Wireless Access

Ok so here is the scenario.  We have a wireless solution in our business using aruba APS (105,205 and 225) which connect back to our wireless controller.

Usually this works fine with two SSIDS.  One requires token authentication and the other is password protected.  (One is for corporate use and the other is a guest network).

On our corporate solution sometimes when moving from one room to another, or one building to another the switching of access points seems to fail.  I will get shown no wireless signal and no connectivity.  However disabling the network adapter and enabling, or disconnect and reconnecting the wifi, or rebooting the machine will fix this.  The wifi then is able to connect and full wireless signal in the same spot.; Has anyone came across this before?  I have logs which I can attach.  This happened to the logs in question between the hours of 3pm and 4pm yesterday (Sorry i cannot be more precise)

Thanks in advance

Attachment(s)

My debug logs (Failed access point switching).txt   116 KB 1 version

9/10 times the transmit power is too high on your access points.  In your ARM profile, what is your max and minimum transmit (TX) power enabled?

Hi and thanks for the reply,

It is set to multi-band and using the settings below:

- You are running 80mhz channels which the AP105s do not support.  That would mean that roaming would be uneven in the transition from an AP105 to a 205 or 225.  I would not use 80mhz channels in any deployment that has any density.  Uncheck it.

- Client Aware is checked, meaning that APs will not change channel or power when clients are associated.  This would prevent APs from finding an optimal channel.  I would uncheck it.

- Your MAX TX EIRP and Min TX EIRP should have a difference of 6.  Having to wide a range between max an min TX power can create considerable roaming issues.  I would change them both to 12 to start.

- Uncheck Active Scan.  It is not needed or even warranted

- Uncheck ARM over the AIR updates.  Nothing I have heard makes it necessary in this case.

- Uncheck Multi Band Scan.  That is only for APs that have a single radio.  Aruba no longer sells those access points.

- Uncheck Channel Quality Aware ARM

- Go into the Advanced ARM settings and make sure that "

Allowed bands for 40MHz channels" is set to none, so that you are running 20mhz channels.

All of those changes are to normalize your WLAN and utilize as many channels as possible.

Hi Colin,

I appreciate you taking the time to go through these changes.

I have a few questions.

1. Should I make these changes out of hours? Will it likely affect anyone currently connected?

2. When you say you would change them both to 12 - do you mean change the min and max tx levels both to 12? Would this not mean that 12 would be the only option?

3. What will setting the allowed bands to none do? It is currently set to all?

We use 2.4ghz and 5ghz and have up to clients connected to various aps from 105, 205 and 225.  Would you still recommend all the changes listed?

Sorry just being cautious as this is likely to affect a lot of users.

1.  Yes, you should make the changes after hours.  The changes do not create major client issues, but you don't want even potential complaints during the day.

2.  Yes, make min and max 12.  That would make your coverage even beween access points and potential roaming would be more even.

3.  Allowed bands to all means that you are running 40mhz channels on 2.4 and 5ghz.  40mhz bands on 2.4ghz is a big no-no!  Setting it to none means that you would have 20mhz channels on both bands, which would give you a great deal of non-overlapping channels (9 by default) on the 5ghz band and 3 non-overlapping channels on the 2.4ghz band.

I would still recommend all of the changes.  The settings I recommended are fairly conservative.

Perfect that's cleared that up.

I will make the changes Next week early morning and report back.  Thanks for your help really appreciate it.

Could any of these settings cause an issue in switching access points also?  May as well make all the changes at the one time.

I do not think so...

Hi Colin,

I made the changes you recommended and it has seemed to improve overall wireless performance.  I still have a few users complaining of wireless "dropping out", "disconnecting" or "limited connectivity".  I have attached the logs for one of the users.  Most recent timestampe of the issue happening was April 3rd between 17:00 and 17:20 hours - Can you see anything suspicious?

Attachment(s)

logs.txt   314 KB 1 version

Please PM me your email address so I can send you a link to send me your logs.tar with tech support.