Could not connect to home Wifi (Ubiquiti UniFi Long Range Access Point)

[K-MTG]

I'm just beginning to research mesh networks, but it was my understanding that it is much better at distributing a single WiFi access point across a large area.

I've had lots of issues with repeaters using the same WiFi name, and eventually determined things worked better with different WiFi names. This apparently isn't an issue with mesh or at least with the Eero routers.

What is your understanding/opinion?

From my understanding if you can get an ethernet cable to the access point, use that instead of a fully wireless mesh network that only has the router hardwired. And the specs for the Netgear X10 for instance are better than mesh routers like Google Wi-Fi.

@K-MTG
Look into ruckuswireless
I deploy their ap's in all kinds of environments many times replacing Unifi and Apple.
There's no comparison.
If you want rock solid wifi. There's very few that are better and none better at their price point.

If I switch over to Rukus, how many access points will I need (I have 5 AirPort Extreme's currently)?
$700 for a single access point is rather pricey and all of my devices with ethernet ports are plugged in.

By the way I plan on connecting SmartThing's to my current alarm system but never done something like this before: Connect wired alarm system sensors to SmartThings with a NodeMCU ESP8266

 

[petfansNetwork]

I have deployed Netgear Orbit for a few weeks. So far so good.

 

[chillaban]

If I switch over to Rukus, how many access points will I need (I have 5 AirPort Extreme's currently)?
$700 for a single access point is rather pricey and all of my devices with ethernet ports are plugged in.

It's really dependent on your house and AP placement, and don't trust anyone on the internet to tell you how many you need without a site survey in person!

My gut feeling is you'll want to start with 3 and adjust accordingly. Right now, the best bang-for-the-buck comes from the R600, R500, and possibly R510.

If you look on eBay (if you're willing to go that route), you can often find some good deals on the R710 (which is a phenomenal access point)… but of course, YMMV with the eBay experience.

EDIT: For reference: My initial deployment in a 6000 sq ft house involved replacing 6 Airport Extremes with 4 Ruckus APs. This provided better-than-parity in every part of the house but the old network was only delivering 20mbit or so in certain places, and the new one delivered around 80mbit. Due to additional bandwidth requirements for backups and more streaming media boxes, I eventually expanded them to 6 Ruckus APs, and they get a solid 120+mbit everywhere and even backyard coverage.

 

[K-MTG]

It's really dependent on your house and AP placement, and don't trust anyone on the internet to tell you how many you need without a site survey in person!

My gut feeling is you'll want to start with 3 and adjust accordingly. Right now, the best bang-for-the-buck comes from the R600, R500, and possibly R510.

If you look on eBay (if you're willing to go that route), you can often find some good deals on the R710 (which is a phenomenal access point)… but of course, YMMV with the eBay experience.

EDIT: For reference: My initial deployment in a 6000 sq ft house involved replacing 6 Airport Extremes with 4 Ruckus APs. This provided better-than-parity in every part of the house but the old network was only delivering 20mbit or so in certain places, and the new one delivered around 80mbit. Due to additional bandwidth requirements for backups and more streaming media boxes, I eventually expanded them to 6 Ruckus APs, and they get a solid 120+mbit everywhere and even backyard coverage.

Are Rukus PoE? And can I mount them on the ceiling/wall? The pricing for the R600 is only $50 more than the Ubiquity so it seems to be more appropriate.

My house is about 5000 sq ft, I have a gigabit fiber optic connection so I want to take full advantage of that. I have roughly 40 always on network devices.

Also, what are your thoughts on Xclaim Wireless (Rukus's sister company), they are roughly $250 so I could get 5 or 6 of those compared to 3 Rukuses.

 

[chillaban]

Are Rukus PoE? And can I mount them on the ceiling/wall? The pricing for the R600 is only $50 more than the Ubiquity so it seems to be more appropriate.

My house is about 5000 sq ft, I have a gigabit fiber optic connection so I want to take full advantage of that. I have roughly 40 always on network devices.

Also, what are your thoughts on Xclaim Wireless (Rukus's sister company), they are roughly $250 so I could get 5 or 6 of those compared to 3 Rukuses.

Ruckus devices are PoE, and all ruckus devices have full 5GHz functionality (802.11ac) on regular POE, do not require PoE+. PoE+ gets you better 2.4GHz range/performance on certain high end Wave 2 AP's like the R710, but that's a lower priority.

As far as Xclaim, I don't recommend them because they are basically rebranded R500/R600's, locked to omnidirectional transmit patterns. One of the biggest benefits of a Ruckus AP is the "Beamflex" technology, which adaptively tries combining several antenna elements to form a unique beam pattern for reaching clients instead of spraying the signal in every direction. This allows them to better utilize the FCC regulated total transmit power limit to reach clients more effectively.

The other thing nice about the R500/R600 is that if you've taken a look at the Ruckus portfolio, they have a bit of an identity crisis: There's the ZoneDirector controller-managed option, Unleashed controller less, Ruckus Cloud, SmartZone (for enterprises), and standalone. The R500/R600 allow you to freely flash between these OS variants. Xclaim will never allow that.

