Hi



I was wondering if anyone can help, I am having a very hard time getting a 903 and 912 working as a Mesh, even with out of box config. I started out with my working setup and, after a few hours of no luck reverted everything back to the below steps. This still is not working, I can only think this is a very odd bug, or one of the devices is simply broken.



Below are the steps and the symptoms:



Hardware

Vigor 912c – Mesh root – Firmware latest – 1.3.5

Vigor 903 – Mesh node – Firmware latest - 1.3.7.1



Setup

Both devices plugged into own VLAN, connected via ethernet to the 192.168.1.0/24 network.



903 – Mesh node

Reset with paperclip, bring up as 192.168.1.2 address. Connect via http, set IP to 192.168.1.3 (for management), mesh setup > change to “mesh node”, set logging to detailed. Save

912c – Mesh root

Reset with paperclip, http to 192.168.1.2. Go through initial wizard, set as mesh root, add a node, 903 is found, name as 903, add to mesh – hangs for a minute or so. The 903 then just becomes “disconnected” from the GUI

If I go to the mesh status, the 903 is listed – but just says it is offline. Syslog shows events between them but ultimately it never initialises.



I have done countless reboots/resets, tried swapping roles, checked the time, prayed – no luck. It just never seems to work.

To say these are the brand-new range, on latest firmware, doing a very simple thing; this seems completely crazy.



Has anyone got any experience on this or any suggestions? I don’t even know if I can send them back as technically, they both works, just not together, it’s driving me crazy

Any help would be much appreciated!

What have you selected as the uplink mode in the configuration? If you have the node connected by cable and choose wireless as the uplink you will create a loop - this knocked out the LAN port on my Zyxel switch until I figured out what was going on....

Thanks

I'm sure I tried this yesterday, I tried it just now - same result.

So this is the root plugged into to a switch, and the node not plugged into anything. The wired uplink box on the node is also unticked,

syslog on node is in the next post:


all seems to go fine then just jams, Any other ideas?

I've not tried a 912C but I had an AP903 root - AP903 nodes working fine. I later decided to re-try my 2926ac as the root with all of the AP903s as the nodes and that works fine now as well. Interestingly however I just looked at the "Mesh - Support List" page on the 2926 GUI :-

It says that the 903 and the 802 are supported by the Vigor router mesh ("Y"), but under 912C it has a big "N".

So something is different about the 912C, but whether or not that is relevant I don't know. Sounds like a ticket to support is needed...

Thanks

Hmmm that's interesting, I will be very unhappy if the 912c is not supported, it certainly says mesh in the marketing blurb: https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigorap-912c#features .

These were well researched and bought as a pair to mitigate issues, I'm not happy to say the least. I usually mess around with Open source stuff (DD-WRT) and alike - it's a get what you pay for situation with that stuff. When you pay best part of £300 you expect it all to just work out of the box!

Any other feedback would be appreciated....

Initially, smc wrote:
Both devices plugged into own VLAN, connected via ethernet to the 192.168.1.0/24 network.

but then he wrote:
So this is the root plugged into to a switch, and the node not plugged into anything. The wired uplink box on the node is also unticked,

syslog on node is in the next post:

So these are two different tests :?: (The Syslog never made it)

Back in January , I spent weeks playing around with my new AP903 and AP802. Like you, I was coming to the conclusion, that "something must be broken"

I had three main (sometimes simultaneous!) issues :

• Pretty lack-lustre performance in Wireless mode (on the AP802). Also, of course, it was totally inaccessible while during config-change induced reboots - making it hard to know quite what (if anything) it was doing. (I didn't pursue wireless mode)


• Trying to use DFS/Radar channels. Every configuration change that required a reboot, sent the AP into a "playing dead" mode - while it listened for Radar interference. Ten minutes is well past my boredom threshold - and when there are no outward signs of life...


• Since I use tagged VLANs, it is important to have the "Management VLAN" defined in "LAN" >> General Setup" and "[ ]Enable Bridge VLAN to Mesh" option enabled, in "Wireless LAN >> General Setup".
  It came as a surprise, to discover that this option was not being transferred from Mesh Root to Mesh Node, by either Mesh >> Basic Config Sync, or Mesh >> Advanced Config. sync. Quite a few other settings weren't transferring either - though this issue seems to get less with each new firmware release...

(That "Enable Bridge VLAN to Mesh" option is interesting. It is mentioned in this Draytek article: https://www.draytek.com/support/knowledge-base/6002 , but did not appear in the manual for the Vigor AP903 that was available at the time. It has since made it to the AP903 manual but not the one currently available for the AP912C. The online emulators for both the 903 & 912C still do not have it, and the current AP912C manual doesn't either. Seems to have been something of an afterthought on Draytek's part!)