Now working again but only clients connected on 2.4g.
It seems very unstable whilst trying to connect to the internet (repeater)
5G channel has reverted back to 132.

After a while I got connected again, but now the repeater is connected on the 2.4g and the clients on 5G.
And now the 5G is gone and everything is now on 2.4g.

alen5193 · July 8, 2025, 10:07am

The upper WiFi connected as a repeater is 5GHz, so the channel configuration of the upper WiFi cannot be modified after enabling the repeater.

Does this problem always occur in every test?
Can you reproduce the problem and then export the router log.

Thanks.

Loz · July 9, 2025, 10:50am

This randomness happened all weekend.
Unfortunately, we have now left this site and returned our RV to storage. So the next opportunity to test this will be in 2 weeks, where we will be at a different site, so I'll resume testing then

Loz · July 18, 2025, 1:36pm

afternoon
Okay we’re now at another site and the same issue occurs. The router is now connected to the club site Wi-Fi on 5G DFS and now none of my clients can connect to the AX on 5G only 2.4. attached are screenshots and the logs.

Fri Jul 18 14:15:01 2025 user.notice root: modem_traffic : ntp success...
Fri Jul 18 14:15:01 2025 daemon.info gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:410) portal detecting...
Fri Jul 18 14:15:02 2025 daemon.info gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:439) portal detected
Fri Jul 18 14:15:02 2025 daemon.info gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:245) enter bare mode...
Fri Jul 18 14:15:03 2025 cron.err crond[4115]: time disparity of 14703 minutes detected
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[5813]: exiting on receipt of SIGTERM
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:144) set all bypass vpn
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: started, version 2.89 cachesize 1000
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt no-RTC no-DBus UBus no-i18n no-IDN DHCP DHCPv6 no-Lua TFTP conntrack ipset nftset auth cryptohash DNSSEC no-ID loop-detect inotify dumpfile
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: UBus support enabled: connected to system bus
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[10194]: DHCP, IP range 192.168.8.100 -- 192.168.8.249, lease time 12h
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[10194]: IPv6 router advertisement enabled
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for test
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for onion
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for localhost
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for local
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for invalid
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for bind
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for lan
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: reading /tmp/resolv.conf.d/resolv.conf.auto
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using nameserver 86.189.0.94#53
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for test
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for onion
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for localhost
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for local
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for invalid
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for bind
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: using only locally-known addresses for lan
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: read /etc/hosts - 12 names
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: read /tmp/hosts/dhcp.cfg01411c - 4 names
Fri Jul 18 14:15:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[10194]: read /etc/ethers - 0 addresses
Fri Jul 18 14:15:05 2025 daemon.err usbmuxd[10308]: [14:15:05.775][3] usbmuxd v1.1.1 starting up
Fri Jul 18 14:15:05 2025 daemon.err usbmuxd[10308]: [14:15:05.776][3] Using libusb 1.0.26
Fri Jul 18 14:15:05 2025 daemon.err usbmuxd[10308]: [14:15:05.777][3] Initialization complete
Fri Jul 18 14:15:05 2025 daemon.err usbmuxd[10308]: [14:15:05.777][3] Enabled exit on SIGUSR1 if no devices are attached. Start a new instance with "--exit" to trigger.
Fri Jul 18 14:15:07 2025 daemon.err usbmuxd[10308]: [14:15:07.741][3] Caught signal 15, exiting
Fri Jul 18 14:15:07 2025 daemon.err usbmuxd[10308]: [14:15:07.741][3] usbmuxd shutting down
Fri Jul 18 14:15:07 2025 daemon.err usbmuxd[10308]: [14:15:07.842][3] Shutdown complete
Fri Jul 18 14:16:05 2025 daemon.info gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater.lua:1197) ntp been valid
Fri Jul 18 14:16:13 2025 daemon.err gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:303) detect portal fail: resolve "captive.apple.com" fail: recv from "86.189.0.94:53" fail: timeout
Fri Jul 18 14:16:33 2025 daemon.err gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:303) detect portal fail: resolve "captive.apple.com" fail: recv from "86.189.0.94:53" fail: timeout
Fri Jul 18 14:17:02 2025 daemon.info gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:268) exit bare mode...
