AP-105 / AP-125 - client now blue-screening

[PTierce]

Here's a strange one that I've just run across. I've had a client agency here that's got the following configuration (having problems now!):

1. Use the Novell GINA with their novell servers. IP-based. No IPX.
2. Have new Dell laptops. They've updated the BIOS to try to fix our problem.
3. They've been using the Broadcom (Hon Hai is what the controller says) WLAN NIC cards. A/B/G/N cards.
4. We've been using the AP-125 with them, and it's been working fine.
5. We just swapped out the AP-125 with an AP-105, now they're experiencing blue-screens of death. XP clients, up-to-date on drivers and patches.

The only apparent change I've made is to swap the AP-125 for an AP-105. It's got me wondering if the chipset in the AP-105 is different enough to cause something like this to occur.

Any thoughts????

THanks!
Patrick

[mike.j.gallagher]

Just curious, did you do an AOS upgrade, or were you already running code that supported the AP-105s prior to the AP swap-out?

[PTierce]

Mike,

I've been running 3.4.1.1 for a couple of months now with no issues. Only change on my part was to swap the 125 for the 105.

Their Vista clients work fine. XP clients are the only ones with issues. I'm just sure it's a client issue, but very strange that the AP swap would do this.

[mike.j.gallagher]

I don't know why it would do something like that. Are the clients on XP SP3, are you using the Windows ZWC client? Are the AP-105s in the same AP group as the AP-125s were?

If you're using the ZWC client, maybe try to install Juniper OAC on one to see if anything changes. You can get a 30-day trial copy here:

http://www.juniper.net/customers/support/products/oac.jsp

[PTierce]

Not sure... I'll have to dig a bit more to see. Good questions. Thanks Mike!

[PTierce]

Well, since the client was basically out of service, I put the AP-125 back in, and all works well again.

The client had been using the Intel supplicant, so I've asked them to try using the normal Windows supplicant to see if that makes any difference. We'll see... (I put the 105 back over with a test ESSID so we can do some troubleshooting)

[PTierce]

When the clients are crashing, they're running the following configuration:

XP/SP5 with Broadcom cards (new Dell laptops)
Novell GINA 4.91 client.
All patches applied to make everything current including wireless drivers from Dell
They've tried using the Intel supplicant and Windows supplicant. No difference. Still crashes with the AP-105. The AP-125 works just fine.

So... it sure looks to me like the chipset in the AP-105 is different enough that there's something on the client side just not liking it very well.

:-(

[mike.j.gallagher]

Wow Patrick...you should really open a TAC case on this.

[PTierce]

Yeah. I"ve got the AP-105 back in their office waiting on the customer to do more testing with me so I can get some data for TAC. Thanks!

[cjoseph]

Does it say what the error message is when bluescreening? If it is the wireless driver, it is something that the wireless driver manufacturer should prevent from happening. You should simultaneously contact Dell to see if they have any insight into this. If they do not fix it, it is a genuine denial of service attack waiting to happen. Instead of having Aruba reverse-engineer the thousands of things that could cause that driver to bluescreen, you should contact Dell to find out the one thing that IS causing it to bluescreen.

Unfortunately, you are using the Novell Client, which has issues of its own......