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Two odd issues I can't figure out

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IronRod

New Around Here
I can't figure out what else to do troubleshoot these issues. What would you recommend trying? (Description of the network layout is at bottom.)

On more than one occasion, I've had two separate issues both related to wireless connections that are manifested by our phones. With both issues, a test at my desktop (connected via Ethernet to AP2) shows that there is full internet availability with nominal speeds.
  1. Our phones, though showing connected to the network via WiFi, report that we've lost internet connection.
    • I can turn off WiFi on a phone, move next to a different access point or to the router, turn on WiFI and reconnect, and show the same result. So, the phenomenon affects WiFi throughout the network and isn't likely a failure of the radios as it would have to be all three devices failing at the same time.
    • WiFi radio strength is consistent with that shown during normal operation.
  2. On our phones, two specific apps (and always these two, unrelated apps, both at the same time) indicate they cannot access their server despite all other apps doing so successfully.
    • The two specific apps -- "Wunderground" weather app and "Remember the Milk" task manager -- fail to access their servers, either taking an excessively long time or failing to connect at all.
    • If I turn off WiFi, and go to only cellular data, I can access both of these apps without problem. That seems to eliminate any question about the sites/apps, themselves, and seems to point to something maybe related to routing?
    • The phones show that internet is connected and general internet access appears fine; e.g., a web browser can successfully to go to any number of sites, including browsing to the related web apps for the two phone apps.
    • I can successfully ping the base domains (wunderground.com and rememberthemilk.com) of the two apps and confirm no missing packets with reasonable ping times.
    • All other apps sync fine during this event; e.g., Microsoft OneNote, ProtonMail mail app, RideWithGPS routing app, banking apps, etc., etc.
I have 35+ years of experience writing software and building systems. I have a decent understanding of networking in general and have managed my own home network for 25+ years. But I've tried everything I can think of to figure out what is causing this. These come and then go away after a few days or so. Most of the time, everything just works fine.

My home internet connection is via fiber rated 100Mbps which typically tests at 95+Mbps. From the gateway, there is CAT5 connected to a TP Link Archer C7 configured as a router in my shop. I have CAT5 cable from the shop to the house and to several rooms in the house. I have two other TP Link Archer C7 connected to the router via CAT5 and configured as access points. The router and two AP are configured identically regarding wireless; e.g., same SSIDs, etc. This combination gives me full coverage throughout my shop and my home. Our phones are both Samsung Android devices.

Thanks in advance.
 
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i have the same randomly occurring issue with wunderground in Firefox browser. It seems their servers get too busy and take an extended time to respond to a page refresh. Every other site has no issue. If i use another browser, same issue.

Don't know about the other site.
 
Our phones are both Samsung Android devices.

There was an issue with Samsung on Android 10 where they would think they've hit a captive portal and fail on the connectivity test...

They normally do an https connection request to connectivitycheck.gstatic.com, and are looking for an IP and a http response...
 
@degrub Thanks for that. For issue #2 (where the Wunderground/RTM can't connect), as noted in the original post, I can actually browse (via Brave) to either of the Wunderground/RTM web apps and connect fine. It is only via the mobile apps that I have issues.
 
UPDATE: Issue #2 was still occurring as of this morning when I checked about 8:30am. Now, an hour later, it is no longer occurring; everything seems fine. This instance ran for about three days.
 
UPDATE: I finally (I think) fixed this issue. I ended up replacing the router and I have not had the issue since. However , since this was an infrequent and irregular occurrence, I'm not totally convinced that putting in a new router didn't simply "make things work" for a while; i.e., that it was really a defect with the old router. I remain hopeful that this does resolve the issue.

I had it happen again several times over the last few months and I compiled a list of seven apps that would consistently not work whenever this event happened. All other apps would work fine; it was only this list of apps. When this behavior occurred again, I found that I could reboot the router and it would clear it up for a while. But it got to the point where I was rebooting every morning and eventually a couple times a day. When this behavior occurred, I could connect my laptop, make it a hotspot, and the apps would all work fine. This seems really weird to me because the laptop was connecting through the router just like the APs. And it doesn't seem it would be the WiFi radio of the router since I was connecting to the radios on one of the APs. So, why would it work with the laptop? Just weird.

So, I finally decided to try a new router. It has now been in almost a week with no instance of this behavior occurring. Whether it was really an issue with the old router or just putting "new blood" in the system by adding a new router, it seems to have stopped this behavior.

UPDATE 5/25/23: Almost two months and it still has not occurred.
 
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Years ago, I ran a TP-Link router and found issues over time. I felt like their programing was Swiss cheese with lots of holes and they never seemed to fix the software, I wouldn't run TP-Link again.
 
Years ago, I ran a TP-Link router and found issues over time. I felt like their programing was Swiss cheese with lots of holes and they never seemed to fix the software, I wouldn't run TP-Link again.
I've been using TP-Link for many years with multiple devices and this is the first issue I've encountered. But, I don't discount your experience. I may have just been lucky. Or, it might have been the particular devices. Who knows? Cheers.
 
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