WiFi incompatibility between Deco mesh and Laptop?
Discussion
Guys,
Bit of an odd one here. Let me explain.
I have a home network that's runs off three Deco M5 mesh units. They've been faultlessly (indeed even boringly) reliable, and I am delighted with them. They run both a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz network, both with the same name and there is no way of setting a different SSID for the two. You can however turn one or the other frequency off.
I am having problems with one aspect of the network (Google Chromecast Audio's, FWIW) and l am keen to run the network at 2.4Ghz to see if that solves the problems. All well and good, but it turns out that my laptop won't connect to the Deco units when they are running a 2.4Ghz network. Symptoms are that if I turn off 5Ghz then the laptop drops the network. It finds it again, and attempts to re-connect but doesn't, and repeatedly asks for the network password (WPA2 security). Turn the 5Ghz network on again and it's happy once more.
However the laptop will connect to other devices which produce a 2.4Ghz network (such as a 'phone set up as a hotspot, or connecting to the WiFi access point in the Virgin router.) No drama with those - all is as it should be.
To make things more interesting still, if I turn off network security so you can connect without a password then the laptop will connect and stay connected. The machine is running Mint and the network card is an Intel Advanced-N 6205. (The laptop is an old Stinkpad X220). My guess is that this network card is therefore just incompatible with the Deco M5 units. Is this reasonable? If so then I'll see if I can report it to Deco and see if they can bring out an update which will solve the problem.
Thanks.
Bit of an odd one here. Let me explain.
I have a home network that's runs off three Deco M5 mesh units. They've been faultlessly (indeed even boringly) reliable, and I am delighted with them. They run both a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz network, both with the same name and there is no way of setting a different SSID for the two. You can however turn one or the other frequency off.
I am having problems with one aspect of the network (Google Chromecast Audio's, FWIW) and l am keen to run the network at 2.4Ghz to see if that solves the problems. All well and good, but it turns out that my laptop won't connect to the Deco units when they are running a 2.4Ghz network. Symptoms are that if I turn off 5Ghz then the laptop drops the network. It finds it again, and attempts to re-connect but doesn't, and repeatedly asks for the network password (WPA2 security). Turn the 5Ghz network on again and it's happy once more.
However the laptop will connect to other devices which produce a 2.4Ghz network (such as a 'phone set up as a hotspot, or connecting to the WiFi access point in the Virgin router.) No drama with those - all is as it should be.
To make things more interesting still, if I turn off network security so you can connect without a password then the laptop will connect and stay connected. The machine is running Mint and the network card is an Intel Advanced-N 6205. (The laptop is an old Stinkpad X220). My guess is that this network card is therefore just incompatible with the Deco M5 units. Is this reasonable? If so then I'll see if I can report it to Deco and see if they can bring out an update which will solve the problem.
Thanks.
I see you are running Linux. On windows its possible to change the preferred band that the wireless card/adapter connects to.
I don't know if this will help
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/ar...
I don't know if this will help
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/ar...
I have the M5s (and others), they are indeed boringly reliable.
I was reading your post and waiting for the "Realtek" chipset to be mentioned, but you have an Intel chipset... that should be much better.
On the M5 units, since a recent update, you can turn on a separate IOT 2.4GHz network, which might give you a fresh network ID to test with, rather than breaking the main network. (It's separate to the guest network function).
Can you get the detailed logs? If it was a corporate setup I'd hazard a guess at restrictions on ciphers/security etc, but that seems unlikely if it's vanilla Mint and vanilla Deco M5.
I was reading your post and waiting for the "Realtek" chipset to be mentioned, but you have an Intel chipset... that should be much better.
On the M5 units, since a recent update, you can turn on a separate IOT 2.4GHz network, which might give you a fresh network ID to test with, rather than breaking the main network. (It's separate to the guest network function).
Can you get the detailed logs? If it was a corporate setup I'd hazard a guess at restrictions on ciphers/security etc, but that seems unlikely if it's vanilla Mint and vanilla Deco M5.
Guys,
Thanks for the answers. All help is appreciated.
As it is, it was easily solved; there is a 'Power Management' setting in the network config in Linux OS's which was the culprit. I've turned it off and all is well. It seems that this setting is a common cause of problems so I'm a little surprised that I've not come across it before.
For reference, here is more info:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/intern...
Thanks again for your input.
Thanks for the answers. All help is appreciated.
As it is, it was easily solved; there is a 'Power Management' setting in the network config in Linux OS's which was the culprit. I've turned it off and all is well. It seems that this setting is a common cause of problems so I'm a little surprised that I've not come across it before.
For reference, here is more info:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/intern...
Thanks again for your input.
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