Every few weeks some of the devices on my WIFI will suddenly stop working until I reboot pfsense
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Every few weeks I'll start to notice random devices on the wifi will no longer be able to connect. It'll happen to the phones sometimes, baby monitors, the thermostat. Seems like random things connected via wifi just stop working. Once I reboot pfsense (on a netgate sg-1100) everything will work fine again.
Anyone heard of anything like this?
What logs should I be looking in next time it happens?
I'd say it's happened about half a dozen times over the last 6-8 months maybe. I just finally started doing reboots of 1 device at a time instead of just rebooting everything (pfsense/modem/router/switch), so I just figured out it was the pfsense reboot that resolved the issue.
Thanks
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What sort of WIFI setup do you have? How is it connected?
Do the devices actually stop connecting to wifi or are they connected but unable to reach anything else?
Steve
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@stephenw10 It's an Orbi RBR850 with 1 satellite. My setup goes motorola modem, netgate, netgear managed switch, wifi router.
This last time I was looking at my thermostat and it was unable to connect to the wifi at all. It seemed to be indicating bad password but I don't recall other devices saying bad password in previous times this happened.
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@derekmarch said in Every few weeks some of the devices on my WIFI will suddenly stop working until I reboot pfsense:
wifi router
I hope he is in access point mode?
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Whatever mode it's in nothing pfSense is doing should prevent a device connecting to it as an AP.
Rebooting the WIFI AP/router doesn't restore the connectivity?
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@stephenw10 This last time it happened my first thought was reboot wifi router, that didn't help. Then I rebooted the satellite and that also didn't help, all network devices were still misbehaving the same, nothing had reconnected. It wasn't until I rebooted the pfsense device that everything automatically reconnected.
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@derekmarch said in Every few weeks some of the devices on my WIFI will suddenly stop working until I reboot pfsense:
Anyone heard of anything like this?
yes, I have had something similar with by Orbi RBR50+two RBS50. Random behviour and very annoying. I can't recall if I had made any pfSense changes around the time of the incidents. I also tried rebooting the Orbi and a satellite but IIRC the did not fix the issue, in the end I rebooted the pfSense and it sorted itself out.
I have not investigated the issue in depths but I possible cause could be to do with DCHP. My Orbi gets its address from pfSense. If that doesn't work for some reason, perhaps the satellites are also having getting their addresses, and consequently any client that tries to do DHCP while this i happening might also struggle getting an address (it's a theory, no more). Changing to static IP addresses for the RBR/RBS might fix the issue?
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@pst My Orbi router and Orbi satellite both have static IP addresses set by the pfsense DHCP server
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I have pFsense as my router and a RBR850 (in AP mode) and 2 RBS850 Orbi satellites to handle wifi in my home. The Orbis’ can be finicky but once set up correctly (spaced at least 30ft apart and not positioned behind a material that will block signals), it works pretty well. Check to make sure your Orbis receive a static IP from pFsense based on MAC address, ensure Orbi router is in AP mode, and optimize the positioning of your satellite.
Are you using VLANS for your wifi? -
Right, it would start DHCP if that had stopped for some reason. Were you still able to reach the wifi devices from a wired client?
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@slimypizza Yes, the router is in AP mode, it's properly getting it's IP address, as is the satellite. I signed into the Orbi during the last time I was having the issue and it showed everything as working properly, i could see the devices that were properly connected (couldn't see the devices that were not able to connect). The satellites are in different corners of the house in wide open areas. Nothing has any issue connecting to them 99.9% of the time.
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@derekmarch I use the same mechanism, but we rely on DHCP here to give the same "static" address. It is also possible to define a static IP address in the Orbis themselves. It is under LAN/WAN configuration which unfortunately is disabled in AP mode.
If the Orbi only supports DHCP in AP mode (and not uses the configured static address) then my theory can't be tested.
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@stephenw10 I did not specifically try accessing the devices from a wired client, but since the device itself says it can't get a signal and isn't connected to the wifi I suspect it wouldn't have worked.
I have a few devices connected to the router and the satellite via wired connection, and those devices all continued to work.
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What color are the LED lights on the Orbis when you have issues?
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@slimypizza I wanna say white, whatever the normal light is. The Orbi's both show up as working properly in their own settings. Which is in part why rebooting the Orbi devices doesnt seem to do anything.
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When you're checking that how are you reaching the Orbis? From a wired client I assume? On the same subnet?
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@stephenw10 Yes when I signed into the Orbi's to check their status I was using a wired PC on the same subnet
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Hmm, the only thing I could imagine is that some wifi devices will stop advertising the ssid if they lose upstream connectivity.
That could be happening if he 1100 is not responding for some reason.
Is the Orbi connected to the 1100 directly? -
@stephenw10 The 1100 is connected to a netgear managed switch, and then the Orbi is plugged into that managed switch as well.
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Hmm, so not even bouncing the link...
Might need to run whatever tests might be possible from the Orbi when things can't connect to it. Try to find out exactly what's failing.
