Hub Mesh Failing

🧰 Built-In Apps and Drivers
1

About a week ago, I noticed that some of my hubs fail to maintain hub mesh connections. What I notice specifically is:

  • an incomplete list of hubs under "Active Hubs" -- and the list seems to change regularly, but it's always missing some hubs.
  • the corresponding devices showing Offline

I cannot discern any pattern between the hubs where hub mesh is behaving normally versus those where I'm getting the aberrant behavior. Both groups are a mix of C5 and C7. Hub mesh has been working stably for years, ever since I started using it soon after it was first introduced.

What I've tried, none of which have improved matters:

  • rebooting the offending hubs
  • click "reload hubs" from the hub mesh UI
  • click "reconnect" from the hub mesh UI
  • rebooting my network router

I'm suspicious of three things, but since I'm most definitely not a network engineer, I'm out on the edge of my knowledge here:

  • a couple weeks ago, AT&T (we have fiber) swapped out a very old gateway for a new one. With both old and new, the gateway was/is in bridge/passthrough mode. This is the only thing that changed in my network infrastructure so I wonder is this could be a root cause.
  • In the hubs with incomplete active hub lists, 1-2 of the hubs listed show an APIPA IP address (169.254.XXX.XXX), which, from the little I understand, suggests that they are not getting an IP address from the DHCP router. But in all cases, my hubs are setup with DHCP and have a static IP reservation in my router. And they all show up in my router UI as connected with the reserved IP address (not APIPA).
  • In the old days, when one could select TCP or UDP, I recall having to select UDP to make it work reliably. That is no longer an option. But to be fair, I haven't had hub mesh problems even subsequent to that option being removed.

I have no vlan's. My network topology is pretty basic: cloud > ISP modem > router > gigabit switches > structured cabling > hubs & wired devices. Our router is Orbi RBR750 mesh router and we have 4 Orbi RBS750 satellites that are connected via ethernet backhaul to serve wifi throughour the home. Other than the change in modem, this network has been stable for several years without issue and we're not having any issues with wired or wireless devices (other than the hub mesh issue).

I'm stumped and a bit desperate. Hoping the brilliant minds around these parts will have some theories or ideas for me to try. TIA

2

I think you should work on the DHCP issue first. I wonder if the AT&T change did something to the broadcast domains such that the DHCP handshake can't complete . . .
If the address you see on the hub is of the form 169.254 then DHCP did not complete.

3

That was my instinct, except my router does not indicate APIPA (169.254.X.X), only hub mesh does. Confused what this could mean.

Appreciate the reply btw.

4

When you log into the hub and look at Hub Details, what does it show for the IP address?

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5

It shows the expected IP address, which is the static IP I have reserved in my router. The only place that shows APIPA is in the active hubs list of hub mesh. So weird.

6

That is very strange indeed. I have no experience with the Orbi so I don't think I can help. It almost sounds like a stale ARP Table but I can't say I have seen that in the last 10 or 15 years.

7

You can try using the http://hubs.ip.address.here/hub/advanced/setInitialHubMeshPeers?1.0.0.1,1.0.0.2 endpoint. Replace 10.0.0.1,... with a comma separated list of the hubs' IPs, and hub mesh will use the list on startup instead of trying to collect that information dynamically.

1 Like
8

Thanks @gopher.ny @Eric.C.Miller

Just gave the endpoint a try and everything seems to be back to normal. But I always get nervous when there isn't a real root cause identified. Hopefully this doesn't recur.

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