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Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

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  • 1.  Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    Posted Feb 17, 2012 08:47 AM

    I searched for a similar topic but found nothing to help me.

    Problem:

    We have a few strudents who are unable to connect to our College-installed access points in their residence halls.

    The students are using both Windows-based and Macintosh-based computers.

    If the students walk to another area of Campus, they are able to connect without a problem; it is only in their respective residences that they are unable to connect.

     

    Any ideas as to how to find the interfering device(s) that may be blocking the student access in there living areas?

     



  • 2.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 17, 2012 08:50 AM

    The first thing you should do is enable user debugging to see the interaction between the student devices and your infrastructure:

     

    config t

    logging level debug user

     

    The next question is, how are the access points in the residence halls different from the "regular" access points?

     

    Can anyone connect?

     

    Is this a new issue?

     

    What kind of encryption are you using?

     

    What version of Aruba OS?

     



  • 3.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    Posted Feb 17, 2012 09:01 AM

    Difference between residence halls devices and other installed devices?

     

    None

     

    Can anyone connect?

     

    Yes; one particular student is using a MacBook. I can connect in the residence with a Win7 machine. If the student uses the Win7 machine, as well, there is no problem with the student's login credentials. For this particular student, the MacBook seems to have the problem. If I walk across the street to another residence, the MacBook is A-OK.

    This same problem, oddly enough, is being exhibited by another student in another residence hall but with a Windows machine.

     

    This is new for this academic year.

     

    Encryption = WPA-Enterprise

     

    AOS ver. = 5.0.4.1



  • 4.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 17, 2012 09:06 AM
      |   view attached

    Do you have different AP-Groups for the Residence halls than the rest o the Campus?

    What kind of access points are you using?

    Do you have 802.11n enabled?

    Is your encryption WPA-TKIP or WPA-AES?

     

    Do you have multiple radius servers or only a single one?

    The server certificate on the server, is it from Active Directory, or is a public Certificate?

     

    For any user that is trying to connect but cannot, please allow them to try to connect and use the following command:

     

    "show auth-tracebuf mac <mac address with the problem"

     

    Please leverage the troubleshooting document attached  so that you can establish methods to narrow the problem.

     

     

     

     

    Attachment(s)

    pdf
    Troubleshooting Cheat Sheet-Aug2007.pdf   682 KB 1 version


  • 5.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    Posted Feb 17, 2012 09:24 AM

    Forgot to mention in previous ... all Alcatel equipment: APs and master/local controllers.

    I didn't know if that makes a difference in asking for help?



  • 6.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    Posted Feb 20, 2012 09:11 AM

    Different AP-Groups?

    2 AP groups are defined: one for Master and one for Local controllers.

     

    Kind of APs?

    AP 105

     

    Encryption?

    WPA-TKIP

     

    Radius server?

    Single one.

     

    Certificate?

    AD cert

     



  • 7.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 20, 2012 11:27 AM
    @tmondschein wrote:

    Different AP-Groups?

    2 AP groups are defined: one for Master and one for Local controllers.

     

    Kind of APs?

    AP 105

     

    Encryption?

    WPA-TKIP

     

    Radius server?

    Single one.

     

    Certificate?

    AD cert

     

    What VLAN does a user end up on in the residences?  Is it different from everywhere else?

     



  • 8.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    Posted Feb 20, 2012 03:57 PM
    What VLAN does a user end up on in the residences?  Is it different from everywhere else?
    Students are placed in1 of 6 VLANs if AP is terminated on the Local; 1 of 3 VLANs if AP if terminated on Master.


  • 9.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 20, 2012 04:02 PM
    Try switching to AES on your WPA.


  • 10.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 20, 2012 04:19 PM
    @tmondschein wrote:
    What VLAN does a user end up on in the residences?  Is it different from everywhere else?
    Students are placed in1 of 6 VLANs if AP is terminated on the Local; 1 of 3 VLANs if AP if terminated on Master.

    Is it possible that one of those VLANs does not exist on the local controller, so when a user ends up in that VLAN, he gets nowhere?

     

    Type "show vlan status" on that local controller to make sure.

     



  • 11.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 20, 2012 06:14 PM

    Please keep in mind that WPA-TKIP does not support 802.11n rates. I just tested this on an AP-105 sitting right next to my MacBook Pro. After I switched it over to AES, the MacBook Pro then connected at 802.11n rates. Hence my recommendation for switching over to AES.



  • 12.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    Posted Feb 21, 2012 02:18 PM

    All 9 student  VLANs are "Enabled" as reported in the Adminstate and are "Up" as reported in the Operstate listing in both the Master and Local controllers.

     

    We do use VLAN-pooling, as recommended by Alcatel support reps and technicians.

     

    I will look into changing the WPA-TKIP to WPA-AES.

     

     



  • 13.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    Posted Aug 15, 2012 02:13 PM

    Have the student connect the Mac to a hardwired port and update the driver for the NIC.

    We had this problem last year.

     



  • 14.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 17, 2012 09:26 AM
    No difference. Please use the troubleshooting guide from the post above to narrow things down. Please also consider opening a tac case, as this would seem to be a critical issue.


  • 15.  RE: Student Residences and Inability to Connect to College-installed APs

    Posted Feb 17, 2012 09:26 AM

    Will do, thanks.