Please feel free to move this to the correct forum if I posted incorrectly.
Model: TZ 300 wireless-AC
Firmware Version: SonicOS Enhanced 6.2.5.1-26n
This issue is happening on a brand new sonicwall, at the moment support can not figure out what the issue is so I am hoping maybe someone ran into a similar issue and found a solution or information I might be able to relay to Dell support in order to isolate the point of failure.
This is a small retail shop with about 6 employees, 3 desktops, 1 printer, 5 tablets. Not many devices, but they all have experienced the issue. Macs, Windows, iOS devices, etc.
We only have one sonicwall and 1 normal switch with about 4 devices plugged in. Wired devices do not appear to be having the same connection issues as the wireless devices.
Issue:
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You log on the wireless, able to browse the internet no problem. You are also able to ping the gateway and an external address with no issue.
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Then all of a sudden out of no where your pings drop, and not only can you no longer access any devices on the network but you also can not ping the sonicwall gateway.
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Note, this does not affect every client at the same time. It’s intermittent, but happens enough for me to get angry emails and phone calls.
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The wireless device client you are on, STILL says you ARE connected to the wifi, even though you lost communication and can not ping the gateway. Your device does NOT show you as losing wifi connectivity. At this point though, even though your device says you are still connected to the sonicwall wifi, the wireless status page does not show your devices as associated.
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Release/Renew IP does not work either, meaning it fails at obtaining an IP address while this issue is occurring.
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Disconnect from Wifi and reconnect and the issue automatically resolves itself .
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Sometimes the issue comes back within 5 minutes, sometimes an hour, or sometimes the next day.
General:
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Even tried booting the sonicwall into safemode, then boot with factory defaults. This did not resolve the issue.
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One weird quirk I noticed when troubleshooting. Whenever I opened inSSIDer and it started scanning, I was able to instantly replicate the issue.
Within 10 seconds of opening inSSIDer, the issue occurs where I lose network communications but my laptop still says I am connected to the Wifi network. If I leave the program running, and disconnect from the wifi and reconnect then all pings work for about 5-10 pings and then everything times out again.
At first I thought it was a bug with inSSIDer or my laptop. However I tested this at 3 other non-sonicwall AP’s and I have no such issue. The issue only occurs when I am connected to the Sonicwall.
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Our configuration is very simple. Boot up to factory configs, run wireless wizard, make wlan trusted so it can communicate with other wireless devices. We have a small network with a simple config.
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Employee laptops/devices only have this issue at the store and not when connected to any other AP.
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This sonicwall replaced a $200 asus wireless router which never had the wireless issues we have been experiencing with the sonicwall. The asus was at the location for over 2 years with no issue. Unfortunately the asus lacked certain features we needed such as wan failover and vpn. However we purchased the wlan sonicwall to use it, not to have to attach an asus AP to it.
Update:
So, looks like I need a replacement solution. Dell is indicating my interfaces are the issue, even though I never had issues with a cheap asus home AP or any other AP i have used over the years. This is my first ever sonicwall device, and the first AP my devices are having issues with. I know for a fact that the Sonicwall is the issue as I can not replicate the issue with anything else.
Any ideas for a solution would be great. I only need something that provides wifi connectivity in a 1 floor retail store about 2,500 square feet. We are adding new POS devices in a few weeks, and I just want to have a stable long term solution and would preferably like to have at least 2 SSID’s (One for employees and one for guests).
Thank you in advance!