WAP4400N Firmware Status

[m.ruggles]

Hello,

I have 2 WAP4400N access points, each has a different version of the firmware installed and one has options that the other one does not.

I have one access point running

1.2.17-ETSI

and one running

1.2.8

If I visit the Cisco site for firmware updates, I see that only one version of firmware is available for this access point... 1.2.14

This is quite poor for Cisco, I realize that Linksys is not Cisco's main area of business, but if you are going to provide

downloads for access points you could at least make sure that you have the latest version available.

Can you please state when the latest firmware for this device will be realeased.

[gloomrider]

It would seem 1.2.19 contains two fixes post-1.2.17.

I don't think these two fixes are going to address this issues many have been having:

• Fixed the inconsistency in the Device Name field on the SNMP and Basic Setup pages, which was caused by the SNMP Set function.
  
• Removed from the help page the description of the Interoperability Testing (IOT) mode.
  

[johnacla]

I understand your concern. If you can, try the upgrade and test. If there still appears to be an issue, please contact the SBSC to have a Service Request open, and we can have these issues addressed in a more timely fashion to make sure all of our basis are covered.

Thank You,

John

[gloomrider]

Thanks for the follow up John.  I don't hold out much hope that the SBSC can help me.  They're just going to tell me to do all the things they told me to do before (change channel, reset to defaults, static IP, etc).

[johnacla]

I understand sir. Would you email me your contact information? I would like to schedule a time to discuss this with you tomorrow, if possible. I would like to try to help with more.

John

[Danyz_1008]

Hi,

I`ve been following this funny story in silence, since the beginning. Unfortunately I belong to this group of unhappy users too: I bought 9 of these APs before this issue showed up. Bad luck.

I`ve been reading the Release note and, honeslty, I felt quite kidded: the biggest issue everyone here was talking about since the beginning has not been fixed. I`m obviously talking about the device instability, just to make it clear.

I`m not going to annoy all of you with useless explanations of this well-known issue: I just want to know from Cisco when the real issues will be finally fixed.

I`m looking forward to get a clear answer on this.

Regards,

Daniele

P.s. Of course I`ve already tested the new firmware. Stabilitywise, nothing has changed.

Daniele

[johnacla]

Daniele,

          Please contact the Small Business Support Center at 1-866-606-1866, for additional support. We may be able to assist further, or you can email me

Thank You,

John

[StinkyPete]

Sorry John, India tech support cannot help this past customer. I've dealt with issues with this product for a long time.

http://forums.linksysbycisco.com/linksys/board/message?board.id=Access_Points&message.id=7749#M7749

I've moved to another vendor a while ago, but followed this just to see which direction Cisco went with this.

At least one good thing came out of this - I found a vendor with reliable products and decent tech support - too bad it's not Cisco.

[johnacla]

I am sorry you feel that way, however our Small Business Support Center is located in Greenville, SC, and we are more than happy to assist you, should you change your mind.

Thank You,

John Clark

[StinkyPete]

I am pleased to see offshore support eliminated. That is definitely a step in the right direction. Good tech support will make or break your company and it appears Cisco is making an attempt to provide better support.

[Danyz_1008]

Hi John,

thanks for your reply.

I guess the number you provided is a toll number, which is not working, as I`m dialing from The Netherlands.

I don`t want to appear offensive, but I don`t think the support will be able to help we. I`ve been trying with different devices of the same model, trying with different laptops, upgrading all the upgradeable etc etc. No way, the wireless connection drops after a while.

I`m not that expert as Cisco is, but I`m quite sure the problem cannot be caused by a "wrong setting" or a "wrong firmware release" or a "wrong whatever else": to me it`s just a bug, that needs to be fixed.

By the way, I`d be more then happy to help Cisco with this, by providing all the needed info: network infrastructure, wireshark sessions, APS configuration, screenshoots, whatever. I think we`d bettere manage this by email, so I`ll have time and the chance to provide info in a proper way, if you agree.

Please let me know what you think about my proposal.

Regards,

Daniele

[streaves]

Hi Daniele -- We have a dedicated Support number for the Netherlands. You'll find it here: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/support/tsd_cisco_small_business_support_center_contacts.html.

Thanks for your offer to share. Please contact the engineers at the Support Center and keep us posted.

Stephanie

[Danyz_1008]

Hi all,

one hour ago I`ve opened a ticket with Cisco support, I`m willing to provide them all the info that might help in finding what`s wrong with this access point.

I`ll keep you posted on this, I hope we`ll be able to come to a solution.

D.

[rjgebis]

Any updates? I also called support detailing all problems and observations. So far nothing.... Perhaps they really are trying to kill this unit....

[Danyz_1008]

Hi Robert,

no updates so far, but at least I`m getting supported by Cisco. I don`t have the feeling they`re giving up, so far. We`re keeping doing tests by changing some settings. Unfortunately lately I`ve been really busy and I couldn`t really keep on with this. I`ll update all of you as we get somewhere.

Regards,

D.

[Danyz_1008]

Hi all,

I`ve got finally some interesting updates for you.

Premises:

• AP Settings:

1. Latest firmware installed (1.2.19-ETSI)
2. WPA-Enterprise with RADIUS authentication
3. AES encryption
4. WMM disabled (Wireless > Advanced wireless settings)
5. Key renewal time set to default (changing it didn`t provide any benefit)

• Network Environment

1. Windows 2003 Server  (SP2) running both DHCP and RADIUS servers
2. Windows XP Professional clients, SP3 installed

• Issues discussed
  

1. AP connection instability
2. DHCP process most of the time failed.
3. The 2 mentioned above risulted in in many wireless connection drops which couldn`t be recovered as the DCHP process failed most of the time.

After a few investigations and small configuration changes, Cisco support came out with the following:

"When sending multicast and broadcast the AP should limit it to a very low value (+-1 to 2mbps). Broadcasts and multicasts are treated differently in wireless connections and they are sent to very low speeds and this happens correctly when using RC4 (tkip), but according to the tests done the same is not happening when using AES. For some reason the AP accepts to send and receive multicast and broadcasts to much higher speeds and this causes all kind of malfunctions on the AP"

I`ve been asked then run the AP with WPA-Personal mode with TKIP encryption. Given that TKIP is not compatible with WPA-Personal, I`ve tried to use WPA-Enterprise instead, which also matches my company requirements.

I`ve been trying the new settings for 1 hour or so: the connection was amazingly stable, no drops, DHCP process succeded all the time. So far so good, but let me underline the fact that I`ve been testing it only for 1 hour.

In my understanding the only downside is that TKIP is less secure than AES, but honestly I haven`t understand yet if TKIP is THAT bad. I`ll be doing some tests to figure it out by myself, but maybe someone of you knows more about it.

It will be also very helpful for Cisco support if someone else of you would do the same tests and put some results here.

Hth

Daniele