WAC540 connected to unmanaged switch connected to Sky Q Hub/Router

[module12]

Hi,

I have this setup:

Sky Q Hub (with all WiFi features turned off)

TP-Link Unmanaged 8 port switch with 4 ports PoE+ (ports 1-4)

My non-PoE devices connected to ports 5-8 on the TP-Link, including the uplink to the Sky Q Hub

a NETGEAR WAC540 connected to port 1 on the TP-Link, getting power via PoE+

The WAC540, when connected, is causing the Sky Q Hub to block the TP-Link switch completely causing complete loss of internet. Local to local device access is fine. When I unplug the WAC540, everything comes back to life on the Sky Q Hub/Router.

Has anyone experienced something similar? It screams like an STP issue, but I'm not sure what the WAC540 is doing to cause the Sky Q Hub/Router to shutdown its ethernet ports.

I'm on the very latest firmware now, however it's been happening since install 2 days ago at which point it was on a previous firmware.

[module12]

PS: I have 2 WAC540 actually, with the 2nd one connected via WDS Bridge on the 5GHz High band to connect 2 building. The 2nd one does not have a direct cabled connection to the switch where the first one is.

[plemans]

What tp-link poe switch is it?
what happens if you power the WAC540 of a power supply and not from poe? 

[module12]

It's the TP-SG1008P v4 (which has PoE+). Haven't tried power supply as the WAC540 doesn't come with one and didn't think it would be necessary.

[plemans]

Was think of it for just testing. It wouldn't be the first POE switch that wasn't supplying full power.

Also make sure to have the poe suppying port 1 on the WAC. 

The power supply is a 12VDC 2.5A power supply. You might have one sitting around from an old router (or even current one) for testing. 

[module12]

Yep, Port 1 on both WACs is used (port 2 is unused). Port 1 on the PoE switch as well. According to the specs, the TP-Link provides 30W per port, max 64W. I have no other PoE devices plugged in so cause an overflow, and even it I did it would surely just shut down power knocking the WAC540 off, not make the Sky router go into panic mode and basically brick all ethernet ports!

[module12]

Also, I went from a PoE switch to PoE+. On the PoE, the WAC540 complained that it wasn't getting enough so the 5GHz High band was completely disabled. Now that is fixed and it's not complaining anymore, that suggests its happy with its power input.

[module12]

Is it usual to see a (what I think are) high number of Proxy ARP and Dropped ARP packets?

[schumaku]

Confusing... 

If it should be STP (which can be disabled on the WAC540 - permitting there is no intended or unintended loop with the WDS-bridge in place) only the connecting port on the switch or the router would be operationally disabled. 

And certainly not "all" - respectively prohibiting any Internet access only - while keeping the local connections magically up. Or is the local connection still working bound to the unmanaged switch, only?

[module12]

As a side note, even though I have set the 5GHz High band (dedicated) to be used for the WDS Bridge, I can see that client devices are connecting to it (under Monitoring -> Connected Clients). The bridge is on a different SSID, so not sure how this working.

[plemans]

---

@module12 wrote:

Also, I went from a PoE switch to PoE+. On the PoE, the WAC540 complained that it wasn't getting enough so the 5GHz High band was completely disabled. Now that is fixed and it's not complaining anymore, that suggests its happy with its power input.

---

So with the old switch, everything worked fine (besides the wac540's 3rd band)?

[module12]

Sorry, by "local to local" I mean through the unmanaged switched only.

With WAC540 plugged in to port 1, a PC plugged into to port 5, a NAS plugged into port 6, and the uplink to the Sky router in port 8, from the PC plugged in to port 5 I can still ping/access the NAS and the WAC540 just fine on ports 5 and 6, but not the Sky router on port 8.

On the PC I get the globe icon appear in the notification area indicating www is not working. But everything else on the LAN is reachable. Within seconds of unplugging the WAC540, the globe returns to the normal connected icon and www is back.

So this tells me either the unmanaged switch is detecting something and shutting down port 8 (unlikely being unmanaged), or (more likely) the Sky router is detecting something and shutting down all its ports (I've tried them all!), blocking ANYTHING connected to it via the unmanaged switch. Only thing I haven't tried is having the PC plugged straight in to the Sky Q Hub/Router's own ports.

And no, the same problem existed on the previous switch (with additionally 5GHz High band not usable).

There's loads of messages on Sky's forums with similar issues with the Sky Q Hub/Router and things like Philips Hue, Sonos etc.

[module12]

PS: STP is disabled by default on the WAC540. I tried enabling it with no difference... I think because I'm sure I tried it.

I've reverted to my older Sky (non-Q) Router for now and things seem better at the moment.