Issue with Downlink option using NWA55AXE

northcountry

I've just set up a pair of NWA55AXEs to create a wireless bridge. For the repeater unit I wanted to disable other devices connecting wirelessly (the AP is connected to a small switch), so turned off the 'Downlink' option. I also have a NWA90AX and the three devices are configured with Smart Mesh enabled. The two repeaters are configured with manual uplink specifiying the root AP.

I found that when I turned off Downlink in the NWA55AXE repeater, the entire unit went offline. I've read other posts here that mention a bug relating to 'Downlink'. Is the behaviour that I'm seeing expected, or is a bug still causing issues here?

Zyxel_Nami

Hello @northcountry

Based on your description, it seems you've encountered a problem where disabling the Downlink causes the repeater unit to go offline.

Please check if your APs are running the latest firmware versions, as the issue with the 'Downlink' option has already been addressed in these updates:

• NWA55AXE: 6.29(ABZL.2)C0
• NWA90AX: 6.29(ACCV.2)C0

Besides, please enable Zyxel Support Access as below screenshot. This will allow us to understand your network topology better. Along with this, kindly provide us with the name of your Organization/Site.

northcountry

All devices are running the latest firmware.

Organisation name: 'mc3' site: '58 Varley'

Access has been enabled.

Zyxel_Nami

Hello @northcountry

We noted that you initially disabled the Downlink on the "56" device on Nov 18 at 13:16:27.

Regarding the offline events, the following periods of downtime were observed for these 3 APs on Nov 18:

• 58 (NWA55AXE Root): 12:49 - 12:52; 13:37 - 13:48
• 56 (NWA55AXE Repeater): 12:53 - 12:55; 13:38 - 14:37; 14:49 - 14:52
• 56 AP (NWA90AX Repeater): 13:40 - 14:25

It appears that "56" device encountered offline issues before the Downlink was disabled. Therefore, we believe that the action of disabling Downlink may not be directly related to the offline issue.

To further clarify the cause, we would like to know the status of these 3 devices prior to disabling the Downlink, especially in terms of which devices connected Mesh to which one first.

And when you noticed the APs were not able to come back online, did you power down these 3 devices?

northcountry

I can't be precise as to order of events in relation to devices being on or offline on Nov 18. I was setting the whole thing up on that day, and moving devices into position, so there will inevitably be periods when devices were offline. What I can report is that immediately prior to the point in time when I disabled 'Downlink' on the device '56 (NWA55AXE Repeater)' all three devices were online and visible in the Nebula interface, and they were reporting as being corectly configured (i.e. '58' as root, and '56' & '56 AP' as repeaters in the mesh. At that point I disabled 'Downlink' on device '56' as my plan was to connect device '56 AP' via a wired connection into the switch connected to device '56'.

Having disabled. 'Downlink' I noted that the icon next to the device '56' in NCC under 'Site-wide' > 'Devices' > 'Access points' had changed from the 'online - repeater' icon to red meaning offline. Re-enabling 'Downlink' reversed this.

Zyxel_Nami

Hello @northcountry

We wanted to update you that we are actively investigating your case and will provide updates as soon as possible.

Additionally, we noticed that all three of your APs, including the 58 AP, were offline on the morning of Nov 24, coinciding with a firmware upgrade on the 58 AP. During this time, did you experience any abnormal issues? Specifically, was there any disconnection from the internet involving your gateway/router?

northcountry

I don't know what happened on Nov 24. I received an alert from NCC that one of my devices, I think '56 AP' was offline. Some time later I was able to log in and while it appeared that all three devices were functioning as normal, '56 AP' remained 'offline' as far as NCC was concerned. I noted that a frmware update appeared to be available so I took the opportunity to update all three devices.

Since that time everything appears to be operating as expected.

Zyxel_Nami

Hello @northcountry

In term of that the APs were offline on 11/24, it was due to a Nebula outage that occurred from 05:15 to 08:12.

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/19837/nebula-cloud-service-incident-2023-11-24-05-15-08-12-utc-0

Regarding the November 18 offline event, we are still investigating its root cause. Based on the logs and the diagnostic info of 3 APs, it doesn't seem like disabling "Downlink" triggered the AP offline. To match your deployment requirements on preventing other repeater from connecting mesh to 56 AP, you can disable "Downlink" now.

If any issues occur, please assist us by collecting diagnostic information before rebooting. Please follow this FAQ for the detailed steps:

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/17314/how-to-collect-the-nebula-ap-diagnostic-info-by-gui

northcountry

OK. Thanks for looking at it. If I come across the issue again I'll raise it here.