Wireless bridge trouble with nwa55axe and nwa5123ni

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I bought an nwa55axe to try to create a wds bridge with a previously existing nwa5123ni, which is connected to a wired network. After following the guide, what I am seeing is that the nwa5123ni, configured as ap root, shows the nwa55axe connected in wds, but with a signal strength of -95db, regardless of their distance. Also in the logs I can see a wpa disassociation from the nwa55axe every 40 seconds. Trying to connect to the wlan served by the nwa55axe results in a timeout when getting an ip (or no connection with a static ip setup), but it works OK if the nwa55axe is configured as standalone ap instead of bridge. What could the problem be?

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  • Zyxel_Melen
    Zyxel_Melen Posts: 1,656  Zyxel Employee
    First Anniversary 10 Comments Friend Collector First Answer
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    Hi @dbettella,

    May I know which guide did you follow? Since the NWA5123NI does not support wireless bridge function, it can only set up WDS (Mesh) with NWA55AXE. You may reference this FAQ. Additionally, a model that supports wireless bridge function will have a check box to enable wireless bridging.

    Base on your description "Trying to connect to the wlan served by the nwa55axe results in a timeout when getting an ip (or no connection with a static ip setup), but it works OK if the nwa55axe is configured as standalone ap instead of bridge.". Is your nwa55axe connecting to your network via ethernet cable? This might cause loop if your network does not enable loop guard or STP. Please remove the connection when the access point is in the mesh mode.

    Additionally, the signal strength of -95db is not a good signal strength for mesh or wireless bridge. The recommended signal strength is -65 db. Please shorten the distance of two access points for good signal strength.

    Zyxel Melen

  • dbettella
    dbettella Posts: 3
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    Hi! Thanks for answering. I will have to try following that FAQ. I don't remember which one I read, but it wasn't exactly the same.

    The attempt I did with the nwa55axe as standalone ap was the only time I connected it to the network, so the loop thing should not be a problem.

    Finally, I am aware that - 95db is not enough, but as mentioned I have never seen any different value in the wds downlink info table, regardless of the distance (I have tried almost everything from 2 meters LOS to 100 meters with walls in between, same thing).

  • dbettella
    dbettella Posts: 3
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    I have now followed the FAQ provided above exactly and the symptoms are the same. Is my unit defective? It seems strange because as mentioned it's only the wireless connection between the APs that is having problems.