Upgrade from Firewalla Red? - Android Devices Don't Like Monitored Mesh Network
My family (of 5) all use android devices. I have been using the Firewalla Red for about 7 years now. When it was hooked up to my old ASUS Router no one really had any problems with the Firewalla monitoring, there were some teething problems when I first installed it, but after that it has been working like a dream.
My ASUS router recently died, so I upgraded to a new TP-Link Mesh system. After the upgrade the kids had all sorts of problems connecting to various websites and apps on their android devices, the internet connection would just drop out, this happened on other devices as well such as Windows laptops and a Smart-Vu android TV dongle.
Thinking it was a weak signal I bought another mesh unit and placed it closer to their bedrooms, no improvement. Then this and all the other mesh units started disconnecting and reconnecting, dropping and re-establishing their connection to the main router.
In desperation I tried disconnecting the Firewalla Red, and hey-presto everything magically started working again.
Removing the Firewalla monitoring on my children's android devices also had a similar effect, without the Firewalla monitoring in place their android and windows devices worked just fine.
Given that the Firewalla Red is getting a bit old now I was wondering if it was worthwhile upgrading to the Firewalla Blue Plus? Would I still have the same issues with a new Firewalla? Or should I just hard-reset the old Firewalla Red and try again?
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Yes, I've found that is the solution for stopping the dropped connections. Problem is, I'm not too happy leaving the satellite modules unmonitored, and individual device connectivity problems still persist even when the satellite monitoring is turned off. It seems the only solution is to not use a Firewalla at all, which is not where I want to go.
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Wow! 7 years! This must be one of the Kickstarter or Indiegogo red's
What you are running into is a compatibility issue with your new router. See https://firewalla.com/compatibility for details. Usually, if you are in simple mode, the next best mode is DHCP mode.
If you are willing to upgrade, the purple SE (also gold and purple) can run in router mode, which likely pairs with your mesh very nicely.
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Also, make sure the Android devices are using the hardware MAC address, not randomized. Depending on your firewalla rules it may be blocking their Internet connections.
Don't worry about not monitoring the satellites. They're not doing anything just relaying back to the main node. All the traffic in and out gets monitored by the firewalla at the main node.
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