Ubiquiti dropping connections

[VISA MC]

First off I should say I really do like the Unifi products and they have been flawless up until this, so hopefully this is just a bump in the road.

We have about 175 sites we manage, so far the only two with known issues are our office and my home. I do have two clients complaining about connectivity issues on a few devices so I’m beginning to think it’s a little more widespread than just my world.

WiFi will randomly drop from devices. My personal devices are an iPhone, iPad Pro and MacBook Pro. I’ve seen it happen in the office with Lenovo laptops and a brother printer. It makes the WiFi virtually unusable. Sometimes it’s about 3 minutes between the disconnects and others you’ll get about 15 minutes out of it.

I had firmware current and after reading on the ubnt forums people were having similar issues I downgraded without much success. The downgrade was successful but it didn’t fix the issue. Currently firmware is back to current.

Controller software version is current.

Both sites had been forgotten and readopted without solving the issue. We disabled airtime fsirness and auto optimize. I tried creating a dedicated 2.4 and 5 WiFi also without solving the issue. These have all been suggestions of support.

My questions for you guys are 1) any other ideas on what’s causing this? These sites have been fine and no changes aside from occasional firmware updates have happened. 2) How do you get decent support from ubnt? Currently they won’t help in chat, they want to keep it via email, but their responses are about 1 a day or - every 2 days. I basically have an unusable WiFi network at my office and home and I fear customers are affected as well. I did stress that to them, but have yet to hear back. It’s getting old every two days hearing something like “forget the ap and readopt and let me know”.

Thanks for your input!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We have most of our client sites hosted at HOSTIFI for our multi tenant Unifi controller. A bit over 100 sites. Version 6.2.26
For local Unifi controllers (Dream Machines, and Cloud Keys, or local spun up Ubuntu on VMWare), we're down under 50 or so. Most of them version 6.2.25 ...with a few at 6.2.26

I gotta say, not seeing the problem.

So for my "usual" settings...
*I never split SSIDs per channel....I don't do the "SSID-2.4" and "SSID-5". I always just do "SSID". Splitting them is so.....stuff done in year 2009.
*Bandwidth Steering, set to balanced
*I usually set RSSI..especially if over 3 access points at a site. Typically start with -70, or with more APs... -67...sometimes tighten up more for higher density high AP count setups
*For installs with multiple APs....stagger your channels
*I never do high performance mode
*I never do auto optimize
*For clients heavy with Apple devices, try seeing if setting DTIM values to 3 (from default)...improve things. Default (if a check in the USE DEFAULT box) is 1.
*If an AP has no devices attached which clients connected to the REST of the network need to connect to (like a wireless printer or even wired passthrough on a Pro, or a smart TV cast to, etc)....I enable port isolation on the port of the Unifi switch facing that AP. Improves performance by cutting down on network broadcasts from devices connected to that AP.
*block LAN to WLAN multicast (realizing what limitations it might have)
*enable multicast enhancement (IGMPv3)

 

[VISA MC]

We have most of our client sites hosted at HOSTIFI for our multi tenant Unifi controller. A bit over 100 sites. Version 6.2.26
For local Unifi controllers (Dream Machines, and Cloud Keys, or local spun up Ubuntu on VMWare), we're down under 50 or so. Most of them version 6.2.25 ...with a few at 6.2.26

I gotta say, not seeing the problem.

So for my "usual" settings...
*I never split SSIDs per channel....I don't do the "SSID-2.4" and "SSID-5". I always just do "SSID". Splitting them is so.....stuff done in year 2009.
*Bandwidth Steering, set to balanced
*I usually set RSSI..especially if over 3 access points at a site. Typically start with -70, or with more APs... -67...sometimes tighten up more for higher density high AP count setups
*For installs with multiple APs....stagger your channels
*I never do high performance mode
*I never do auto optimize
*For clients heavy with Apple devices, try seeing if setting DTIM values to 3 (from default)...improve things. Default (if a check in the USE DEFAULT box) is 1.
*If an AP has no devices attached which clients connected to the REST of the network need to connect to (like a wireless printer or even wired passthrough on a Pro, or a smart TV cast to, etc)....I enable port isolation on the port of the Unifi switch facing that AP. Improves performance by cutting down on network broadcasts from devices connected to that AP.
*block LAN to WLAN multicast (realizing what limitations it might have)
*enable multicast enhancement (IGMPv3)

Are you up to date on firmware for the USG and UAP? I don't think the issue is with the USG, because all of my devices with a physical connection are not having a problem. In our office we have several laptops, payment card terminal, a couple ipads etc. More other devices than apple devices.