IMO if I'm going to drop big money on AP's, I really want them to continue being a part of my changing needs. Maybe one day the R600 won't be a great living room AP once 802.11ac wave 25 comes around, but I wouldn't mind putting one in a garage to extend my network

 

[Muzzman1]

Ruckus devices are PoE, and all ruckus devices have full 5GHz functionality (802.11ac) on regular POE, do not require PoE+. PoE+ gets you better 2.4GHz range/performance on certain high end Wave 2 AP's like the R710, but that's a lower priority.

As far as Xclaim, I don't recommend them because they are basically rebranded R500/R600's, locked to omnidirectional transmit patterns. One of the biggest benefits of a Ruckus AP is the "Beamflex" technology, which adaptively tries combining several antenna elements to form a unique beam pattern for reaching clients instead of spraying the signal in every direction. This allows them to better utilize the FCC regulated total transmit power limit to reach clients more effectively.

The other thing nice about the R500/R600 is that if you've taken a look at the Ruckus portfolio, they have a bit of an identity crisis: There's the ZoneDirector controller-managed option, Unleashed controller less, Ruckus Cloud, SmartZone (for enterprises), and standalone. The R500/R600 allow you to freely flash between these OS variants. Xclaim will never allow that.

IMO if I'm going to drop big money on AP's, I really want them to continue being a part of my changing needs. Maybe one day the R600 won't be a great living room AP once 802.11ac wave 25 comes around, but I wouldn't mind putting one in a garage to extend my network

I'm 100% with @chillaban
He knows his Wifi.
I deploy wifi in all kinds of environments, and Ruckus is the best.
I have a carefully placed R510 in my 4000ft house (above the stairs) and it covers my entire property (1/2 acre) without any issue. I recently changed it from an R600. In my environment, both work exactly the same as far as performance. I just wanted the wave 2 to try it out.
I have 4 HD wifi cameras that stream to a Milestone Enterprise camera system server, so my air is pretty saturated, and I never have any issues. Most times there are about 25-35 devices attached to the wifi.
Look into the Unleashed firmware, it would be the best way to go for you so that you have controllerless roaming between AP's.

Here's a sample of what the Unleashed FW gives you.

 

[K-MTG]

Do you think I should pull the trigger now or wait for 802.11ax? I have no rush to switch but at the same time my system could use an upgrade.

 

[chillaban]

Do you think I should pull the trigger now or wait for 802.11ax? I have no rush to switch but at the same time my system could use an upgrade.

I would vote now. 802.11ac wave 1 is mainstream. 802.11ac wave 2 is just barely starting to be adopted. This was like a 5 year journey from when 802.11ac drafts started coming on the market. There will always be an 802.11 with 2 new letters a few years down the road, but you really have to ask yourself whether or not you will upgrade enough devices (and when) to benefit from it!

 

[lundse50]

beginning sometime in January I lost the ability to connect to my LUMA home network. I am getting a password error. I also tried my guest LUMA network with several different passwords still with no luck though I can connect my X to my iPhone enabled wifi hotspot. Signal strength is excellent having a LUMA in the garage. Any suggestions? Anyone else having an issue with a LUMA 'router'? thanks

 

[jeraldinho]

I have tried all sorts of ways to get my Model X to connect to my wifi. It only works if the signal is real strong. And sometimes when it connects it does not really do anything. I just use the LTE at this point.

Will be following this thread to see if you all come up with a decent solution for the garage. All the repeaters and range extenders I have tried have failed to deliver.

I have had issues with my car not keeping a solid connection but have come to realise that there is little value in a WiFi connection in any case. Most recent firmware updates have come over 3g anyway.

 

[K-MTG]

The X connects to the AC Pro in my garage. My main router is in AirPort Extreme. Need to upgrade!

 

[KaiserSoze]

The latest Unifi beta firmwares don't connect to my X particularly well anymore. It's poor.

 

[networx88]

I know this has been going on for quite a while, so I figured I would chime in with my research with a 2017 AP2 MX.

The issue does not appear to be RF (wifi) related. I have done extensive testing using a variety of consumer and enterprise access points. I have tested ASUS, Cisco WAP54T, WRT54G, Linksys Wireless-N, Cisco 1142N, Cisco 3602i, Cisco 3702i, and Cisco OEAP 602 / OEAP 1810. In testing, I have done wireless captures (including decrypting WPA2), and tested 802.11B / G / N / AC. I have also tested numerous data rates, short/long preamble, B/G protection, etc. All in all, no amount of wireless adjustment shows improvement.

The issue appears to lie in the router being used. MX is stable as a co-worker's house with a 3602i using a WLC-2504 controller, on AT&T Internet, with AT&T provided router. I also have perfect connectivity when MX is on the personal side of my work OEAP, even with the double-NAT. The issues present when connected via an ASUS router (merlin FW).

