Wifi extender loses connection to local device after +- 1 hour

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Dear community,
The basic issue that I have is that I'm only able to connect from my laptop on network A to my NAS for a short while (+- 1 hour) after power interrupting my wifi extender device (terminal command to reboot isn't sufficient). After some time I loose my ability to ping/ssh/web into the NAS.

Please find below a highlevel diagram from my network.

Networkdesignv2
Networkdesignv2794×1123 161 KB

I don't believe there is anything wrong with the NAS, as I'm always able to connect when connecting from network B.
I don't believe there is anything wrong with the wifi connection between my router and extender, as I'm always able to ping my extender.

I have tried the following

  • setup a static route on my router with destination my NAS and using as gateway my wifi extender
  • I have enabled spanning tree protocol on both router and extender.

Any idea's on what the problem is and what I could try/test next ?
Any suggestions for a temporary work around ?
Feel free to ask me outcomes from terminal commands.
Please consider me a beginner in networking

Thank you for your support.
Best regards

2

Please provide more information about the extender and router?
Make & model of device?
What version of OpenWrt?
Are you using relayd package on the extender, or implemented WDS?
Which radio (2.4 or 5 GHz) on extender is being used to connect to router?
If you connect another wired device to the extender, can it be pinged when you cannot ping the NAS from network A ?

Your issue may be a 'variation' of reported cases where devices wired to relayd router cannot be reached.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/relay_configuration#known_issues

3

Q1: My router:
Make: GL.iNet
model : GL-AX1800
version Openwrt: OpenWrt Chaos Calmer 15.05.1
My extender:
Make: GL.iNet
model : GL-AX1800
version Openwrt: OpenWrt 21.02-SNAPSHOT, r16399+157-c67509efd7

Q2: I have implemented WDS. (was one of my requirements)

Q3: The radio used by the extender to the router is 5Ghz

Q4: If you connect another wired device to the extender, can it be pinged when you cannot ping the NAS from network A ?: I'll have to check.

additional insights I've obtained:

  • my server (wired connection to router) also was unable to connect to the NAS
  • My arp cache table (laptop/server) both stated that the mac adres was < incomplete > for the NAS
    adding a static arp route solved my problem temporary (until next reboot / wifi reconnection)

No sure how arp broadcasting works (will try to learn) but my sentiment is that the ARP broadcast from my NAS (wired to the extender) is not being received by the clients of the router.

Does openwrt on WDS have a configuration setting to enable this behavior ?

regarding the variation: very well spotted, however my understanding of the issue is that it related to relayd, while I have WDS.

Best regards,

4

The GL-AX1800 is not listed in OpenWrt Toh.

Only reference to OpenWrt 21.02-SNAPSHOT, r16399+157-c67509efd7, reveals the source is from gl-inet.cn forum

As you are running custom 21.02 snapshot, I can only suggest you try latest snapshot, or try 15.05.1 as used on your main router?

Perhaps test using 2.4 GHz, instead of 5 GHz to link to main router to see if issue exists?

Otherwise, another forum member with more WDS knowledge may be able to answer your questions.