WiFi Unreliable
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@dessiverse have you tried using a different WiFi channel? We've noticed that the ESP module in the Duet works better on some channels than others. This may be due to interference on some channels from other 2.4GHz devices (e.g. cordless phones and leaky microwave ovens) or possibly from the Duet itself (e.g. a harmonic of one of the clock frequencies).
Duet WiFi hardware designer and firmware engineer
Please do not ask me for Duet support via PM or email, use the forum
http://www.escher3d.com, https://miscsolutions.wordpress.com -
@dc42 I'll have to try to see if I can change just the 2.4GHz channel. Is there a list of recommended channels?
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See https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11.html. There are smartphone apps that can show you which channels are being used by WiFi access points already.
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I doubt it will help at all, because you've all got a pretty solid grasp on what's going on.
My laptop and printer will repeatedly disconnect from my router when my cellphone is in the immediate area. The issues stop if I tether my phone to my laptop (weird, I know). As soon as I unplug my cell from the laptop, I almost immediately start having disconnect issues.
I am not trying to hijack this post, or look for a solution. Just suggesting to look for outside interference sources.
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@dessiverse said in WiFi Unreliable:
I put the duet right on top of one of the WiFi nodes, and now it's working fine, but if I move it a foot or two away, it stops working. It's working,
Its sounding more and more like a router issue (just a gut feeling). In addition to @dc42 suggestion of finding a clear channel - take a look at the QoS settings in the router. If enabled (I'm suspecting they are) then try temporarily disabling. Given that the router is provided by your ISP and likely intended for use with VOIP etc. it's possible there is something there that may be throttling the LAN "streaming" speeds. I suspect this is unlikely the case - of and by itself - but may be a contributing factor, especially if the connectivity is marginal for other reasons.
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@stuartofmt The reason why I'm very hesitant to say it's a router issue is because I have no issues communicating between any devices on the network besides the duet. The duet is the absolute only one to have any issues, so it doesn't make sense to ignore all other devices and say it's a router issue because of this one device. I do ask again, is there a gcode to check that the antenna is working as it should? Because that right there could be the issue.
EDIT: I also want to note I tried inSSIDer and saw that both my networks, 2.4 and 5GHz, are running on the most unused channels in the area. So that's probably not it either.
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@dessiverse said in WiFi Unreliable:
EDIT: I also want to note I tried inSSIDer and saw that both my networks, 2.4 and 5GHz, are running on the most unused channels in the area. So that's probably not it either.
Not necessarily, because the Duet may itself be creating a small amount of interference on the channel you are using, which only affects the Duet because of the proximity of the antenna.
From memory, I think it was the lower 2.4GHz WiFi channel numbers that other users reported being unreliable.
Duet WiFi hardware designer and firmware engineer
Please do not ask me for Duet support via PM or email, use the forum
http://www.escher3d.com, https://miscsolutions.wordpress.com -
@dc42 Is there a way to confirm for a fact the antenna is in use and it's not just being ignored? I tried another antenna with a wider range and it's having the same issues.
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Did you get this resolved ?
As an FYI. My Router is on Channel 11
I also tried using FTP both upload and download to /gcode and got similar timings to using DWC and my slicer.
So at least in my case - its all consistent.
In your case - "something" is (was?) clearly getting in the way
Just needs to be found.Edit: Just saw you last post - definitely
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@dessiverse The antenna is definitely in use as your signal strength would be next to nothing without it. And AP mode is working fine. There's some settings incompatibility between the router and the Duet. Without knowing anything about the router it's hard to suggest what to change. If you want to continue troubleshooting we'd need to see some screen shots of the router setting screens to get an idea of what's going on.
Or if you're not interested in messing with all that, to get you back up and running as soon as possible you are authorized to contact your vendor and seek an exchange for your choice of wifi or ethernet version of the board. I'm quite certain that the wifi replacement would have the same issue, so if ethernet is a viable option for you that might be the better way to go. If you choose to go this route, contact your vendor and initiate the warranty process and include a link to this thread as authorization.
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@phaedrux I would like to go the ethernet route. I had already consulted filastruder regarding this and they said duet has to authorize the exchange. I will reach out to them and send them the forum.
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Alright. In the meantime if you'd like to try any more troubleshooting of settings so we can try to get to the bottom of why it doesn't play nice with your router can you share the model name and number of the router along with screen shots of some settings?
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@phaedrux This is the model info
This is the 2.4GHz settings. Some of them.
What settings are you looking for specifically?
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Can you try forcing it to channel 6? In AP mode it defaults to channel 6, so if it was working well then and it's related to channel selection, maybe that will help.
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@phaedrux After reaching out to the internet provider, customers are not allowed to change the network channel manually for some reason. Which doesn't make sense.
However, it's really odd that the duet would be restricted to channel 6. For the price the duet is, I wouldn't expect such a weird design flaw.
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As DC42 speculated above it may be related to internal harmonics with the duet frequency, but that's speculation. If we can't change your channel to test, who knows.
For what it's worth, I would suspect that most people are using channel 1 (as I am as well) without issue.
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@phaedrux Wait, if it's a problem with the channel wouldn't the signal be worse? When I ran the
M122tests the signal showed it was fine in all cases, even when it was being slow. -
Not necessarily. Good signal strength is part of it, but that just means the transmissions are coming in loud and clear. There can be crosstalk and interference that causes re-transmissions, but without more detailed info from the router side it's hard to judge what's going on behind the scenes.
Wifi is as close to magic as we're every likely to get. It's incredibly complicated and an insane amount of work has been put into it to make it largely seamless for the end user, but unfortunately it's not always the case.
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@phaedrux what other information do you need? Is there anything else I can do from the Duet's end?
I'm still working with the ISP to try to change the signal channel.
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Unless there is some more detailed settings pages there's nothing I can see that we could try. I found the manual for that model router but it was a very basic user manual with no info on actual settings pages. If it's locked down so that you can't even change the channel selection or wifi mode I doubt there would be any chance of more advanced options being available either.
What I suspect might be happening is that the router is misidentifying the capabilities of the Duet and initiating band steering trying to force it over to the 5ghz network which doesn't work. Or it's detecting it as a slow client and throttling it's performance to keep it from taking up too much air time from other faster clients. Just speculation on my part though.
