Archer C7 v2 - Wifi stops working after 1-2 weeks

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello,

I have two Archer C7 v2 running LEDE 17.01.3, and both have this problem. This problem has persisted through each release of LEDE so far. One of these routers ran OpenWRT 15.05 (not the service update 15.05.1) without any issues for almost an entire year.

The problem: everything runs fine for a while, but after a variable length of time which I would say is around 1-3 weeks, wifi stops working. My SSIDs disappear and appear in short intervals of time. When they appear, clients cannot connect to them. Clients connected via ethernet can access internet no problem.

Restarting wifi (wifi down; wifi) returns things to a normal state.

The syslog doesn't show any indication that anything is wrong except for the lack of messages indicating wifi activity; the logs are silent while the wifi is down.

I feel like a run a fairly vanilla configuration. I run a guest network and adblock on both routers, and I have sqm running on just one.

I would really appreciate any help anyone can offer.

2

possible workaround: reboot the device

cronjob to reboot daily at 5 in the morning:
0 5 * * * /sbin/reboot

3

Hi @sunox,

Try that version [GCC 7.2 BUILD] Optimized TP-Link Archer C7 V2 AC1750 LEDE Firmware
Stable version works like a charm!!!

Thanks,

4

I have one with 17.01.2 and I have never seen such problem

5

Thanks for your comments everyone.

@fuller I will keep that in mind as a last resort option.

@Klingon Thanks, I will give that version a try the first chance I get.

@Menion I am wondering if the problem has something to do with my configuration. I'm no networking expert, but the only nonstandard thing I do which could conceivably have an effect only on wireless and nothing else is my guest network/guest wifi.

1 Like
6

@sunox take a look to the wifi channels around to avoid interferences, and set manually the channel less congested.

7

Thanks for the suggestion, but I had been doing that. One of the routers is in a fairly dense wifi environment so even the least congested channel is still fairly congested.

I just unset the 'distance optimization' parameter (i.e. changed it from 8 to [blank] in luci) just in case.

I also just noticed that my firewall zone settings were a little more permissive than they are in this guest network setup tutorial I looked at: I changed 3 or 4 'accept' to 'reject' between my lan, wan, and guest networks. Worth a try I suppose!

8

Hello again,

I seem to have fixed the issue, and I thought I should provide an update in case anyone found it useful.

All I did was clear the value for the 'Distance Optimization' setting for both wifi radios. After making this change, one of my routers ran without issue for just over 1 month, after which time I switched to the custom firmware suggested by Klingon above (thanks again). I believe that was the first time I had achieved a 1 month uptime since switching to LEDE from OpenWRT. I made this change on my other C7 router almost 2 weeks ago, and everything has been good there so far as well.