I have been using OpenWrt for some years without any major issues, but I upgraded my routers a while back to D-Link DIR-1960 and now have three configured with fast roaming. What is driving me up the wall is repeated drops of the connection and frequent buffering of video. This isn't on all devices, but does seem to have become notably worse with the upgrade from 22.x to 23.x and now impacts more devices. It used to be just one phone (an old Samsung A40) and occasional issues with Chromecasts. It now seems to have spread to other phones (mine is a Samsung A70, but does better on the whole) and a printer (Brother currently connected via WiFi) and regular issues with the Chromecasts.
I have explored the forum and there is plenty of information there, but much is out of date and it is far from easy to pull together, so I thought I'd ask if anyone has one or more of these working reliably that can point me to the relevant information (all be it there's a good chance I've already been there if it is on the forum!).
I've tried various configuration changes with option disassoc_low_ack set to 0, skip_inactivity_poll set to 0. Separating the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks and disabling fast roaming, but nothing seems to make any difference. My current setup is:
- A clean install from the standard image download (I tend to change the SSH port, disable password authentication, disable root logins and enable https as default, but don't see those as likely problems).
- I'm only using this as a WAP, so the WAN interfaces are deleted, the IPv4 gateway is set to my router and DNS to my local DNS server. IPv6 is disabled (for now) as is the DHCP servers (as I run my own separately).
- WiFi is setup with a common SSID across 2.4GHz and 5GHz (although has been different for testing) with WPA2-PSK.
802.11r Fast Transitionis enabled with a NAS ID the same as the WAP hostname and a common mobility name across all frequencies and WAPs. TheFT ProtocolisFT over DS. All these WAPs have a cabled link between them (although the slight difference is that one has this connection over a powerline adapter at the moment; I have tested with this offline though, so don't see that as the issue).
Everything there feels fairly standard / basic. Things I have in mind that may be an issue and plan to test are:
- Too many access points together (given I've been down to one and still had the issue this seems unlikely unless I'm getting unlucky with neighbours access points).
- Dropping back to the manufacturer's firmware to see how it compares (not that keen on this, but if it works it would seem to indicate the hardware is fine at least, but with three of these I don't see all three being faulty).
The logs talk about dropping due to inactivity, but given this is in the middle of streaming video or using the device this seems odd, and connecting back up is far from quick.
Any pointers most welcome as I'd rather not have to purchase new routers or use stock firmware if I can avoid it.