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wifi-to-wifi connectivity issue

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eldereko

New Around Here
I'm having an issue with connectivity between wifi clients, for example ssh from MacBook to raspberry pi wifi or airplay from iPhone to smart TV only works about 50% of the time. retrying to connect to the same device eventually works after many attempts, and not specific to any individual devices. wired to wifi or vice-versa work perfectly, and tunneling through a wired connection using: wifi ssh -> wired ssh -> wifi device works perfectly. I have an Asus AC86U running Merlin firmware. Any suggestions on what the issue might be or where to start looking?
 
do a wifi survey and figure out what other neighbors or devices are interfering on the radio bands being used. Then if there are open bands with less usage, shift the radios to use only those bands and use narrow bands, particularly on 2.4 GHz.
 
I tried switching to multiple unused channels, and still have the same issue. I'm not sure what you mean by narrow bands?

Also, if it was a channel interference issue wouldn't the lan to wifi connections as I mentioned not work also?
 
Use 20 MHz bands on 2.4 GHz.
Grab one of the free versions of wifi survey software.
A very basic one i have used is apple’s Airport utility. There are better and more graphic available.

i am not sure what you are meaning when you write - wired to wifi.
Any wireless communication takes two wireless devices.
Are you meaning a wired device through the router to the router AP to a wireless only client and vice versa ?

is the only time there is an issue, is when you try to communicate wireless client to wireless client directly - like a laptop wireless to laptop wireless ?
I thought it always had to be between a device serving as an AP and the other as a Client ?
 
Some routers specifically block wireless client-to-client connections for security reasons. I can't remember whether this is the default for ASUS.

Look in the Advanced/professional Wi-Fi settings to see if there is a setting for this.

To make sure it's not an SSH issue, can you ping between the devices in both directions?
 
Some routers specifically block wireless client-to-client connections for security reasons. I can't remember whether this is the default for ASUS.

Look in the Advanced/professional Wi-Fi settings to see if there is a setting for this.

To make sure it's not an SSH issue, can you ping between the devices in both directions?

its not being explicitly blocked bc it works intermittently. and also not just happening with ssh connections, ping works intermittently too.
 
Use 20 MHz bands on 2.4 GHz.
Grab one of the free versions of wifi survey software.
A very basic one i have used is apple’s Airport utility. There are better and more graphic available.

i used the Mac wireless diagnostics which suggests the best 2.4/5 channels to use, and verified with the survey tool in asus config. also tried multiple different channels.
sidenote, this lowered my wifi speed to about half, but that may be completely unrelated and random issue. speeds went back to normal when i set asus channels to "auto".

i am not sure what you are meaning when you write - wired to wifi.
Any wireless communication takes two wireless devices.
Are you meaning a wired device through the router to the router AP to a wireless only client and vice versa ?

yes that exactly, a wired device to router/ap to wifi device. example (desktop wired, laptop wifi)...
Code:
desktop$ ssh laptop
doesnt work more than half the time
Code:
desktop$ ssh laptop -J router
or through any wired device connected to router/switch, works 100%, and vice-versa
in other words, only wired -> wifi can connect reliably

is the only time there is an issue, is when you try to communicate wireless client to wireless client directly - like a laptop wireless to laptop wireless ?
I thought it always had to be between a device serving as an AP and the other as a Client ?

sorry for the misunderstanding, not direct wifi to wifi. everything goes through router/AP. wifi -> router -> wifi is what i meant.
 
Did the survey identify any other APs and their signal strength (-dB) ?
If so, any close to the strength and on adjacent 2 channels on either side ?

if this is an Asus specific issue, you may get more advice in that sub forum.
 

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