NWA210AX wifi SSID schedule not working as expected

kevindd992002

Disclaimer: I didn't have any issues with this before I added a second Guest SSID.

Originally, I only had 3 SSID's:

Kevin's Network
IoT
Guest

The "Guest" SSID had this schedule:

https://imgur.com/q9REy5D

This means that the SSID is broadcasted whole day on Sunday and will be OFF from 6AM to 3PM from Saturday to Friday. This worked beautifully as expected until I added another SSID.

So I added the "Guest_Limited" SSID and used the same exact schedule for this SSID. I also disabled the schedule for the "Guest" SSID so it is turned on 24/7.

Right now, it is 2:00PM 3/28/2024 GMT+8 (Thursday) and the "Guest_Limited" SSID is turned ON! I don't know what's wrong but I'm pretty sure this is not a human configuration error because it is very clear that the configuration is correct!

As an additional troubleshooting step, I tried the "Always Off" template and it is working as expected. So please fix this as I'm pretty sure this is a bug!

Zyxel_Kay

Hi @kevindd992002

After reviewing your Nebula SSID schedule (Helper) settings and the image you provided above, it appears that the behavior of the SSID schedule is functioning correctly.

In your configuration, you have set it to turn off from 06:00 to 13:00. As a result, the SSID is indeed on during 2 PM, in accordance with your configuration. Please verify if you have the correct SSID configuration.

Additionally, you mentioned observing the SSID turning off around 4 PM. Could you please specify the day you observed this? Furthermore, to conduct further troubleshooting, please re-enable the SSID schedule. We would like to confirm whether the SSID schedule operates normally in the following days.

Zyxel_Kay

Hi @kevindd992002

As discussed in our private messages, the root cause of the issue is related to the connection between Nebula devices and the NTP server. The Philippines ISP has blocked access to the NTP server relied upon by the Nebula Control Center, *.pool.ntp.org. As a result, the Nebula devices have been unable to sync the correct time with the NTP server. Over time, some of your devices fail to sync the correct time, causing service impacts such as the disappearance of the APs' LAN IPs due to failed DNS queries. This explains why some of your devices continue to work well while others do not; the functioning devices have been able to maintain the correct time independently.

To address this issue, we will add a solution in our upcoming access points firmware release. The devices will query another NTP server provided by Google if they fail to query the previous NTP server, *.pool.ntp.org, relied upon by the Nebula Control Center. This will ensure the Nebula access points can align with the correct time.

This solution will be included in the next official firmware release, scheduled for Q3 2024. Please stay tuned to https://community.zyxel.com/en/categories/wlan-news-and-release for the latest firmware updates.

Zyxel_Kay

Hi @kevindd992002

Could you please enable Zyxel Support and provide your organization/site name, this will aid us to look into your issue directly.

kevindd992002

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/63801#Comment_63801

Done.

Organization name: Kevin's Infrastructure

Site: Condo

I have removed the schedule from Guest_Limited now since it is not working. From what we observed earlier, the SSID was turned off at around 4PM. Let me know what you need me to do to test.

Zyxel_Kay

Hi @kevindd992002

After reviewing your Nebula SSID schedule (Helper) settings and the image you provided above, it appears that the behavior of the SSID schedule is functioning correctly.

In your configuration, you have set it to turn off from 06:00 to 13:00. As a result, the SSID is indeed on during 2 PM, in accordance with your configuration. Please verify if you have the correct SSID configuration.

Additionally, you mentioned observing the SSID turning off around 4 PM. Could you please specify the day you observed this? Furthermore, to conduct further troubleshooting, please re-enable the SSID schedule. We would like to confirm whether the SSID schedule operates normally in the following days.

kevindd992002

My bad, I must've screenshot the incorrect settings. I corrected that now and I enabled the scheduled for the Guest_Limited SSID again. Let me monitor for a day and get back to you.

The 4PM problem was experienced yesterday as well. The SSID should not have turned off even with those incorrect schedules yesterday.

kevindd992002

It looks like it's working now. I'm not sure what happened, really. I'll post back here if it happens again. Thanks.

Zyxel_Kay

Hi @kevindd992002

Thank you for your update.

If you have any further questions about the SSID schedule, please enable your Zyxel Support and share with us the symptoms you observe.

kevindd992002

Hi @Zyxel_Kay

I have a similar issue on the same organization but on a different site (Casa MF) and I have some odd findings about this. The schedule for both Guest and Guest_Limited SSID's is set to be:

5AM to 5PM - OFF

5PM to 5AM - ON

And this is daily as seen here:

Now when I check the Devices page, I see this:

As you can see, this is another issue. For AP's that do not have clients connected to them, I don't see any LAN IP's and other parameters. And when I checked the event logs earlier at 5AM, I get these:

As seen in the event logs, the SSID's were disabled only for the AP's that have clients connected to them. So the other AP's are still broadcasting the two SSID's and not following the schedule.

Why is this happening?

Zyxel_Kay

Hi @kevindd992002

Could you please enable Zyxel Support for us?

This will aid us to look into your issue directly.

kevindd992002

Done. I enabled it for you.

Zyxel_Kay

Hi @kevindd992002

As discussed in our private messages, the root cause of the issue is related to the connection between Nebula devices and the NTP server. The Philippines ISP has blocked access to the NTP server relied upon by the Nebula Control Center, *.pool.ntp.org. As a result, the Nebula devices have been unable to sync the correct time with the NTP server. Over time, some of your devices fail to sync the correct time, causing service impacts such as the disappearance of the APs' LAN IPs due to failed DNS queries. This explains why some of your devices continue to work well while others do not; the functioning devices have been able to maintain the correct time independently.

To address this issue, we will add a solution in our upcoming access points firmware release. The devices will query another NTP server provided by Google if they fail to query the previous NTP server, *.pool.ntp.org, relied upon by the Nebula Control Center. This will ensure the Nebula access points can align with the correct time.

This solution will be included in the next official firmware release, scheduled for Q3 2024. Please stay tuned to https://community.zyxel.com/en/categories/wlan-news-and-release for the latest firmware updates.