Apex A3 Wifi issues

Sparkss · Aug 19, 2022

Anyone else have Wifi issues with their new A3? The wireless support is horrible. It would connect to the AP, but would never route correctly after that. I used an old TP Link range extender to connect via Wifi to the LAN port, using the same AP that the Apex would not stay connected to. I even pulled out a spare AP and fired it up to see if it was a compatibility issue, but that did not work either. I also turned on the Wifi on our ISP provided router, that also still did not work. So the one common denominator is the Apex.

All APs are broadcasting 2.4 and are relatively new, the primary one being less than 2 years old. The Apex still reports good signal strength, but will not connect to Fusion or pull up the local web page when trying to use Wifi. It is an A3 Apex (non-pro). I also have upgraded to the latest firmware.

Does anyone know the command to pull the ip configuration and/or routing info (ARP table) via telnet from the A3? I would like to see what IP it is talking on, the one from the LAN port or if any traffic at all is going out on the Wifi connection (including the IP address for the Wifi). Fusion is mis-reporting all of that currently, claiming the LAN IP (supplied by the TP Link wireless extender) is the Wifi IP. So it is all screwed up.

ZombieEngineer · Aug 19, 2022

There is no need to use telnet to do this. After you get it to route once, change to static and change the last octet.

Sparkss · Aug 19, 2022

ZombieEngineer said:
There is no need to use telnet to do this. After you get it to route once, change to static and change the last octet.

I think that you may misunderstand my objective. I know what IP the LAN port is talking on, I need to find out what IP (last octet) the Wifi is (trying to?) talk on. I do not see any MAC addresses that I don't recognize in my managed switch's bindings logs, so I suspect that it is just not 'fully' connecting to the AP (any AP).

I want to stop using the LAN port and use the built-in Wifi, but that seems like it is not going to happen with this unit. I have since learned that I am not the only one to encounter this issue with a new A3.

EDIT: Ahhh, it is been a long day, I get what you are saying now. Disable DHCP and manually assign an IP (outside of the defined DHCP pool). Thanks.

Married_to_fish · Aug 21, 2022

did that work? I am also having issues.

This is my first Apex. I bought 2 pros and spent over $5k on the total system. I sort of expected it to "just work" at this price

Sparkss · Aug 21, 2022

Married_to_fish said:
did that work? I am also having issues.

This is my first Apex. I bought 2 pros and spent over $5k on the total system. I sort of expected it to "just work" at this price

No, that did not work for me. I am still slogging through it with Neptune Support.

With so many that are cropping up with this issue I have to believe that they know about it, at least by now they should, and support actions should be a lot smoother than they are now. I just received notification that I need to schedule a session with support to "screen share". They seem to think that will give them more access to resolve it. But I also had to argue a little with them as they kept saying "but we don't see any disconnects in Fusion and your Wifi signal strength is weak" (it was 65% as it was in another room from that particular AP, I since moved it to try to connect to the AP in that room, so it is now 100%, not that the A3 can use Wifi at all). I told them that I already documented in my support ticket that I had connected the A3 using the LAN port since Wifi would not work, that was why it was connected to Fusion at all.

EDIT: To be honest this also makes me question Neptune quality control overall. After this Wifi issue is resolved/replaced, what will fail on these tomorrow? Or in 6 months? I also spent a lot of money on a system with several modules including a Trident. Really questioning my decision right now.

Sparkss · Aug 23, 2022

I just had my support session with Neptune. I literally changed nothing, just unplugged the LAN cable and rebooted (which I had done a couple of times already during my testing) and it started working. I am connected now via Wifi, so I am watching to see if I get any Fusion disconnects (that cannot otherwise be explained). The one thing that occurs to me is that after trying everything to get the A3 to connect I Disabled Wifi, since the UI was reporting what appeared to be a combined IP stack configuration from both the LAN and Wifi connections. Then today on the call with Neptune I re-enabled Wifi then unplugged the LAN port and rebooted. Possibly Disabling and Enabling the Wifi did something to reset the wireless connection? (but more so than the past reboots?). Either way I am back up now running on the original hardware.

They did share with me that in their experience anything below 80% Wifi signal strength has resulted in significant enough packet loss. One of the APs that I had tried to connect to was reporting a 69% signal strength by the Apex, but the one it is running on now has 100% strength (it is in the same room as the tank/controller). I had tried the current, closer AP before, in fact that was what was already configured when I rebooted the A3 this last time, so I am not sure what is different for it to start working, but it is.

sergifed91 · Aug 23, 2022

Is there any issues with mesh networks? That's what's holding me back from upgrading.

Sparkss · Aug 24, 2022

sergifed91 said:
Is there any issues with mesh networks? That's what's holding me back from upgrading.

Mesh networks should not matter to an Apex, unless you move the controller around from one tank/room to another.

sergifed91 · Aug 24, 2022

Sparkss said:
Mesh networks should not matter to an Apex, unless you move the controller around from one tank/room to another.

I contacted brs by phone today. They told me that it won't work on mesh networks..

Sparkss · Aug 24, 2022

sergifed91 said:
I contacted brs by phone today. They told me that it won't work on mesh networks..

Interesting. Good to know. Sounds like I need to read up on the 802.xx specs for a mesh network that make it incompatible. Thanks for sharing.

sergifed91 · Aug 24, 2022

Sparkss said:
Interesting. Good to know. Sounds like I need to read up on the 802.xx specs for a mesh network that make it incompatible. Thanks for sharing.

i think I have a work around. my playstation wouldn't work on the mesh wifi. so i went out and got a wireless router with 2.5 and 5 ghz speeds. never had a problem again with that. I also spoke with a hydra rep about there controller not working with mesh networks since mines at 5ghz. he advised getting a router and try that. so thats where i got the idea for the play station to resolve that issue. so im thinking that will also work with the new apex jr. also the brs rep also stated to me that anything under 85 percent for the wifi on the apex jr will cause it to lose connection to the network and then you will have to unplug it from the power and plug it back in to get it to reconnect. which is another turn off on that. if they made it so you can wire a cat 6 or cat 5 to it then i would consider it,

trmiv · Aug 24, 2022

sergifed91 said:
I contacted brs by phone today. They told me that it won't work on mesh networks..

