Connecting SBMS to TPLink Router

[Soggy Paws]

I have been using a small battery-powered Mifi device as my router for a long time.  I have no troubles getting our sbms0 to connect and send MQTT messages, and also to access the legacy screen.

We have acquired a Starlink, and I bought a TP-Link Archer MR500 router to add to the network as hopefully a hub that will use either cell network or Starlink depending on what's on.

But I CANNOT get the sbms0 to connect to the TPLink router.  I have tried several times now.  I understand the sbms0 can only do the 2.4Ghz frequency, so I have set the TPLink to only broadcast that frequency. I have toggled wifi on and off in the Device settings, every time. I can't find any dodgy settings in the router. But again after another couple hours of playing around with it, I've had to go back to my mifi device, which works perfectly (but requires a USB connection somewhere to power it).  I have a $30 cheapo chinese router that I have also been able to set up, but that router hangs itself after a couple of days of operation, so it's unreliable if I want to leave it unattended and access over the internet.  

Have attached my router settings screens.  If anyone sees anything in the settings that would be causing the problem, or has any suggestions about things to try, let me know.

The last screen shot is the client list. Showing my computer connected at 2.4Ghz. But the SBMS never connects, and eventually shows up its SSID.

[Dacian Todea (electrodacus)]

I'm the least qualified to answer your question as I did not had a router in the past decade.

I do not know why it will not connect. Likely has to do with security / encryption type.

I asked Gemini for some suggestions and this is one of them

"Enable MAC Address Filtering (optional):

MAC filtering allows you to specify the specific MAC addresses of devices that are allowed to connect to your network. You can find the MAC address of your ESP32 in its settings and add it to the router's allowed list. This can add an extra layer of security, but be aware that it requires manually adding authorized devices and may not be ideal for networks with many devices."

Then I asked about DTIM maybe increase this value

"

Lower DTIM: A lower DTIM interval means devices wake up more frequently to check for messages, ensuring they don't miss anything important. However, this consumes more battery.

Higher DTIM: A higher DTIM interval allows devices to sleep for longer periods between check-ins, saving battery life. But there's a chance they might miss messages if they arrive during sleep cycles.

"

I also asked about Short GI and it may be a good idea to disable that.

"

Data Transmission and Guard Interval:

• Wi-Fi data is transmitted in packets, and each packet is divided further into smaller sub-packets. To avoid interference between these sub-packets, a small gap called the Guard Interval (GI) is inserted between them. This provides a buffer in case signals arrive at the receiver slightly delayed due to factors like multipath propagation (signal bouncing off obstacles).

• Standard Guard Interval: Traditionally, the Wi-Fi standard used a Guard Interval of 800 nanoseconds (ns).

• Short GI: With 802.11n and later Wi-Fi standards, a shorter Guard Interval of 400 ns was introduced as an optional feature. This effectively reduces the wasted "buffer" time between sub-packets, allowing for more data to be transmitted within the same timeframe, potentially increasing the overall data transfer rate by up to 10-12%.

"

Maybe just as a test select WEP option under Security instead of the WAP/WAP2 just to see if it connects at least you know that is the reason.

[John Emmert]

The first thing I would try (I have a WiFi 7 TP-Link router and Starlink) is setting everything to default.

Then change the SID and password to your choice, and I know the "Smart Connect" option works just fine.

I also would try selecting a specific channel, I've never had good luck using "auto" with most routers. 1, 6, or 11 are the valid channels you want to use in North America.

[Soggy Paws]

I FINALLY got the time to work on this again.  Thank you to Robert and several others who emailed me suggestions.

So, as suggested, I reset the router to factory settings and started over again.  I got the sbms0 to connect and send MQTT messages as normal--yay, now I can hook the router up to my Starlink and (hopefully) have a seamless Starlink/LTE cell connection.  One step at a time.

After I got it initially working, I spent some time messing with settings, to set both the computer and the sbms0 up with static IP addresses, so I could be sure connections and bookmarked URLs work every time.  It seems crazy but the one thing I did that sent the sbms0 offline was to change from letting all devices on the network automatically get assigned an IP address by the router, to setting the computer and the sbms0 to static IP addresses.  My DHCP address range at factory settings is 192.168.1.100-199.  So I set the computer at 192.168.1.99.  That worked fine.  Then I set the sbms0 to 192.168.1.98.  That is when the sbms0 refused to connect.  I changed settings several times, including setting an IP address WITHIN the automatic DHCP range (.100).  As long as the sbms0 was assigned a static IP address, the sbms0 would not connect.  It was getting late, so I just put the sbms0 back at "automatically assign an IP address" and everything started working again.  I will deal with the sbms0 occasionally getting assigned a different IP address.

It does work 

Thanks for your help

[Peter Kuczynski]

I would second that, tyry lowering the encription for that device.

TKIP is acceptable: https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/TKIP