[SOLVED] AP kills Internet on Main Router

ctbrown

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Nov 30, 2014
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I have 3 access points hooked up to my main router via an unmanaged switch. The issue is when I reboot one particular access point remotely via a browser it kills the internet on my entire network for a little while, not just on the devices connected to the AP. To be clear, I only loose internet when I reboot the AP via a browser on a PC on the local network by clicking the reboot button and does not happen if I simply reboot by power-cycling or if I unplug the WAN cable on that particular AP.

My setup is as follows: TP-link Archer A7 is my main router connected to my Verizon Fios ONT. The 3 WIFI access points are connected to the A7 via a Trendnet unmanaged switch.

The access point in question is an Asus RT-AC66U_B1 running in AP mode. This does not occur with my other two APs (RT-N12D1 or RT-AC66W, also set to AP mode).
 
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Pretty much the only way that can happen is you have some kind of IP conflict.

Since the AP you reboot is on its own ethernet cable connected to a switch traffic passing between one of your working AP and the router takes a different path. In theory at least no matter what you do with the AP that causes the problems it should not affect the other traffic.

Now if the AP were to use the same IP as the main router while it is rebooting your end devices may send traffic to that AP rather than the main router.

I would hope it does not change its ip address when you just reboot it.

You might be able to tell by using the ARP -a command on a machine and see if the mac address that is mapped to the default gateway IP changes.
 
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ctbrown

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Nov 30, 2014
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All of the APs have a unique static IP that I assigned on the main router. However, after I hit the reboot button, I get a spinning wheel and a message saying applying settings. I don't know why the spinning wheel or the message since I haven't changed any settings. It's during this interval that the internet is down on the entire network, not just on the AP in question.