Cisco EA4500 - Dropping connections, long-ping times on wifi

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Flashed an EA4500 with 19.07, disabled disassoc_low_ack, wpa_group_rekey as well as short_preamble, yet still getting dropped connections from various Androids connected to this EA4500 which is used exclusively as wifi, no WAN port plugged/used..

sshing into the openwrt router and pinging a connected android 9 device returns very crazy numbers:

root@OpenWrt:/etc/config# ping 192.168.1.86
PING 192.168.1.86 (192.168.1.86): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=1 ttl=64 time=12516.770 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=2 ttl=64 time=11517.313 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=3 ttl=64 time=10517.206 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=4 ttl=64 time=9517.103 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=5 ttl=64 time=8517.674 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=6 ttl=64 time=7517.602 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=7 ttl=64 time=6517.510 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=8 ttl=64 time=5517.380 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=11 ttl=64 time=2517.494 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=12 ttl=64 time=1517.413 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=13 ttl=64 time=517.787 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=14 ttl=64 time=4585.297 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=15 ttl=64 time=3585.720 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=16 ttl=64 time=2585.749 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=17 ttl=64 time=1586.089 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=18 ttl=64 time=586.085 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=34 ttl=64 time=12033.587 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=35 ttl=64 time=11033.489 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=36 ttl=64 time=10033.395 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=37 ttl=64 time=9033.299 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=38 ttl=64 time=8033.754 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=39 ttl=64 time=7033.666 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=40 ttl=64 time=6033.534 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=41 ttl=64 time=5033.897 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=42 ttl=64 time=4033.813 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=43 ttl=64 time=3035.206 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=44 ttl=64 time=2036.888 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=45 ttl=64 time=1039.288 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.86: seq=46 ttl=64 time=39.232 ms

--- 192.168.1.86 ping statistics ---
48 packets transmitted, 29 packets received, 39% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 39.232/5795.628/12516.770 ms

as shown, sometimes few ms, other times SECONDS for a single ping, and 30% drop, there is no other signal in the area..

Question, is there an "easy" way to "validated" the box from hardware standpoint, i.e. maybe this is a hardware issue ? any counters/logs? in logread, not seeing anything glaring..

Thanks for any tips/hints.

Stormy.

2

@stormy, welcome to the community!

  • What do the logs say?
  • You cannot disable wpa_group_rekey
  • Have you seen the WiFi warning on your device page?
  • Did you make any other WiFi config changes?
  • How far away is the client from the AP?
3

Thanks for the reply, after carefully reviewing/testing, and switching wifi routers and firmwares, i've concluded without doubt that this EA4500 can't hold any constant wifi load, it works in bursts.. the Wired connections are all OK, but as soon as wifi is involved, ping even from router to client being 2 feet away can be 3 seconds or 3 ms.. so, switched back to WRT54-TM [+tomato] :slight_smile: :slight_smile: with openwrt, that was not very stable combination...

Will look for cheap good gigabit wifi.. reviewing the suggestions i'm pretty lost since it seems they all have issues, or are 3 digit cost-wise, which is over budget for an AP...
Stormy.

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