WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Report problems and success stories with Gargoyle on various hardware platforms.

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danielkza
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:57 pm

WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by danielkza »

Initially I was very happy after upgrading my TP-Link WR-1043ND v1 to 1.5.8 due to the better wireless performance, but recently I've been experience random reboots in the dozens per day. It's very, very annoying. I tried using a USB key to record system logs but I get no messages whatsoever before reboots. I tried disabling everything I can (like DDNS, UPNP, QoS, etc) but nothing helps.

Is anyone experiencing something similar? I'm accepting even crazy ideas to try because I really don't want to revert older version which had their own Wi-fi stability issues.

Thanks,
Daniel

raz
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:12 am

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by raz »


danielkza
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:57 pm

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by danielkza »

Will do, thanks.

EDIT: Upgraded, now some time is needed to see if things are better.

danielkza
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:57 pm

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by danielkza »

After a couple of days with raz's linked build I no longer see reboots but Wireless still drops very frequently. It starts with mild latency spikes to 30-50ms which then escalate to 1000ms latency after about a minute, until packet loss kicks in. No messages in the system logs at all. Same behavior with 4 different clients (Atheros AR9271 based USB stick, Ralink RT73 based USB stick, Broadcom BCM43xx notebook, Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.2). I'm starting to get desperate, I really don't want to revert to factory firmware.

raz
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:12 am

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by raz »

danielkza,

Have you adjusted the "Transmit Power" option?
In my experience, a too high of a value made wifi unstable.

danielkza
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:57 pm

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by danielkza »

I did try to adjust it to 23dBm with only a small improvement: instead of getting drops every 2 minutes I'd get them every 5 minutes or something. Something else that did help a bit surprisingly was to move my wireless adapter a bit closer to the router. I did not think weak signal was a problem since I was getting close to -60 dBM (the reported strength didn't actually change much from that), but I managed to go an hour or so without problems.

Tomorrow I'll make sure to keep a trace of latency throughout the day if it can help.

EDIT: My current Wi-fi config is:

Wireless Mode: AP
Operation Mode: N+G+B
Channel Width: 20MHz (I was using 40Mhz + noscan but I deactived it in my troubleshooting attempts)
Power: 23dBm
Encryption: WPA2 PSK

danielkza
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:57 pm

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by danielkza »

Bumping this thread to see if anyone had any improvements with 1.5.9 before I upgrade.

danielkza
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:57 pm

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by danielkza »

I upgraded and nothing changed, I have random Wifi ping spikes in the order of half a second per ping, apparently with no apparent reason. Wi-fi also doesn't come back after a scheduled reboot: I had to resort to restarting Wi-fi in /etc/rc.local. :(

raz
Posts: 41
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:12 am

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by raz »

danielzka,

Do you have other equipment in the 2.4 ghz frequency range that could interfere? Phone, perhaps?

Alternatively, do you experience the same instability when running OpenWRT, or even stock?

Also, you could try the latest experimental build in here: http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=14

User avatar
DoesItMatter
Moderator
Posts: 1373
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 3:56 pm

Re: WR-1043ND 1.5.8 instability

Post by DoesItMatter »

There have been many instability issues reported with the
WR-1043ND and OpenWRT Attitude Adjustment.

You need to do some testing:

1) revert back to Gargoyle 1.5.6 (Backfire version)
You cannot keep settings, have to do this fresh install

If stability works - stick with 1.5.6 for now

2) Try one of the latest trunk builds of OpenWRT which is now on
Barrier Breaker
If that is more stable, then there are wireless issues with the
Attitude Adjustment version

I routinely compile OpenWRT builds for the AR71xx series only so if
someone wants a test build - I can post some for you to try.

They have the Luci interface GUI - but they are fairly basic builds.
The also have the country wireless restriction removed as well.

PM me if you want to try a test build

I currently have the OpenWRT Barrier Breaker 35300 revision
set compiled and can send to anyone wanting to test the
very latest wireless drivers for Atheros stuff only

Broadcom is still VERY beta & I don't have any newer broadcom
devices I want to test with OpenWRT - so I won't do the compiles
because I cannot verify they will work correctly on your router

I do test the AR71xx compiles though on 2 different routers
as seen in my signature - so I'm sure they work.
:twisted: Soylent Green Is People! :twisted:
2x Asus RT-N16 = Asus 3.0.0.4.374.43 Merlin
2x Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH V1 A0D0 = Gargoyle 1.9.x / LEDE 17.01.x
2x Engenius - ESR900 Stock 1.4.0 / OpenWRT Trunk 49400

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