2.4 GHz Wi-Fi Unstable After Changing Password on OpenWrt 24.10.4 (Archer C6)

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

Hello,

I’m running OpenWrt 24.10.4 on a TP-Link Archer C6 router. I recently tried to change my Wi-Fi password, and since then I’ve been experiencing issues with the 2.4 GHz band: it keeps going on and off intermittently. The 5 GHz band seems stable.

Setup and devices:

  • Router: TP-Link Archer C6, running OpenWrt 24.10.4

  • 2 radios: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz

  • Some wall projectors that were previously connected to the 2.4 GHz band (these have now been powered off)

Steps I’ve taken:

  1. Checked uci show wireless — the configuration shows the correct SSID and updated password.

  2. Used iwinfo — the 2.4 GHz radio shows as up, but link quality and bit rate are unknown.

  3. Tried disconnecting all clients from 2.4 GHz using:

    iw dev phy0-ap0 station dump | grep Station | awk '{print $2}' | while read mac; do
    iw dev phy0-ap0 station del $mac
done

    This did not resolve the instability.

  4. Restarted Wi-Fi with wifi down; sleep 2; wifi up and also rebooted the router — 2.4 GHz still behaves the same.

  5. Checked logs with logread -f | grep phy0-ap0 — nothing new appears when the radio goes offline.

Relevant log snippets:

Thu Nov 20 18:03:20 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) ...
Thu Nov 20 18:03:20 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[1]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) ...
Thu Nov 20 18:03:13 daemon.info hostapd: phy0-ap0: STA ... authenticated
Thu Nov 20 18:03:13 daemon.info hostapd: phy0-ap0: STA ... associated (aid 1)
Thu Nov 20 18:03:13 daemon.notice hostapd: phy0-ap0: AP-STA-POSSIBLE-PSK-MISMATCH ...

Observations:

  • The 2.4 GHz radio sometimes disconnects or shows unknown link quality and bitrate, even after rebooting the router.

  • Devices that were connected before the password change (e.g., some projectors) were powered off to prevent interference.

  • The 5 GHz radio works fine.

Questions:

  1. Is there a known issue in OpenWrt 24.10.4 or with the Archer C6 regarding 2.4 GHz instability after a password change?

  2. Could previously connected devices trying to reconnect with an old password have caused the instability, or is the problem independent of that?

  3. Are there recommended commands or steps to fully reset the 2.4 GHz radio and force it to work with the new password, without affecting 5 GHz?

Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

2

1/ what is the client? first 3 numbers in MAC should not be hidden
2/ that is true while no client connects. When they do it is some average of them all
3/ wrong, you have to use ubus call or hostapd-utils
4/ see 1/
5/ 1+2+3

1/ NO
2/ NO
3/ NO

Multiple "Archer C6" supported for changing password and all them dual-band.

Please connect to your OpenWrt device using ssh and copy the output of the following commands and post it here using the "Preformatted text </> " button (red circle; this works best in the 'Markdown' composer view in the blue oval):

Screenshot 2025-10-20 at 8.14.14 PM

Remember to redact passwords, VPN keys, MAC addresses and any public IP addresses you may have:

ubus call system board
cat /etc/config/network
cat /etc/config/wireless
cat /etc/config/dhcp
cat /etc/config/firewall
1 Like
3

So i tried the whole process again from scratch, restoring the backup previous to pass change and changing the password again. Everything is now working perfectly. Both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks are stable, all devices are connecting correctly.

Thanks @brada4 for your help!

Best regards!!