Your customer's router running 'stock' firmware is probably the clue
Are you able to run stock firmware on your router to see if it makes a difference?
Well, I could but I'd loose the ability to configure VLAN's, which on my 3-play service provider, is a must. TV, Internet and telephone all come in the same circuit but on different VLAN's and I didn't buy their technicolor router that they sell solely to provide traffic separation as well as class of service.
I can live without COS but I can't live without VLAN's, so I don't know what I can do more.
I've seen other topics here with guys having the same symptoms on their computers connected to routers running OpenWRT/LEDE. Even on routers with different chipset than mine.
So I'm guessing this might have something to do with OpenWRT and the wifi adapter of the router (drivers/firmware), right?
Yes. I mentioned compatibility problems exactly a week ago.
It may work better on 5 GHz.
How about idea of buying an inexpensive dual band router/WAP and wire it to your existing router to bypass its flawed 2.4 GHz wifi?
Hey there.
So, today I was talking to a repair computer shop technician and telling him that now I had to go out and buy a inexpensive dual band OpenWRT compatible router with gigabit ports when the guy suddenly bumped the conversation telling me that I should be wary of what I was about to do because he had more than a handful of customers complaining about wifi issues with LEDE/OpenWRT. And the guy went on to detail to me the problem and the exact same System log message that I am reading right before getting disconnected from the router: "Tue Sep 11 01:35:53 2018 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA 98:e7:11:00:11:00 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)".
I immediately found this very confusing even because he was telling me that his customers had routers from all brands and models (from Asus to D-Link to Linksys) all showing the same issues and most of them already dual band.
At that point I knew I had to test again before buying a new router and I decided to grab my Netgear that's been working in the bedrooms area and put it in place of the TP-Link that's in the living room (the one that has been giving me headaches).
And just after 20 minutes I started getting the DEAUTH/REMOVE messages and my laptop got kicked out.
Mind you that I've never experienced issues with the Netgear just because I don't use my PC in the bedroom area of my house...
In the bedroom area we only use the tablets and phones and those work. Poorly because the 2 routers are connected via powerline devices but if it weren't for that I am sure they would work peacefully.
So, this isn't an issue in the 2.4ghz because I've been connected through the 5ghz radio all night long and this isn't a matter of bad tp-link hardware. And it also doesn't seem to be an issue with my laptop alone otherwise his customers with brand new Dell laptops wouldn't be having any issues.
I'm starting to believe that this is either a LEDE/OpenWRT issue or a combination of the that with some sort of wifi adapter chipset.
Also, his customers have Windows, Linux (Dell) and Mac and they all suffer, being that Windows is the one that suffers the most.
Right now I am completely clueless as to what I should do from this point forward...
Any tips? Thanks.
Cheers
When I suggested buying a 'inexpensive' dual band router/WAP and wiring it to your existing router, I should have emphasised the new router should run 'stock firmware' and used purely as a wireless access point. If you have a larger budget, perhaps consider TPlink EAP225 v3 dedicated AC1350 access point. This may overcome the compatibility issues you are witnessing. ie. do not use OpenWRT for wifi on it.
The other option I also suggested previously, is to replace the internal Broadcom wifi card (eg. HP version of AR5B22 card might work with the 'whitelisted' BIOS likely to be found in your HP), or use an external USB wifi dongle on your laptop to see if it solves the OpenWRT compatibility problem.
fyi, earlier this week, I removed LEDE from one of my BT Home Hub 5A (Atheros wifi like your TPlink and Netgear) which I've been using as a WAP for past 2 years. It was not compatible with certain Intel dual band wifi cards in 2.4 GHz mode, but was OK on 5 GHz with ALL my 5 GHz devices.
I restored stock firmware to it. My laptops with Intel wifi cards now work fine when tested on 2.4 GHz. Unfortunately, I had to put LEDE back onto the HH5A because I uncovered a 5 GHz speed related bug with the stock BT firmware which suddenly appeared after the 6th day of use.
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Oh, now I get it. I thought you were advising me on buying another router to install openwrt on it and cascade it with the ones I already have right now.
Nah, unfortunately I can't spend that kind of money on wifi.
My wife would simply fry me. Literally lol.
Changing internal antenna is not something I should be doing on a laptop that's not mine (company) and I wouldn't feel very comfortable running a usb dongle on my PC to being able to workaround this issue.
I think this should be a software issue, right? Otherwise I can't see why the same hardware running stock firmware doesn't show issues and as soon as it is used with openwrt the issue arises. I think this should be checked on software side first.
I see. That's why you recommended me to try the stock firmware-router.
If I can't make this work with openwrt, I guess I'll have to buy a router.
But I'll keep posting here trying to grab the developers attention because I will always prefer and opensource solution. One that works, of course.
My view is there are issues with the OpenWRT wifi drivers for older Atheros devices. My HH5a has AC wireless and the 5 GHz definitely uses ath10k drivers. But the 2.4 GHz may be using ath9k drivers like your two devices, but don't quote me because I may be wrong.
It is understandable you should not be modifying a laptop provided by your employer.
Yes, try any stock-firmware router configured as a WAP, and see if it resolves your laptop wifi issues. Perhaps use a 'retired' ISP supplied wifi router if you possess one?
Just another idea. Could you revert your Netgear back to using stock firmware for testing? Obviously, you should not attempt this if there is a risk of bricking it !
I see. Maybe kernel issue? It would be very interesting if openwrt could be compiled with older kernel/firmware files. Like, having a LTS and a bleeding edge version where we could turn to an LTS, probably with less features, just for testing...
Yea. I don't have any because I've been using my own routers for a very long time not relying on ISP crap. Last time I had to cope with am ISP router was a Technicolor for ADSL probably 10 ago and that's been trashed a very very long time ago.
I guess I'll have to resort to buying a new router and bridge it so that I can use it as an AP...
I don't know if that's an option. I bought that 2nd hand already with openwrt installed. I don't have it's stock firmware nor do I know if it will give me any kind of trouble reverting that to stock.
One thing is true. I've had less issues with the Netgear than with the TP-Link. I guess I'm switching it definitely to the living room and I'll put the TP-Link in the bedrooms area.
Thanks for all your input @bill888
Cheers
I didn't realise there have been as many as 5 iterations of the WNDR3700:
v1, v2 and v4 are Atheros
v3 is Broadcom
v5 is Mediatek
All iterations of the TPlink WR1043ND are Atheros.
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My latest findings.
I moved the Netgear to the living room to act as my primary router and the TP-Link is acting as a simple AP in the bedroom area.
Wifi coverage with the Netgear is not as good as the TPL but it's manageable in a testing scenario such as this one.
I decided to test the 2.4 and the 5Ghz connections separately and the truth is the Netgear on 2.4Ghz has almost as much issues as the TPL. Just a bit better than the Netgear.
Whereas on the 5Ghz, the Netgear tends to have much much less issues than on the 2.4Ghz. I mean, at this point it's almost negligible.
OpenWRT really needs to address this issue because it's been present even before I started using LEDE (actually I moved to LEDE to try and cure this) but since I don't use the laptop in the bedroom area and since all other devices seem to have almost 0 issues with this, I guess I'll close this thread.
Thanks for all the help and comments, everybody.
Cheers
You can test LiveCD/USB Linux on your laptop.
It could be Windows 7 driver specific issue.
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