WR1043ND v1 Dropping connections

[murtaza12]

Long time lurker, just signed up because of this annoying issue.
I used to use DD-WRT but newer builds started becoming worse, so I switched to Gargoyle since I read it had a more user friendly UI and was stable and worked well in a Client Bridge setup.

I flashed v1.9 on my V1 TP Link WR1043ND and set up Client Bridge and it worked well, however at least 6-7 times a day, I have to manually reboot it since it drops all the WiFi connections and all the LEDs just freeze and the router doesn't do anything. Rebooting fixes the issue. Basically what happens is, while browsing, websites stop loading, then a few seconds later, the WiFi network disappears and my smartphone switches to 3G cause the WiFi connection has vanished.
I though to myself, v1.9 is expiremental, let's try a stable firmware.

I flashed back to v1.8.1 and just now I've experienced another issue.
Except this time, the SSID doesn't vanish, it stays there but the internet just doesn't work and Windows 10 shows 'No Internet Access' until I get up and manually reboot the router.

The main router that I use downstairs is an ASUS RT-AC66U and the WR1043ND sits upstairs and the GUI showed 87% signal strength when I was configuring it, I assume that is enough since when the router does work fine, I get the same speed that I do with my ASUS router and browsing and streaming all work perfectly until the TP Link router decides to go to sleep and not wake up until manually rebooted.

Sorry for the long post, just needed to explain the problem.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Lantis]

1.9 isn't a version.
1.9.0, 1.9.1 or 1.9.x, what are you on?
It is highly likely that you switched between two versions requiring two different styles of bridge configuration. Did you keep settings when moving between them?

[murtaza12]

1.9 isn't a version.
1.9.0, 1.9.1 or 1.9.x, what are you on?
It is highly likely that you switched between two versions requiring two different styles of bridge configuration. Did you keep settings when moving between them?

Sorry, I meant 1.9.1, I had forgotten if it was 1.9.0 or 1.9.1 since I flashed to 1.8.1 right before I posted this.

It's still set to Client+AP bridge mode, same SSID and password for both so when I move upstairs, the device hops on to the Gargoyle WR1043ND router without me having to switch networks or anything.
And no, I didn't keep settings, I switched back to TP Link stock firmware first, then I clean flashed to 1.8.1 and now I'm facing the same issue on 1.8.1 as well, except it's happening a lot more frequently, like if I reboot the router, it'll work for 10 minutes, then the internet access goes dead, but oddly enough I can still access the web portal, something I couldn't do before when I was on 1.9.1, probably because now my PC still stays connected.

I read somewhere that 1.6.2 would be more stable, do I flash back to that, or is there something wrong that I'm doing?
I tried messing around with TCP and UDP timeout settings as well, but it didn't help.

[Lantis]

Are you using any other features?
You could try the latest 1.9.x (from the show and tell subforum) first before going back to 1.6.2

[murtaza12]

Are you using any other features?
You could try the latest 1.9.x (from the show and tell subforum) first before going back to 1.6.2

Nope. None other than the client bridge feature. Nothing else at all.

Will try the new one you mentioned and then go back to 1.6.2 if it's the same.

[murtaza12]

Okay, so I installed the 1.6.2 firmware, and the same thing is happening. Within 10 minutes of setting it up and rebooting, the router keeps losing internet access and doesn't re-connect until rebooted.

[Lantis]

Can you do a logread and dmesg from when it disconnects?

[ispyisail]

stuffed router?

[murtaza12]

Can you do a logread and dmesg from when it disconnects?

Too late, flashed to OpenWRT now and things seem more stable.

If I get some free time, I will flash back to Gargoyle and post a logread because I find it easier to use than any other custom firmware.

[murtaza12]

stuffed router?

I was beginning to think so, but it's been running on OpenWRT for over an hour and a half, and all seems well. No disconnects or random freezes.