Not true. I use an Apex El A2 and an Apex A3 on an Eero mesh network. Absolutely zero issues and never have disconnection problems.

ZombieEngineer · Aug 24, 2022

What can sometimes confuse people about apex not working on mesh wifi has nothing to do with it being a mesh network.

Some routers are dumb and try to force the apex to use a 5GHz signal when it's only compatible with 2.4GHz. Most of the time you just need to adjust a setting in the router to either seperate the signals to WiFi 2.4 and Wi-Fi 5, sometimes a compatibility setting needs to be checked, sometimes enable 5G 2.4G coexistence needs to be disabled. Varies by router.

As long as the WiFi is 2.4 GHz and signal strength at least 3 bars (4 or 5 is more stable) it will work fine

Sparkss · Aug 25, 2022

ZombieEngineer said:
What can sometimes confuse people about apex not working on mesh wifi has nothing to do with it being a mesh network.

Some routers are dumb and try to force the apex to use a 5GHz signal when it's only compatible with 2.4GHz. Most of the time you just need to adjust a setting in the router to either seperate the signals to WiFi 2.4 and Wi-Fi 5, sometimes a compatibility setting needs to be checked, sometimes enable 5G 2.4G coexistence needs to be disabled. Varies by router.

As long as the WiFi is 2.4 GHz and signal strength at least 3 bars (4 or 5 is more stable) it will work fine

Right, and he did state that his was set to 5GHz, a comment which I took to mean that his mesh only supported 5G signals. Apex of course only supports 2.4. So I had the same thought as you.

rtparty · Aug 25, 2022

Not a single issue with my new A3 Pro thankfully. I've also got multiple pieces that are 7 years old and no issues.

chinkle · Oct 19, 2022

Sparkss said:
Anyone else have Wifi issues with their new A3? The wireless support is horrible. It would connect to the AP, but would never route correctly after that. I used an old TP Link range extender to connect via Wifi to the LAN port, using the same AP that the Apex would not stay connected to. I even pulled out a spare AP and fired it up to see if it was a compatibility issue, but that did not work either. I also turned on the Wifi on our ISP provided router, that also still did not work. So the one common denominator is the Apex.

All APs are broadcasting 2.4 and are relatively new, the primary one being less than 2 years old. The Apex still reports good signal strength, but will not connect to Fusion or pull up the local web page when trying to use Wifi. It is an A3 Apex (non-pro). I also have upgraded to the latest firmware.

Does anyone know the command to pull the ip configuration and/or routing info (ARP table) via telnet from the A3? I would like to see what IP it is talking on, the one from the LAN port or if any traffic at all is going out on the Wifi connection (including the IP address for the Wifi). Fusion is mis-reporting all of that currently, claiming the LAN IP (supplied by the TP Link wireless extender) is the Wifi IP. So it is all screwed up.

chinkle · Oct 19, 2022

I had over 300 disconnects over a 24 hour period! A little ticked off. Sent in a ticket and it's been over 24 hours and no response. My question is can Neptune fix the issue? I am not a network expert but smarter than the average ape but absolutely can't seem to get it done on my own. I ran the diagnosis indicates system is corrupt but went on to say Neptune tech can likely fix? First time user and not a good experience. Was expecting much more for the price I paid. Guess I will go reboot my router for the 10th time and see if I get a result even though that is insane.

Sparkss · Oct 20, 2022

chinkle said:
I had over 300 disconnects over a 24 hour period! A little ticked off. Sent in a ticket and it's been over 24 hours and no response. My question is can Neptune fix the issue? I am not a network expert but smarter than the average ape but absolutely can't seem to get it done on my own. I ran the diagnosis indicates system is corrupt but went on to say Neptune tech can likely fix? First time user and not a good experience. Was expecting much more for the price I paid. Guess I will go reboot my router for the 10th time and see if I get a result even though that is insane.

They were able to fix my issue, although I do not know what they did. I left it on and connected via LAN for a couple of days, with Neptune Support access enabled, while waiting for the scheduled call to work through the issue. When the tech called me and we started working through it everything just started working. I work in IT as a senior systems engineer, having started in operations support, so I understand about support calls, but I feel like either some update or other change was pushed to our Apex prior to the service call and that is what resolved our issue.

Short version, and to answer your specific question, yes, there is a good likelihood that Neptune Support will be able to 'fix' your issue.

chinkle · Nov 4, 2022

Sparkss said:
They were able to fix my issue, although I do not know what they did. I left it on and connected via LAN for a couple of days, with Neptune Support access enabled, while waiting for the scheduled call to work through the issue. When the tech called me and we started working through it everything just started working. I work in IT as a senior systems engineer, having started in operations support, so I understand about support calls, but I feel like either some update or other change was pushed to our Apex prior to the service call and that is what resolved our issue.

Short version, and to answer your specific question, yes, there is a good likelihood that Neptune Support will be able to 'fix' your issue.

You were right. Took about a week to work out but got er done! CB at Neptune was great and patient. Everything is working fine now. They quickly replaced a bad temp. probe and my stress has passed. I essentially did the same thing as you. Allowed Neptune programming authorization and they took care of it . Mine issue was mainly due to random ip address handshake timeouts. Pretty sure I got that right.