My office and home only have one AP so I didn't bother setting the RSSI setting. I never split the SSID's either, that was a recomendation from UBNT support that did not solve the issue. High Performance mode is disabled. Auto Optimize is also disabled.

At my home it's a super basic install, one SSID, one network, no VLANs. Only a few devices really. I have thought about rebuilding the site from scratch, but I'm not sure really what that will prove. UBNT support has recommended that in the past to correct a VPN issue we had, and apparently the "new settings" didn't write something correctly and the site configuration was corrupted. I am currently on classic settings, but I don't see how that would cause issues unless there is a bug in their own interface.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've done 3x mid sized Unifi installs in the past few weeks, and I'm using latest firmware. Doing one now with a blasted Sonicwall at the edge (til I replace it with Untangle....new client)....Unifi 48 Gen2 switch, and a half dozen In-Wall-HD APs. Running great except for getting the Sonicwall to do what I need (I'm spoiled and used to Untangle). Have 3x VLANs on it (converged data and VoIP, plus a Guest).

Did another network last week similar to above but with Untangle at the edge, but with a USW Pro and USW-POE switch...some In Walls and a couple of nanoHD ceiling mounts.

 

[VISA MC]

I just did an install with a handful of in-walls and they are all up to date, no problems there. One thing I did notice as i just logged in and looked at that site, is my UAP's seem to be provisioning a lot lately. Like I connected to that residential site with the in-walls and 2 of the AP's were provisioning. Nobody has made any changes to the site, or devices. I wonder if provisioning frequently is booting my clients and it's not actually a UAP issue.

 

[VISA MC]

I actually spun up a Hostifi instance and moved two sites to it and the problem is resolved. I’ll have to do a device count to see which tier I fall into. If it’s their $249 a month plan I will have to rethink the pricing we charge to our customers to include that. Obviously there is an issue with the controller.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The cost of the services an MSP requires to support clients....one of the reasons we now charge a "Core" line item in the monthly invoice.
We have a "Level # Core" plan to match the Level MSP client the client is on (we have 3).
In addition to the "per computer" charge, and "per server" charge.

But I just enjoy the fact that I no longer have to maintain our Unifi controllers (we had 2 spun up instances). Initially at Rackspace, later moved to Linode.

 

[VISA MC]

The cost of the services an MSP requires to support clients....one of the reasons we now charge a "Core" line item in the monthly invoice.
We have a "Level # Core" plan to match the Level MSP client the client is on (we have 3).
In addition to the "per computer" charge, and "per server" charge.

But I just enjoy the fact that I no longer have to maintain our Unifi controllers (we had 2 spun up instances). Initially at Rackspace, later moved to Linode.

We are not MSP. We do contract IT work on an hourly basis for the clients that won’t pay recurring costs. We also install and maintain networks that run our point of sale systems. Currently our Unifi controllers are running on vultr windows server boxes.
I think this is just a case of growing pains. I still see nothing that would cause constant provisioning from the server side.

 

[Markverhyden]

I just did an install with a handful of in-walls and they are all up to date, no problems there. One thing I did notice as i just logged in and looked at that site, is my UAP's seem to be provisioning a lot lately. Like I connected to that residential site with the in-walls and 2 of the AP's were provisioning. Nobody has made any changes to the site, or devices. I wonder if provisioning frequently is booting my clients and it's not actually a UAP issue.

Yes, provisioning takes it offline until it reboots. So that is one possible explanation. Have you tried shelling into the subject AP's to see what the device logs show? And I'm guessing you've rebooted your controller as well?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We are not MSP. We do contract IT work on an hourly basis for the clients that won’t pay recurring costs. We also install and maintain networks that run our point of sale systems. Currently our Unifi controllers are running on vultr windows server boxes.
I think this is just a case of growing pains. I still see nothing that would cause constant provisioning from the server side.

Hmmm....yeah, without MRR I'd not be shelling out a lotta cabbage for hosted services. For 1x offs, I'd just Cloud Key 'em on a Gen2 CK. (or even the revision 2 smaller white CKs...the ones that got the power button on the side...they have been reliable). Then just tie 'em to yer UI account and manage them all through the free portal at unifi.ui.com

I don't recall constant provisioning issues when we ran our self spun up hosts at Linode or RS.....you stuff your Vultr hosts being a virt firewall? What firewall are they behind on the client side?
Putty into an AP and sift through the logs.