Draytek Vigor 2820n WiFi failure, fixed by reboot

[Chris Green]

I have a venerable Draytek Vigor 2820n which is now serving simply as
a WiFi router at the far end of my house to provide coverage there.
It has a wired connection to my main (FTTC) Tp-Link router.

It suffers from its WiFi failing after running OK for a day or two.
The symptoms are that it *appears* to work still, i.e. the SSID is
broadcast and one can connect successfully to the WiFi but nothing
works once connected. You can't even get to the router's admin
screen. Connecting from a hard-wired system on the LAN allows one to
reset the 2820n and then it's OK for a day or two again.

DNS is provided by a Raspberry Pi running dnsmasq.

So the basic configuration is:-

Tp-Link TD-W9980 192.168.1.1 FTTC connection, default route
Raspberry Pi 192.168.1.2 DHCP server and DNS using dnsmasq
Ubuntu PC 192.168.1.3 Hard-wired desktop machine
Draytek 2820n 192.168.1.20 WAN connections unused, just provides WiFi

Other systems get their addresses using the Pi's DHCP and are a mix of
hard-wired and WiFi.


Has anyone seen a similar issue (with 2820n or other) and/or any ideas
how to fix it?

--
Chris Green
·

[Graham J]

When the client connects does it get an IP address from your DHCP
server? If not what IP address does it get?

If you allocate a static IP (and DNS, Default Gateway) to the WiFi
interface of the client can you then communicate with other things on
the LAN?

------------

I've seen something similarly strange with a Vigor 2910G. This has two
Ethernet WAN ports, and is connected to two modems, so I load-balance
across two "wet string" ADSL services in rural Norfolk.

Some WiFi devices (iPad, Sony smartphone, W7 laptop, Kindle) retain
their Wifi connections without me having to do anything.

Other devices (generally W10 laptops) lose their WiFi connections at
random - though probably after some hours of non-use possibly involving
sleep or hibernate. The error message is to the effect of: "Can't
connect, do I want to run the troubleshooter?". Running the
troubleshooter never resolves it. But the simplest resolution is to log
into the router via Ethernet cable and disable then enable the WiFi
facility. The problem client then promptly connects with its remembered
credentials.

--
Graham J

[Java Jive]

On Mon, 16 Oct 2017 11:16:17 +0100, Chris Green <c...@isbd.net> wrote:
>
> I have a venerable Draytek Vigor 2820n which is now serving simply as
> a WiFi router at the far end of my house to provide coverage there.
> It has a wired connection to my main (FTTC) Tp-Link router.
>
> It suffers from its WiFi failing after running OK for a day or two.

I can't comment on your specific problem, but I have a DV2830n which
also has a WiFi problem - symptoms are that if you reboot the router
from the web interface, when it comes back up, there is no WiFi - not
just physically, but also not in the web interface - and to get it
back, you have to power cycle it. Add to that the problems I
identified here in June of this year in a thread entitled 'DrayTek
Vigor 2830n Oddities', and the fact that when supplying local DHCP it
doesn't also supply local DNS, which between them have meant that I've
had to re-introduce a Cisco WRT320N, between the DV2830n hanging on
the end of the phone line and my house LAN, to do the job that the DV
supposedly should have been able to do on its own, and I must say
that, considering DV's reputation, I'm extremely disappointed.
--
========================================================
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[Woody]

Given the comments there is a simple solution: get a TP-Link WR702N to
replace the Draytek. It will cost you about £16 from Expensive World
and work as a wi-fi hotspot to handle (IMSMC) 10 simultanious
connections.

I have two of these and a third that will handle two ethernet
connections, and they work a treat. Actually quite a good piece of kit
as it can work as an access point, a repeater, a wireless only router,
or a wi-fi connection for such as a TV or PVR. It has its own DHCP
server or if that is turned off then it will get its address from the
main server - in the OP's instance the RPi.


--
Woody

harrogate3 at ntlworld dot com

[Bob Eager]

Given the news today, that may be the least of the worries:

https://goo.gl/DbZF19

[Chris Green]

Graham J <gra...@invalid.com> wrote:
> Chris Green wrote:
> > I have a venerable Draytek Vigor 2820n which is now serving simply as
> > a WiFi router at the far end of my house to provide coverage there.
> > It has a wired connection to my main (FTTC) Tp-Link router.
> >
> > It suffers from its WiFi failing after running OK for a day or two.
> > The symptoms are that it *appears* to work still, i.e. the SSID is
> > broadcast and one can connect successfully to the WiFi but nothing
> > works once connected. You can't even get to the router's admin
> > screen. Connecting from a hard-wired system on the LAN allows one to
> > reset the 2820n and then it's OK for a day or two again.
> >
> > DNS is provided by a Raspberry Pi running dnsmasq.
> >
> > So the basic configuration is:-
> >
> > Tp-Link TD-W9980 192.168.1.1 FTTC connection, default route
> > Raspberry Pi 192.168.1.2 DHCP server and DNS using dnsmasq
> > Ubuntu PC 192.168.1.3 Hard-wired desktop machine
> > Draytek 2820n 192.168.1.20 WAN connections unused, just provides WiFi
> >
> > Other systems get their addresses using the Pi's DHCP and are a mix of
> > hard-wired and WiFi.
> >
> >
> > Has anyone seen a similar issue (with 2820n or other) and/or any ideas
> > how to fix it?
> >
>
> When the client connects does it get an IP address from your DHCP
> server? If not what IP address does it get?
>

Yes, I'm pretty sure it does, though I'll have to wait for the 2820n
to fail again to check.

> If you allocate a static IP (and DNS, Default Gateway) to the WiFi
> interface of the client can you then communicate with other things on
> the LAN?
>

I'll check.

> ------------
>
> I've seen something similarly strange with a Vigor 2910G. This has two
> Ethernet WAN ports, and is connected to two modems, so I load-balance
> across two "wet string" ADSL services in rural Norfolk.
>

I used to do similar with my 2820n until we got FTTC a few months ago.

> Some WiFi devices (iPad, Sony smartphone, W7 laptop, Kindle) retain
> their Wifi connections without me having to do anything.
>
> Other devices (generally W10 laptops) lose their WiFi connections at
> random - though probably after some hours of non-use possibly involving
> sleep or hibernate. The error message is to the effect of: "Can't
> connect, do I want to run the troubleshooter?". Running the
> troubleshooter never resolves it. But the simplest resolution is to log
> into the router via Ethernet cable and disable then enable the WiFi
> facility. The problem client then promptly connects with its remembered
> credentials.
>
> --
> Graham J
>
>

--
Chris Green
·

[Chris Green]

Yes, I may well do something like that, the 2820n is overkill anyway
(as in has lots more facilities than I need) for the job that I'm
using it for anyway. It's just that it does have a very good WiFi
signal - when it works.

--
Chris Green
·