Common client management actions are currently missing

matteosaitta

Hello,

Over the time spent managing my devices in nebula I've found a few shortcomings compared to other home/prosumer platforms. I'll enumerate them in order:

1. Client devices are wrongly marked as wired or wireless and there is no direct way to correct it beside waiting and praying. Other brands just let me mark the device type as I like.
2. Sometimes the client devices get "sticky" and never leave one AP, requiring to reboot the "wrong" AP to make them move to the correct one. Other brands just have a "reconnect" button to have the AP send the disconnect order to the client.
3. The wireless client property display provides a very barebone indication of the client features, just the connection protocol and K/V/R support, you need to guess the possible speed using the current session rx/tx rates. Other brands provides the radio configuration and maximum speed.

Could you assess if these three items could be added to a futura nebula control center update?

Thanks!

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @matteosaitta ,

Thank you for sharing your ideas. We hope the following information will be helpful:

1. According to our specifications, wireless clients may appear in the wired client list because the client page is generated using LLDP tables from both the switch and the AP. The switch receives and displays client information forwarded by the AP.
2. Nebula helps users optimize their wireless network by automatically disconnecting clients with low signal strength through the Smart Steering function. Please refer to this article for more details: [NEBULA] How to configure smart steering to optimize the wireless network? — Zyxel Community
3. Could you clarify what you mean by "maximum speed"? Are you referring to:

• The speed between the wireless client and the AP, or
• The speed between the wireless client and the Internet?

matteosaitta

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/68897#Comment_68897

Point 1: Sure but it would make sense to let user correct those mistakes so that they can correctly apply wired/wireless client filters. If it can help I'm mostly seeing this on IOT devices that go online for short burst (turn on, connect, do a few kilobytes of traffic, disconnect), quicker than the usual five minutes refresh time of nebula data.

Point 2: Smart steering seems to work at hours/days timeframes with my NWA130BE. I had an issue with an Apple Homepod that decides that the AP it was set up to was the only one it would connect to. Smart steering disconnected that device several times and it would still keep going back to that unit, only way to move it away was to power down the original ap so it couldn't see it. I know it's a device rather than zyxel issue but every other access point brand i used had a "disconnect client" button to debug these issues.

Point 3: Client device speed, for instance changing the wireless client capabilities field to "1200 a/b/g/n/ac/ax" or "2x2 a/b/g/n/ac/ax".

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @matteosaitta ,

Point 1: To better support you, please enable Zyxel support. Additionally, please provide the name of your Nebula organization/site and the MAC address of the wireless client where you noticed an incorrect display in the client list. You can share this information via private message by clicking on my account and selecting "Message."

Point 2: In case, you want your Apple Homepod to connect to the non-Nebula AP, such as other vender APs or Zyxel AP that in Standalone mode, the Client Block Policy should meet your requirement. Please try implementing this policy.

Point 3: Currently, we display the wireless client capabilities field with a/b/g/n/ac/ax information as shown below.

Regarding the "maximum speed" you mentioned, could you please confirm if you're referring to the speed displayed on the client screen as below? If not, please provide an example or screenshot to help clarify your idea.

Additionally, to better support you and evaluate the feature request, could you please share examples from the other vendors that includes the function you mentioned?

matteosaitta

Apologies for the late reply

Point 1, I will send the data over pm.

Point 2, every AP in the site is a NWA130BE, there are no third party units. The issue self-solved over a few days timeframe.

Point 3, yes, that is what i meant.

The other brand is Ubiquiti Unifi.

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @matteosaitta ,

Point 1: Thank you for the information. We will review it and inform you of any findings.

Point 2: Glad to hear that Smart Steering is working for you! If you encounter any issues with this feature, feel free to create a new post to discuss it.

Point 3: We have submitted your feature request for evaluation. Please follow the Nebula News & Releases for updates on new features and enhancements in the future.

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @matteosaitta ,

Point 1: As mentioned earlier, the wireless clients are displayed according to our current specifications. Regarding your suggestion to allow users to mark device types manually, we will carefully evaluate this possibility.

Thank you for your feedback and suggestion!