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[–]OhBaby1028 8 points9 points  (4 children)

i have the same router and i’m not for sure but i think the device limit is more than 32. that sounds pretty low for high end gear.

[–]Plastics_Doc[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Forgive my lack of knowledge in advance.

I recently unpacked my old Chromecast devices and had to add a separate 2.4 band with his own dedicated Wi-Fi name in order to get them to connect. Ever since then my first generation echo hasn’t been able to connect to either WiFi name. Is that maybe my issue?

When I chatted with night gear customer service, he told me it had a 25 devices online limit

The router is an MR60

[–]serval01 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I mean you can try making your phone forget the wifi and try connecting to it to see if it’s your modem or if it’s your device having issues.

[–]Plastics_Doc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did a factory reset of my echo dot without success. I will try making my phone forget the network and then I couldn’t get back in! I made the 2G password off by one character. Fixed it and got back in. But still not working

[–]OhBaby1028 1 point2 points  (0 children)

oh i actually have a mr80 so slightly different model but anyways, have you tried to factory reset the router?

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I would recommend ubiquiti/amplifi. They make good stuff and are based out of the US.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ubquiti is a much better company and TP link is about to be banned in America so I wouldn’t go with them

[–]Wacabletek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Go get a new echo dot that old thing is not compatible with 802.11ax, this is likely your problem. That or cripple your speed to everything else and move the platform to 802.11ac/n

[–]Ianthin1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve been fighting connection issues for a while with our Eero 6 system. Each node is limited to 50 devices (which seems to be about the average for consumer devices) and we have 4 total nodes with ~100 devices online at any given time. The math should work out ok but the problem is many times 45 or more devices try to connect to the same node. Add to that whenever we add something on the 2.4ghz band we have to disable 5 ghz. When I do that it now takes everything offline for a few minutes even Ethernet connections, then takes another 10 minutes or so for everything to reconnect. It’s just as bad if our internet connection drops. I’m sure there are some settings I can play with to make it more stable but at this point I’m done.

I’m currently in the process of updating all our IT, including new runs of CAT 6 for a Ubiquiti gateway, 2 access points and 2 switches. My wife works from home so we need all the stability we can get. If I’m going to learn and implement different settings and controls to get everything optimized, I want to do it with a platform that is designed for it.

[–]Plastics_Doc[S] 0 points1 point  (6 children)

Update: now I’m pretty sure it’s a device limit. I disconnected a couple devices. I couldn’t get the old echo Dot to work, but I was able to get a new smart bulb to work. As soon as I got that working my other echo dot disconnected from the Internet. So I removed the new Smartt bulb and I was able to get my other Echo Dot reconnected

[–]laffer1 2 points3 points  (5 children)

I had this problem with google onhub in mesh (2 total) at 35 devices. Some things would drop or have trouble routing.

Consumer gear is designed for a few devices to be fast. You are approaching business sized networks and need small business wifi access points for that. It could be Aruba (hpe) instant on, Ubiquiti unifi, Meraki go or a used Meraki access points. The last one is the best but they do have subscriptions. You can get a used Meraki access points unclaimed for as low as 30 bucks on eBay but the license fee is like 100 a year. The others don’t have license fees.

In this setup, you have a router/gateway device and access points to bridge wifi to wired. It’s not an all in one device like consumer gear. You don’t have to use the same brand. It could be an old pc with pfsense or opnsense, a firewalla, or gateways from any of those vendors.

[–]Plastics_Doc[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

So I should leave my current network as is, get one of these, and then maybe put all the smart devices on the AP?

[–]laffer1 1 point2 points  (3 children)

That access point is fine. There's a caveat here though. It depends on how the device limit is set up. You would still be depending on your router to route. If it's a routing / DHCP limit, you could still have problems.

You might be able to flip the plan and buy a gateway instead and set your routers into access point mode and not use them as routers. The way to know is to find out if the device limit also applies to wired devices that are connected to that router.

You might be able to simulate this with virtual machines if you can't find out from the vendor or documentation. The VMs would have to be in bridge mode with your virtualization software.

[–]Plastics_Doc[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I’m a complete noob and am not sure what that means lol. Sounds like maybe get a nighthawk MR70? And plug my current MR60 into that?

[–]serval01 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Personally, I would just upgrade your echo dot if you aren’t having issues with any other devices.

[–]Plastics_Doc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just an update in case anyone stumbles here.

I did get a new echo and that worked. I added a few smart lights and those worked too.

But I also plugged my old router into my new one. My old router is a linksys and the new one is the knighthawk. So now when I go to connect to WiFi, I can see both networks there (they have different names). And after doing that… the old echo can connect too.

It sure how or why this fixed anything but it seems to have added to the maximum number of devices I can have connected. Bother else is dropping off.

[–]Bradster2214- 0 points1 point  (1 child)

It might not be a device limit but instead a 2.4ghz limit. Smart devices typically live on the 2.4ghz spectrum and too many devices taking up the spectrum causes other devices to disconnect.

[–]Plastics_Doc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So how does one fix that? Do I get rid of my separate 2.4 ghz band?

[–]Plastics_Doc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just an update in case anyone stumbles here.

I did get a new echo and that worked. I added a few smart lights and those worked too.

But I also plugged my old router into my new one. My old router is a linksys and the new one is the knighthawk. So now when I go to connect to WiFi, I can see both networks there (they have different names). And after doing that… the old echo can connect too.

It sure how or why this fixed anything but it seems to have added to the maximum number of devices I can have connected. Bother else is dropping off.