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DougHog's avatar
DougHog
Aspirant
Apr 26, 2021

WAC564 client isolation fails after power-cycle

I've been struggling since the mid-March firmware update (V9.3.0.5) which I had started to describe a month ago by adding onto someone else's post (Guest network can't access internet when client isolation is enabled).

 

I've finally isolated the issue and hope to get attention of Netgear firmware team here (since I am past my 30-day return and past my 90-day support but still within warranty period for my three WAC564 which are part of my church network. My use is web-mode (local), no idea whether Insight mode has similar problem or whether problem gets masked by architecture of Insight.

 

The bug is that if WAC564 (web-mode/local) running latest V9.3.0.5 firmware has an SSID with Client Isolation enabled and the WAC564 is power-cycled (such as during thunderstorm power outage), that SSID will no longer allow proper connection afterward (it gets a DHCP address but internet fails such as tracert 8.8.8.8).  If you make any configuration change then it will work again until next power-cycle.  If you use previous firmware (V9.2.0.6), then Client Isolated SSID will remain fine through power-cycle.  Regular SSID (without Client Isolation) does not have this power-cycle issue.  Presumed variation of same bug is that if you have working Client Isolated SSID on previous firmware and update firmware to V9.3.0.5 then that SSID won't allow proper connections after the firmware upgrade (until you go in and edit some setting, which is the first thing I noticed/reported in that earlier mentioned thread).

 

Is there anything else I need to say for this to get attention?  It has been a frustrating month, trying so many things that end up being irrelevant, to isolate it to this most simple situation.  I built a mini-lab in my living room with BR200, GC110, WAC564, WAX610, wired and wireless client, etc. (I'm about to use that "lab" to verify that a guest VLAN works without problems, which I was trying during this same frustrating month.)

 

Another "bug" or Caveat: when in the Zero Day UI where there is the selection for Country/Region, it doesn't initially work (the dropdown is blank) and if you proceed fill in some of the later Zero Day settings and aren't paying attention, they will be overwritten a little while later when somehow the UI catches up to finally have Country/Region choice.  While trying reproduction scenarios I would often Restore Defaults and end up at the Zero Day UI, so I learned to select my Timezone (Eastern) and then just sit there waiting for around a minute for the UI to overwrite my selection (with Pacific) and then I knew it was okay to proceed to later items on that page (password, etc).

4 Replies

  • RaghuHR's avatar
    RaghuHR
    NETGEAR Expert

    Hi DougHog 

     

    Thanks for reaching us. First issue on client isolation is a known issue. We are fixing in our next release. Please stay tuned.

     

    Regarding day zero UI selection we will check and update.

     

    Thanks,

    Raghu

    • RaghuHR's avatar
      RaghuHR
      NETGEAR Expert

      Hi DougHog 

       

      Are you seeing the day zero issue on Chrome browser? Did you checked with any other broswer?

      • DougHog's avatar
        DougHog
        Aspirant

        In my "lab" where I was trying to reproduce the problem to document for Netgear, I was using everything at defaults.  Browser was Edge from cleanly installed/updated Windows 10.  Edge is Chromium-based, which some people would call Chrome.

         

        Now that I've reported the client isolated SSID fails after power-cycle bug and it is acknowledged, if you want I can use my "lab" to reproduce with another browser if you want.

         

        Although it could be browser, My guess is that it is a *timing* isssue, in other words trying to use the UI as fast as possible after booting (rather than booting and then getting a cup of coffee or being distracted and then come back to it later).  Some Netgear products seem to have processes going on in the background or something (radio vs main processor?) very shortly after booting where they present a UI which isn't quite working, but then a short while later the background process presumably finishes and then the UI becomes more complete.