My guess is that the router is not allowing the OpenVPN tunnel to form/maintain, or blocking some keepalive or health check. Still need to dig in further, but this is the avenue that appears to be the likely issue. Next step is to dig into a PCAP to see what sticks out packet wise.

 

[K-MTG]

After I disabled the he DLNA feature on my Plex server, the car had no problem working on my wifi

 

[networx88]

After I disabled the he DLNA feature on my Plex server, the car had no problem working on my wifi

Interesting... wonder if DLNA is mDNS based

 

[CarbonFree]

The latest Unifi beta firmwares don't connect to my X particularly well anymore. It's poor.

I switched to a Ruckus in the same location, and the X is finally able to connect. It's night and day better.

 

[posity]

We have multiple Zyxel NWA1123 Access Points installed around our house. They have been extraordinarily reliable: never had to reboot in 3 years time. They just go and go. But my 2018 Model X fails to connect to my Zyxel APs. Tried dumbing them down to 2.4GHz only, even completely turned off authentication.

Symptom is that Model X sees the WiFi network, shows the SSID, and shows green checkmark after I type in the password, but eventually comes back after about a minute and prompts for password again. I've spent days trying to get these Zyxel APs working.

We run a B&B: have had hundreds of guests hook up to these Zyxel APs with no complaints. Using dozens of different types of devices. Tesla is the very first device that would not connect to these Zyxel Access points. And believe me, if the Wifi is down (usually because Comcast is having a problem), our guests IMMEDIATELY let us know about it.

The local Tesla Service Center told me that commercial quality APs occasionally have problems and advised me to just get a cheapo home quality AP.

So I hooked up a very old wireless router I had laying around (a Mikrotik) and located it in the garage next to the Model X. Works fine.

It's quite obvious there is something wrong in the Tesla TCP/IP stack but not worth trying to escalate to Tesla engineering.

Tesla Service really tried to go the extra mile to help figure this out but since there is something wrong in their WiFi software , not something the Service Center can fix. Took me days to finally get this working. Advice to others is if you can't connect WiFi to your Tesla, go get an inexpensive AP just for your Model X.

 

[Anzir]

We have multiple Zyxel NWA1123 Access Points installed around our house. They have been extraordinarily reliable: never had to reboot in 3 years time. They just go and go. But my 2018 Model X fails to connect to my Zyxel APs. Tried dumbing them down to 2.4GHz only, even completely turned off authentication.

Symptom is that Model X sees the WiFi network, shows the SSID, and shows green checkmark after I type in the password, but eventually comes back after about a minute and prompts for password again. I've spent days trying to get these Zyxel APs working.

We run a B&B: have had hundreds of guests hook up to these Zyxel APs with no complaints. Using dozens of different types of devices. Tesla is the very first device that would not connect to these Zyxel Access points. And believe me, if the Wifi is down (usually because Comcast is having a problem), our guests IMMEDIATELY let us know about it.

The local Tesla Service Center told me that commercial quality APs occasionally have problems and advised me to just get a cheapo home quality AP.

So I hooked up a very old wireless router I had laying around (a Mikrotik) and located it in the garage next to the Model X. Works fine.

It's quite obvious there is something wrong in the Tesla TCP/IP stack but not worth trying to escalate to Tesla engineering.

Tesla Service really tried to go the extra mile to help figure this out but since there is something wrong in their WiFi software , not something the Service Center can fix. Took me days to finally get this working. Advice to others is if you can't connect WiFi to your Tesla, go get an inexpensive AP just for your Model X.

Weird... same thing happened to me today. It finally connected back but it makes me wonder if it has been causing a delay in updates.

 

[Tazmanian]

I have switched to a Unifi netwerk. All my equipment can connect to my Access Point unless my model S.
He cannot see the WIFI network (2,4Ghz and G mode enabled).

Network is new since 3 days and as I can see in the logs my car was connected 2 days ago. But now for some reason he cannot find the WIFI network anymore, not even when I'm searching for it in the car. So some setting is causing the issue, but I tried several things but didn't solve it.
There is no problem with the strenght of the signal, as my access point is only 2m from my car.

Anyone that has his Model S connect to AP-AC Pro and can tell me your settings?

 

[reddy]

I have switched to a Unifi netwerk. All my equipment can connect to my Access Point unless my model S.

Anyone that has his Model S connect to AP-AC Pro and can tell me your settings?

I am using a mixture of UniFi AP-AC and AP-AC Pro with my 2013 Model S. I don't have any problems, and didn't have any setup issues. In fact, I went with these because the previous AP had issues with Tesla.

Are you up to date on fmware, and are you using the UniFi controller to manage your APs ?

I'm connecting with 2.4GHz band, channel is Auto, HT20, Transmit power Medium. My DHCP is managed by a separate Sophos firewall / router. I broadcast the SSID and use a fairly long security key.... I allow meshing to other access points, but this happens only when a link elsewhere (...big house...) fails.

Any other settings you may need? I am running 5.11.39 controller , and 4.0.69.10871 firmware.