After setup, devices should communicate with the management platform to begin performing healthchecks and graphing network activity. If the device is labeled as Disconnected for more than 10 minutes, then it may indicate a connectivity issue. However, this connectivity issue may not impact the actual performance of the network; it could be only an issue with the healthcheck.

Tooling

Every operating system platform offers some way to access a terminal for the most effective, and often built-in, tools for basic network troubleshooting.

Windows

1. Press the Windows logo key to open the Start Menu
2. Search Terminal or Powershell

MacOS

1. Press Cmd+Space to launch Mission Control
2. Search Terminal

Linux

Linux users should already be familiar with their terminal emulator, which is dependent on the flavor of distribution that you are using.

Mobile

• he.net Network Tools by Hurricane Electric, LLC
  • Play Store
  • App Store
• Fing by Fing Limited
  • Play Store
  • App Store

Diagnosing

First, simply try pinging the gateway that would be assigned to the device, such as 192.168.1.1, as well as ping.alta.inc.  If you have ICMP disabled on the LAN side of your router, this disrupts some features of Alta devices and can manifest as the device showing as Disconnected.

Second, confirm whether domain names are resolving correctly within your network. DNS heavily impacts the appearance of connectivity, because connections to the internet may still work if directed to an IP address, but almost all users and devices expect to connect with domain names instead.

Troubleshooting

If the device has no IP address displayed, you may be able to discover it with arp -a. The MAC address can be cross referenced from this output with the MAC address shown beside the disconnected label. This should discover the associated IP address as well.

Alternatively, you could use a network scanner or ping sweeper tool to discover all devices that can be reached on the routable subnets. Angry IP Scanner is a common tool for this. nmap is also highly recommended.

When the IP address is known, you can try to reach it with ping <ip address> like ping 192.168.1.25. You should get a response quickly if the device is reachable within the network. This would suggest that your internet connection or firewall may be blocking access to the controller.

If the IP address of the device does not respond to the ping attempt, then you may employ traceroute <ip address> to see where the connection fails inside the network. This may help indicate if a switch interface is down, for example. Try plugging the device into a different interface  or switch and test connectivity again.

If you can reach the device locally, but it reports Disconnected still, then see our article on setting up SSH, as this will allow you to access the terminal of your Alta Labs devices and use the tools provided within to find the cause of many connectivity problems. For reference, the most important tools are ping, nslookup and traceroute to confirm outbound routability and domain name resolution. Unfortunately, a disconnected device cannot be provisioned with any updates to the configuration, so setting up SSH keys is recommended on every site before adding any devices at all. This ensures that every device on the site will be prepared for SSH login before it becomes impossible to provision the SSH keys onto a misbehaving device.

Note: The apps and tools listed in this article have proven useful in troubleshooting and diagnosing local network connectivity issues, but they are not officially endorsed by Alta Labs.

Resolution

After checking the above troubleshooting steps, your device may still appear to be disconnected or inaccessible. In this case, you may try a couple more options to recover the device.

Try another power supply or POE+ source

In some cases, the power supply or POE+ provider may be faulty or misbehaving in some way. Try changing the power supply or use another POE+ adapter or switch/router port.

Test a different cable

Generally, when a cable works originally it will continue to work indefinitely. However, it is also common for a cable to experience wear & tear or get accidentally clipped or tugged. For these reasons, it is important to test another cable with your device to confirm that the experience remains the same.

Additionally, if you have another similar device on your network, try borrowing it to test with the original cable. This will help narrow down the problem to the specific hardware.

Setup the device on a blank new site or alternate network

If you notice that the link activity and LED appear to be working as expected, then the issue may be connected to your local network configuration instead. Try creating a new, blank, unconfigured site to test it with. Use the reset button to wipe the local memory and local device configuration, then search for it on the new empty site. This will not remove the configuration tied to the device on your existing site, which will allow you to simply restore it there by resetting and pressing Setup again from the original site.

Power-on Reset (POR)

Alta Labs network gear comes equipped with a reset button. When pressed, you will hear and feel a tactile click to confirm that it is fully engaged. You may hold it for about 10-15 seconds to perform a soft reset, which will wipe the device's local configuration. However, there is a deeper reset method available which will connect to Alta Labs cloud platform to download a stable firmware version and re-flash the device. This means the device will require an internet connection to complete the POR process.

1. Unplug the ethernet cable.
2. Press and hold the Reset button on the back of the unit. You should feel a tactile click to indicate that the button is fully pressed.
3. Continue to hold the button as you plug the POE+ back into the device.
4. Within 10 seconds, you should see LED activity on the front of the access point. As soon as you see any light, any color, or any pattern, release the button immediately.
5. Wait up to 5 minutes for the firmware re-flashing process to complete.

If successful, the device will reboot itself and result in a solid white LED to indicate normal boot status. Please allow up to 2 minutes to confirm that the device remains stable.

My AP is still unresponsive

After completing all of the above steps and confirming that the unit did not recover after the POR, your device may be considered defective. Please email support@alta.inc or use the Contact Us button on this page to submit a request for RMA.