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Comment by lordnacho | Hacker News Reader

I had a related problem with their PowerLine TPA-4220 devices yesterday. It turns out there's a DHCP server on it that you can't turn off! It's supposed to be smart and know when there's another DHCP server on the network, but it appears that this sometimes doesn't work. So I found that my laptop sometimes ends up configured on the wrong subnet, which of course kills the internet connection. The thing is, the web interface does not have a setting to shut off the rogue server.

If I hadn't done a CCNA I don't think I would have ever figured this out. I don't know what ordinary people do when this happens to them.

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This feature is stupid. I never buy TP-link products because I can't believe people who ship like this. ref: https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/160293

THANK YOU for that link, I didn’t realize that our self-hosted DHCP was facing attacks not only from the shitty ISP cable modem but also from the TP-Link APs. Hopefully an upgrade will fix that. It really says something about their attitude:

> And there seemed to be some misleading about "smart DHCP". This feature would not be enabled for no reason.

It took >2y and >100 forum posts on the issue before they even acknowledged that even in “AP mode” it silently enables a DHCP server as long as it doesn’t get a DHCP reply within 60s from boot.

I see. So that's why our network broke when the power failed. My Linux router is slow to boot, and the tp-link's in AP mode ran out of patience.

Tenda devices do this as well, and some other thing I have, maybe a gl.inet. if my main connection dies for more than 15 minutes, it's anyone's guess which device will win the race to break dhcp.

THANK YOU for that link, I didn’t realize that our self-hosted DHCP was facing attacks not only from the shitty ISP cable modem bit also from the TP-Link APs. Hopefully an upgrade will fix that. It really says something about their attitude:

I had a similar experience with my Netgear Orbi; they have a dual 2.4/5 GHz network on the same SSID, but certain devices just cannot handle it (including apparently Facebook's Oculus and quite a few smart home devices).

Turns out you can split them up into separate SSIDs, but only by telnetting into your base station and each satellite and running some cryptic commands on each. It used to be possible via the web UI, but they just... dropped it.

they have a dual 2.4/5 GHz network on the same SSID, but certain devices just cannot handle it

My Canon wireless printer is one of those devices that can't handle it. If they both have different SSIDs, then it will connect fine. But if there are two with the same SSID, during setup if fails to ask the user for a password and therefore cannot connect.

Meanwhile, Amazon's eero has removed the option to have different SSIDs for each network. The two mistakes combined (Canon's and eero's) mean it's not possible to use the Canon on an eero network. Unless...

What I ended up doing was unplugging the eero, and setting up an Airport Express I used to use for traveling with the SSID I want for the eero. Hook the Canon up through the Airport. Unplug the Airport and turn the eero back on and it connects. A stupid workaround.

I ended up naming my SSIDs SSIDNAME and SSIDNAME2.4 for just this reason. I had all kinds of problems getting my 2.4GHz devices onto my network when they shared the same name. PCs and tablets did fine but anything more obscure (smart switches for instance) was a mess.

I did not know that about the eero devices. Really glad I didn't "upgrade" to the newest Ring base station with eero built-in.

Our network at home has both 2.4 and 5 on the same SSID, with no issues (and I have an oculus). Is this just a Netgear thing?

No clue. Very possible it's specific to the Orbi, or possibly the spots in our house the Oculus and LG washer/dryer are located - perhaps the signal strength is just iffy enough they hop between the two frequencies sometimes. A full restart of the devices helps, but usually only for 15-30 mins.

> A full restart of the devices helps, but usually only for 15-30 mins.

This rings a bell. Do you have an Orbi mesh by any chance? I used to experience this with specific cheap IoT devices that were constantly hopping to different Orbi satellites.

There is an option somewhere in the UI to bind a device to one specific access point, and you can tag a device as IoT or smart speakers which (based on feeling) seems to change the steering heuristics to something that stops this from happening.

Yeah, we use the Orbi mesh network, but they don't mind hopping between satellites if 2.4 and 5 are split. Given the way my kids move the Oculus around a lot between rooms, being able to hop is important.

Yep, smart bulbs from most manufacturers need 2.4GHz. Had to go back to owning my own router (thankfully) after a brief stint with the standard Spectrum one.

Perhaps they would buy a new router, then replace other things randomly until it worked again. This approach might even be quicker. Much more wasteful however.

My TP Link wifi router loses the ability to list connected clients if you switch it to access point mode.

I discovered that this problem affects many models and people have been posting about it in the tp link forums for many years and have only received annoying "we'll look into it" customer service responses.

I will never buy a router I can't put openwrt on again.

Ironically, TP-Link is often the best choice for OpenWRT.

Cheap, good hardware and most importantly, a supported chipset.

I've been suffering this for years with a TL-WPA8630P v2.0 and so far the only solution from TP Link [1] is a firmware update that disables DHCP only until you reboot it (or the power goes out). It's ridiculous.

[1] https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/265692

They do what I kept on doing with these devices, unplug them and then plug them back in again.

You can use wireshark to access the server on the device, its what they use when they update firmware, but have you used a modded powerline adaptor to access engineering settings in white goods like modern fridge freezers because alot of them have a cpu controlling everything and you access it using the mains plug?

What? Do you have any proof of that?

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