Firewalla AP7: What to Beta Test?
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- Device compatibility. While we have already tested many devices, there are many different brands and models we haven’t covered. If anything is not connecting, please let us know.
- Stability. If anything doesn’t perform as expected, let us know - no matter how small the issue may seem.
- Experiment with Zero Trust. Try out features like VqLAN, Device Isolation, and SSID+PPSK dynamic group mapping. Let us know if we are doing right or tell us we suck, we will improve!
- We also want to know a bit on which features / configurations you do not use or need.
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My kids have the original switch (non OLED) and it was able to connect to the 5 GHz band. This was maybe 20’ away from the AP7.
For what it’s worth, my outdoor Nest Cameras either keep dropping from 5 to 2.4 or one just refuses to connect to the 5 band all together. I don’t have Band Steering enabled.i may have to create a SSID with only the 5Ghz band for those cameras. I didn’t have to do this in the past with my old APs.
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I submitted this via testflight but figured i'd post it here too.
- Can we get the wifi band shown on devices page when sorting by signal strength? i think everyone would appreciate that.
- Can we also get the transmit power displayed even when the power is set to automatic? would be helpful to know where the power is at before I just start guessing numbers to put in if a far away client is having issues.
- I also seem to be having random "disconnects" on my mac and ios devices, not sure they are disconnecting, changing bands, or if something is just being buggy. Pretty regularly though, like every 5-10 minutes, the devices just seem to lose internet connection for 15-30 seconds.
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@Firewalla
I understand that there are a lot of variables in play with the frequency. What I don’t understand is why my stationary cameras would first show a good signal strength on the 5 GHz and then drop to the 2.4Ghz. Most cameras are well under 30’ away from the AP. Actually one that is the furthest away (backside of AP7) is connected on 5Ghz and the two closer ones (front side of AP7) keeps dropping to 2.4Ghz. Support is aware of this behavior. My previous APs never had this problem with any of my Nest cams. Like i said I could always create a dedicated 5Ghz SSID to resolve this, but should I have to?
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@Firewalla
No issues with my setup at the moment. Could you add the possibility to change the channel bandwidth on all bands? And the possibility to instruct the automatic channel selection to skip over DFS channels?
I live in an apartment complex and in the 5GHz band, my main AP7 is set to use channel 40 but since the AP tries to select the most amount of bandwidth, it sets itself as a 160MHz bandwidth which then triggers the DFS mode...which in turn reduces the transmission power. I understand DFS channels are sometimes the only way one that leaves in apartments complex avoids overlap and reduces interferences but I would like to have the choice and compare WiFi configurations.
You might have this planned for the future the same way you announced, in the YouTube video, the 6GHz band will soon have the ability to change the channel but in case you didn't plan it, I would appreciate that you give it consideration. I will also add for the 6GHz band, maybe add a "(PSC)" mention next to PSC channels when in manual mode...it's probably what you are already planning on doing.
Thanks for this great product!
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@Firewalla
Thank you. I’m actually running the latest controller that Support installed. I know the team is busy/slammed and my issue certainly isn’t critical nor should be considered a priority. Just trying to be helpful with this early release and maybe help a few others along the way.
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Hi @Firewalla team!
I've had the AP7 running since 7 FEB and this week I've noticed video calls keep disconnecting. I work from home, so this is a big concern with me. My prior device was a Eero Pro 6+ and although there was no band 6ghz I didn't have issues with video calls (MS Teams) + Zoom.Devices struggling that I use for video calls.
- Mac Book Pro M2
- Mac Book Air M1
I enabled QoS (added Video Call Apps) along with Band Steering yesterday night to see if they would help, but came across the same issue today with just my Mac Book Pro M2. For context both devices were on a separate video call for different purposes and only my M2 kept disconnecting.
- Only have 1 AP7 and it covers upstairs and downstairs. (Downstairs centrally located). Office is on second floor.
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@Josue, does it get better if you disable Wife6E? Had to disable it on iPhone 16 Pro Max to keep the WiFi connection stable.
Mac
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Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Wi-Fi.
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Click the Details button next to the name of the Wi-Fi 6E network you're connected to.
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From the pop-up menu next to Wi-Fi 6E Mode, choose Off. This option appears only when your supported device is connected to a Wi-Fi 6E network.
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Yeah we only had WiFi 5 mesh before and my 12 Pro Max doesn’t support 6Ghz, so when my wife started complaining that she would constantly drop WiFi switch to cellular and then reconnect to WiFi I had no idea what she was even talking about. She figured it out in her own and has been running fine albeit on 5Ghz.
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My wife's iPhone 15 has issues with data loading every now and then even though she's connected to the AP7.
As a result she'll turn off her WiFi to continue to be able to be able to keep scrolling her Instagram feed.
Occasionally my Pixel 9 Pro XL will have a similar connectivity issue and I'll disconnect and reconnect to get data to load again when browsing reddit.
Also, previously created a ticket for this, but I have some WiFi controllable air purifiers, BlueAir Classics 480i's that will lose connection after anywhere from 3-5 days and then be unable to reconnect for a few days as well. Not sure if it's because they're older devices, but once they lose connection, I'm unable to force them to reconnect by re-adding them to the app.
I have yet to be able to figure out how to properly get them to connect to the AP7, forced power cycles of the BlueAirs or AP7 doesn't seem to do it, but sometimes the Optimize WiFi button will work.
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I've created a ticket, so we can look at the connectivity issue. Sometimes these issues may not always wifi side, you should try to run the wifi test from her phone and see if you get any speed or latency issues.
Next as of devices, the most common problem is related using the wrong WPAx. Have you tried WPA2 with these devices?
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@Ariel, have you tried testing with a 2.4Ghz only SSID? I think all my wireless devices work fine on my 2.4/5/6 SSID except my Epson WF7310. It claims to support 802.11 b/g/n/a/ac, however after the AP7 upgrade my SSID appears twice in the scanning list, but neither will connect with the password. To get back online ASAP (it's my wife's printer) I set up a new SSID with 2.4Ghz only, only lists once in the scan, and was back in business.
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