A device disconnection puzzle

[#1]

Hi there, 

Wondered if someone might be able to shed some light on what is going on with two specific devices I have on my wifi router.  I splashed out for some smart heaters which connect up to my phone, work all day, then at some point either overnight or early morning they will lose wifi connection.  I am trying to work out if the problem is with the router or with the heaters themselves, so I can report back to the manufacturer.  They are great when they work and the manufacturer is genuinely puzzled as to why this is happening. 

The router logs show an initial disconnect that looks like this, which has the device name in it.  Then it follows with another 40 or so entries repeating the same message for the next 30mins.  

08:22:08, 10 Dec.	(648432.520000) Device disconnected: Hostname: RioArcLivingRoom IP: 192.168.1.201 MAC: b4:e6:2d:a2:8c:f1
08:22:08, 10 Dec.	(648432.520000) Device disconnected: Hostname: RioArcBedroom IP: 192.168.1.200 MAC: 24:0a:c4:8f:08:50

Then about 200 entries like this for the next hour, without the device name but with the MAC address.  It keeps going like this until I turn the device power off and on again.  

08:54:18, 10 Dec.	ath00: STA b4:e6:2d:a2:8c:f1 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
08:54:18, 10 Dec.	ath00: STA 24:0a:c4:8f:08:50 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
08:54:17, 10 Dec.	ath00: STA b4:e6:2d:a2:8c:f1 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
08:54:17, 10 Dec.	ath00: STA b4:e6:2d:a2:8c:f1 IEEE 802.11: WiFi registration failed
08:54:16, 10 Dec.	ath00: STA 24:0a:c4:8f:08:50 IEEE 802.11: Client disassociated
08:54:16, 10 Dec.	ath00: STA 24:0a:c4:8f:08:50 IEEE 802.11: WiFi registration failed
08:54:05, 10 Dec.	ath00: STA b4:e6:2d:a2:8c:f1 IEEE 802.11: Client associated
08:54:04, 10 Dec.	ath00: STA 24:0a:c4:8f:08:50 IEEE 802.11: Client associated

Here's what I tried so far: 

• I have split my 2.4 and 5GHz wifi networks (the heaters only work with 2.4GHz).  I would try turn off 5GHz completely but I have other devices that slow to a crawl on 2.4Ghz only. 
• Allocated a fixed IP address for each device 
• Picked a specific wifi channel
• changed lease time from anything between 3 hours and 7 days 
• turned on VPN port clamping 
• turned off extended UPNP security 
• tried turning off other smart home devices in case it was causing interference 
• I used to be with another ISP, although I wouldn't have noticed if the heaters were not working over the summer 

All other devices work as expected, and I'm not getting any broadband disconnects.  It's a wonderful puzzle that neither me or the manufacturer can figure out yet.  

Based on everything I've tried, I suspect the problem is with the heaters rather than the router, but I would value the input from someone more knowledgeable than me. On the off-chance someone knows what's going on I can offer thanks, kudos, or a virtual pint (*is that allowed on here??)  

Thanks  🙂 

[#2]

Hey @gke45,

Which model of router are you using?

[#3]

Hi
It’s the Hub One provided by Plusnet.
Firmware is 4.7.5.1.83.8.289.1.3

[#4]

@gke45 

It looks like you have fixed the IP addresses at 192.168.1.200 and 201? If so these are in the DHCP range. Could they be being used by something else at the same time? You should set them to unused addresses in the 192.168.1.2-63 range.

Have you tried a factory reset by pushing a paperclip or similar in the hub reset hole and keeping the switch closed for at least 20 seconds? You will then have to set it up again from scratch.

[#5]

Thanks @Baldrick1 

The router was factory reset recently, but now you mention it - it was not reset since the latest firmware update, so I'll try that again.

The router only lets me choose an IP address between 192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.253.  I originally chose 200 and 201 because there was very little chance of any other devices using those addresses.  I swapped it to 90 and 91 now.  All the other devices I have use addresses lower than that.  

[#6]

@gke45 

Ah, are you are reserving addresses in the hub by selecting ‘always use this address’? If you are fixing them they are normally set in the device, not the hub.

[#7]

Yes. I fixed every device I have to an address to see if it made a difference. Using non-reserved addresses did not work either.

[#8]

I will need to wait until morning to see if any fixes work. It seems the disconnects only really happen overnight (alert form today when it was 8am).

[#9]

Out of curiosity, how did you get on with this? 

[#10]

The reset did not work, but I have today done a full factory reset on the router, set up from scratch, fixed all device Ip addresses (and restarted each device as well after fixing).  

First thing in the morning I'll know if it worked.  If it does not then it means the heaters are at fault.  

Thanks

[#11]

Are the heaters working as expected? Are you able to turn them on if they have appeared to dropped the wifi connection?

The reason I ask, I get the same messages but for WIZ connect led lights and Ring camera, on my Hub One but everything is working fine. It may be the connection is dropped when nothing is happening, the app on the phone will contact the heater and reconnect or if the heater needs to connect to anything. You may be worrying about a normal function.

Another thought is how strong is the wifi signal where the heaters are, it could be they are dropping the connection because the signal is weak.

Dan.

[#12]

Hi @Dan

They still work as heaters but only respond manually.  They have a wifi icon on the display that shows they have completely disconnected.  I have tried a while back waiting all day day to see if they reconnect by themselves, or if they respond to an app despite the error messages (Rio's own app, homekit) - but no luck. 

I even tried resetting and just using the manufacturer's own app, without setting them up on homekit, but it has not helped.  

Wifi signal is pretty good.  One of them is on 5 feet away from the router. 

A friend suggested I plug them in using a hue smart plug, so I could make the 'turn them off and on again' procedure a remote-controllable one (*which would be annoying but if nothing else works...) 

What puzzles me is they work perfectly all day long, then overnight they just seem to go to sleep. (...maybe they're alive and imitating human sleep to try figure us out... :-))

Thanks, 

-G 

[#13]

@gke45 

Have you looked at the hub Lease Time settings? I think that the default time is 24 hours. I don't know where you will find it on your hub but it will be somewhere like Advanced/My Netwok/IPv4 configuration under the sub heading DHCP Server.

Change this to 7 days or more and see if it makes any difference. I can't think of why this could be the cause but maybe worth trying.

[#14]

@gke45 - when you suffer this problem, are you able to temporarily recover the situation by powering the router off/back on again?

When you say other devices continue to work - are any of them also using the 2.4GHz network?

Are you able to share the specific make/model of heater?

[#15]

Thanks. I tried setting it for a week, and up to 21 days.