Nighthawk C7000V2 Connection issues

[kcdubya]

I have a Nighthawk C7000V2.  Periodically and seemingly randomly one of my wi-fi devices cannot connect. It may be a different device each time.  When I have seen this problem occur I have 32+ devices connected split across the 2 bands.  Most devices are on the 5G band, and there are typically 25 or 26 devices on that band.

My understanding is that I can have up to 32 wi-fi devices on each band, so it does not appear that I am hitting the 32 connections per band limit. Is there some other limit that could be causing this? 

Rebooting the wi-fi device does not fix the problem, but rebooting the C7000V2 does.  However, I assume that is because the previously blocked wi-fi device is connecting after the reboot before some other device was able to reconnect.

Note, in the interest of full disclosure, I also have 2 EX8000 Mesh Extenders that are part of the network. However, I am sure that the blocked w-fi device is trying to connect directly to the C7000V2 because I brought the device right next to the C7000V2 and rebooted it. Therefore, I wouldn't think the EX8000s are a factor.

Any thoughts on what may be causing the problem?  What else should I look at?

[plemans]

whenever there's multiple access points involved, its usually better to simplify the network.

try shutting off the 2x ex8000's and see if the issue still crops up. 

What firmware is on the ex8000's?

How long has the issue been going on?

Have you noticed if its releated to what band you're connecting to?

[kcdubya]

Thanks for the input.  Just getting back to this.

Firmware:

• C7000V2 1.02.09
• EX8000   1.0.1.232

The issue has been occurring for several months which is as long as I had the configuration set up.  The C7000V2 is an old modem/router, but a new device to this environment.  I previously had a different router/modem with the EX8000s, which was a rental from the ISP, and had no issues like this when using it.

I have one common SSID for both bands so its a little hard to tell which band the device is trying to connect to, but from doing some analysis I think I have seen it occur with both bands.  I have now enabled the guest network with separate SSID's for each band so that it is easy to selectively pick a band.

It would be great if you confirm that my understanding of the limit on connected devices is correct.  That is the limit is 32 devices per band. I assume that the limit is a combined limit for the primary network and the guest network.  Is that correct?  

With regards to shutting off the EX8000's, while on the surface that would seem like a straight-forward test, unfortunately shutting off the EX8000s for a long period is not possible as I have several devices which are too far away to connect to the router and rely on the mesh adapter for connectivity.  If I shut off the EX8000 adapters those devices will not have connectivity and it will also reduces the number of devices on the network by several devices and alll indicatations are that is related to the problem.

Any additional input you or others have would be much appreciated.  I'm thinking I should get a modem/router that supports more connections, but I would prefer to know root cause before for going down that path.

Thanks.

Ken

[plemans]

the 32 device limit is per band and device. So between the c7000 and the ex8000's, you should have plenty of capacity. 

Its tough when you have multiple components to confirm which is causing the issue.