Fri Jul 18 14:17:03 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[10194]: exiting on receipt of SIGTERM
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:166) set all via vpn
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: started, version 2.89 cachesize 1000
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt no-RTC no-DBus UBus no-i18n no-IDN DHCP DHCPv6 no-Lua TFTP conntrack ipset nftset auth cryptohash DNSSEC no-ID loop-detect inotify dumpfile
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: UBus support enabled: connected to system bus
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCP, IP range 192.168.8.100 -- 192.168.8.249, lease time 12h
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: IPv6 router advertisement enabled
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for test
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for onion
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for localhost
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for local
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for invalid
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for bind
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for lan
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: reading /tmp/resolv.conf.d/resolv.conf.auto
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using nameserver 86.189.0.94#53
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for test
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for onion
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for localhost
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for local
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for invalid
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for bind
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: using only locally-known addresses for lan
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: read /etc/hosts - 12 names
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq[11813]: read /tmp/hosts/dhcp.cfg01411c - 4 names
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: read /etc/ethers - 0 addresses
Fri Jul 18 14:17:04 2025 daemon.info gl-repeater[2531]: (repeater-portal.lua:379) portal pass
Fri Jul 18 14:20:29 2025 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: STA b6:80:94:20:9b:78 IEEE 802.11: did not acknowledge authentication response
Fri Jul 18 14:20:29 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA b6:80:94:20:9b:78 IEEE 802.11: authenticated
Fri Jul 18 14:20:29 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA b6:80:94:20:9b:78 IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 3)
Fri Jul 18 14:20:29 2025 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-STA-CONNECTED b6:80:94:20:9b:78 auth_alg=open
Fri Jul 18 14:20:29 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA b6:80:94:20:9b:78 RADIUS: starting accounting session 029D47C1F5E4AC78
Fri Jul 18 14:20:29 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA b6:80:94:20:9b:78 WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Fri Jul 18 14:20:29 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCPREQUEST(br-lan) 192.168.8.115 b6:80:94:20:9b:78
Fri Jul 18 14:20:29 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCPACK(br-lan) 192.168.8.115 b6:80:94:20:9b:78 iPad
Fri Jul 18 14:20:41 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA da:e9:14:ea:63:10 IEEE 802.11: authenticated
Fri Jul 18 14:20:41 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA da:e9:14:ea:63:10 IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 4)
Fri Jul 18 14:20:41 2025 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-STA-CONNECTED da:e9:14:ea:63:10 auth_alg=open
Fri Jul 18 14:20:41 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA da:e9:14:ea:63:10 RADIUS: starting accounting session 6FE0D0062EA9B080
Fri Jul 18 14:20:41 2025 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA da:e9:14:ea:63:10 WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
Fri Jul 18 14:20:45 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) da:e9:14:ea:63:10
Fri Jul 18 14:20:45 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.8.148 da:e9:14:ea:63:10
Fri Jul 18 14:20:45 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) da:e9:14:ea:63:10
Fri Jul 18 14:20:45 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.8.148 da:e9:14:ea:63:10
Fri Jul 18 14:20:46 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCPREQUEST(br-lan) 192.168.8.148 da:e9:14:ea:63:10
Fri Jul 18 14:20:46 2025 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[11813]: DHCPACK(br-lan) 192.168.8.148 da:e9:14:ea:63:10 Watch

Loz · July 19, 2025, 6:26am

This morning, my iPad is connected to 5G

Log attached
logread.tar (123 KB)

alen5193 · August 8, 2025, 10:19am

The log does show that the device is connected to the 5G WiFi interface.
Sorry. If your device's 5GHz WiFi broadcast is unstable, or if you frequently encounter issues where it fails to connect to the 5G WiFi, you can contact our customer service email. Our customer service staff will assist in handling the problematic device.
[email protected]