Hello, I have a very linear network with no redundant links. I've been scratching my head for months trying to figure out why my customers randomly are losing internet connection and traced the problem to RSTP in the customer antenna.
With Rstp enabled on the customers antenna at seemingly random intervals the customer will no longer be able to pass data through the antenna bridge.
I can ping the customer router from their antenna, but not through the antenna (pinging from anywhere else) If I disable RSTP in the antenna the problem goes away. And the customer is online and once again pingable from anywhere in the network.
This has happened to me in a variety of software versions (all long term releases). To as new as 6.48.5. With a variety of routers (mikrotik and tplink mostly).
Why would RSTP cause this? Why is it enabled by default if it's causing people grief? A quick google showed multiple people having similar issues with RSTP. I Will be looking at changing the setting on 1000+ devices now unless somebody can give me any reason as to why I shouldn't.
To ensure a redundant loop free network I would much prefer using a routing protocol to subnet the network rather than use a bridge protocol that seems to blocks traffic on a whim.