Wireless Access

First of all, I am new to the wireless environment. I am a technology director for a small school. We just put in 30 of these AP's and they are attached to a 3400 controller.

I had an outside company come in and configure the controller and we had issues with our switches and I had to send them out before all switches were configured correctly and ALL AP's were up and running.

I have a few questions...

I have 5 AP's at the middle school that are showing they are connected but Down. They are pulling an IP address through the network.

The guy that was here talked about rebooting the AP to get them to come up. These have never been up to add them in the controller and name them. Will turning the power on and off be enough to do that? He mentioned holding in the reset button while disconnecting the power and turning it back on. Does that sound like the correct procedure? Any other ideas?

Also, I have one ap that shows the power light green but has the next light red. Connectivity problem in the cabling possibly or is it another problem?

I don't want to take it down unless I have to test. it is high up in the ceiling. I appreciate any and all help,

Grub

Holding the reset button won't help with Campus APs (CAP).  That is the procedure for resetting a Remote AP (RAP).  To reset a CAP, you will need to use the console port, reboot the AP, break the boot (you will see the prompt) and then type "purge", then type "save", then type "boot".

The "red" light is actualy supposed to be "amber".  That means the port is not running Gigabit speed, so that is OK.  Gigabit would be best, but it's not required.

The APs that show down on the controller are not finding the controller for some reason.   Can you attach a console cable to one, boot it and capture the output?  That should tell us why they aren't registering.

Ok, so I attach a cable to the console port and connect it to the controller?

I am not exactly sure that I know what to do with it.

The AP with the "RED" light is connected to a gb switch with a cat 6 cable. Should be ok unless there is interference with the cabling....does that make sense?

I will connect one of the AP's through the console and reboot if you can tell me what software/hardware to use to do it.

Thanks,

grub

To get the console, connect a standard console cable (DB-9 -> RJ-45) to the console port of the AP.  The settings should be 9600,8,n,1.  Open Hyperterm (or your favorite serial terminal).  Leave the AP attached to the Ethernet port where it is now.  We need to see it fail.

Unplug the Ethernet cable and plug it back in (assuming you are using PoE).  Let the AP boot a couple times.  Copy the output from the serial console and post it to this message.

The AP with the red light is not negotiating Gigabit correctly.  As you said, that could be cabling or configuration issues.