now after some months i am able to give more detailed information about the setup an its problems.
So i am still using @chadneufeld selfe compiled OpenWRT Version from 21.Oct.2021...
The issue is, that the devices (both sides use OpenWRT, both Routers are Archer C7 v5) need a reboot after some time. Can be 5 days, or as today can be 8 hours...
The devices do work great, but the WDS bridge ocassionally failes (ping stops working). After reboot the connection is stable again for some hours.
We have experienced it seems not traffic related. So the WDS bridge fails with and without high amount of data traffic.
Hi @raphael I haven't seen this issue but I am running my WDS link between an Archer C7 V2 and a Unifi AP AC LR using 2.4GHz band. My best uptime without issues was 40 days and then I updated the firmware.
Are you interested in trying the latest 21.02 snapshot? There have been more updates pushed to the 21.02 branch since October.
I think the 21.02.2 will be released soon, but with no exact date.
Hi @chadneufeld , for the WDS bridge we are using the 5GHZ Link only... I am brutally busy at the moment. So maybe it would be better to wait for the official 21.02 release? I would have provided some information for the DEVs, so maybe they could push a fix for that WDS loss in the 21.02 release... But i have not yet found the core of the problem...
@chadneufeld where on openwrt can i find logs related to the problem? /var/log/ OR /temp/log folder is empty...
@raphael I can't remember the exact firmware I sent you in October. It might have been one of the testing versions that worked but didn't include all of the fixed. I would recommend trying 21.02 snapshot or 21.02.2 when it comes out if you are having issues.
Switching from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz might help or it might not. My experience has been really good since Oct/Nov with a 2.4 GHz link. I get about 80-100 Mbps with my 2.4GHz link. Not as fast as 5 GHz but very useable and stable.
I am running non-ct firmware as well. Here is a list of the packages I have installed:
Not that it will help you much. I've got an Archer C7 and a R7800 connected over WDS on 5 GHz.
Both are on standard/stock 21.02.1 (ath-10k-CT drivers).
Connection times:
yesterday i upgraded both routers within this WDS bridge to version 21.02.2. The upgrade process went smoothly. The configuration was reapplied. Great, because i had no physical access to the second router at this moment. Its to soon to say something about stability. But for now its running about 17h. And the great thing is... now with the official release i was able to install watchcat. Watchcat should be able to reboot the router if ping fails.
I had big issues on the last version, where the "client" router very often did not come backe after a reboot. So the router was stuck, i had to call my family tell them to reboot the device manually. Yesterday two times i tried to reboot the router and it worked. So there is a good chance things got better.
A side not. Maybe the issues will return back, than we have to shorten the cable on the client router. 12V and a cable with approx 15Meters maybe not the best quality is something one should avoid. Losing maybe 1V or more on such a high precision RF device could become critical.
I will report back if the software solved the issues with loosing WDS bridge connection and failing command line reboots by root user. Or if we had to shorten the power supply 12V line cable.
so now with OpenWrt version 21.02.2 the wds bridge works much better. it breakes sometimes after 14days or even after only 3hours... but with watchcat we do now monitor both sides and the routers reboot succuessfully if connection fails. Its not perfect, but until know this seems to work.
