Wireless Access

Hi,

A client asks if is possible to ensure a connection with a Guest SSID (Captive Portal Authentication) for a long period (10 hours) without re-insert the credentilas for the access.

I thought to resolve the request setting the parameter Station Ageout Time = 36000 s. But sometimes the client complains some failure.

Is there any other way to meet the demand?

And is possible to monitor the time remaining until expiration of the access?

Thanks,

Massimo

You configured to wrong value...because some users/some devices can enter to sleep mode or getting idle.

In order to keep user auth after captive login,go to:

Configuration/Authentication/Advanced 

Under this screen you have the ability to set various timeout values.    You will want to 'bump up'  "user idle timeout" to reduce the number of times the captive portal pops-up to the users.

"aaa timer idle-timeout "- this is the timer for the datapath to detect if there is no more new sessions nor traffic initiated for a user record. When the time has come, it will signal the control plane "authmgr" to ping the client. The ping is three consecutive checks with 1 sec interval. If there is no ping response, you should issue an "aaa user delete w.x.y.z" command to clean up the user record. If the client can reply, the user record is kept for another round of idle timer." 

More good info you may find here:

http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Command-of-the-Day/COTD-AAA-Idle-Timeout-and-Authentication-Server-Dead-Time/td-p/106
let me know if it answer your question.

me :smileyhappy:

Thanks you very much! I didn't know this parameter yet. Very good suggestion!

But so was I wrong when I set Station Ageout Time?

yep

change it back to it default value.

Station Ageout Time = how much time your controller will keep this station in his table after the station disconnected...but it's not related to it AAA role.

I talked yesterday with Aruba Support about this problem. They told me that the parameter Station Ageout Time is refered to the specific SSID profile, so it's ok to set it to 36000 s. The parameter User Idle Timeout states for how long a client can remain idle before be disconnected.

Then the correct action is to increase either the parameters Station Ageout Time and User Idle Timeout.

Hi Massimo,

do this configuration works for you  ?