WAP4410N firmware 2.0.4.2 bug: 300Mbps data rate not possible

[cisco2188170]

I've spent parts of the past five days buying and exchanging several WAP4410N units because I was not able to achieve anything close to a 300Mbps data rate. I also tried various wireless-n network cards which were known to be configured correctly for 300Mbps speeds with no luck.

The highest speed I was able to achieve was 130Mbps, which is an indication that channel bonding is not in effect.

Then I came across another post in the forums:

WAP4410N does not exceed 130Mbps in N mode at close range.

where the OP mentions recently upgrading to firmware 2.0.4.2, though not treating that as the cause of his problems.

On a lark, I tried downgrading to both firmware 2.0.2.1 and firmware 2.0.3.3, and to my surprise, I was able to achieve the full 300Mbps data rate with both firmware versions.

When I reverted back to 2.0.4.2, I was not able to achieve the full 300Mbps data rate.

So, right now, I downgraded to firmware 2.0.3.3 so I can get the higher data rate, though there are other quirks to deal with.

Furthermore, when I do a web search of reviews, I can see that the inability to achieve the 300Mbps data rate is a huge source of complaints.

Cisco, please fix this firmware!

Edited to add: I found another post regarding the same phenomenon:

WAP4410n LIMITED TO 130Mbs in N-mode

[bradolliver]

Hi James,

I never heard further discussion over my speed problems.  I do agree that upgrading to v 2.0.4.2 will kill what ever speed there actually is.  I have an EnGenius EAP9550 WAP and with a real data transfer speed measuring tool I can surpass 130 Mbps to my Dell 1737 laptop.  I have come close to 270 Mbps and the Internet was incredibly fast.  I realize that with only 100 Mbps input you cannot expect 300 Mbps output all the time.  Security such as WPA2-Personal introduces further delays but the WAP4410N appears to have a problem and I challenge other owners to write in with their experiences and hopefully Cisco can make the product work the way it should.

Best regards,

Brad

[cisco2188170]

I did call in to their technical support shortly after I posted my original message, and the technician said that they were aware of the problem.

What that means in terms of the timeframe of getting a fix, I have no idea.

I wish Cisco employees would actually provide more feedback in some form.

Lastly, there has to be a better way to report bugs than using these Jive Software forums. Everything is lumped into "Small Business Wireless", and there's no notion of creating a ticket or a support request.

At least create a forum for each model or something like that. I know you can add tags, but not everyone does that. It would be easier for everyone.

[Eric Moyers]

Hi, My name is Eric Moyers. I am a Network Support Engineer in the Cisco Small Business Support Center. Thank you for using the Cisco Community Post Forums.

I would like to check up on this issue for you. Do you have the case number from where you called in or the Tech's name?

Thanks
Eric Moyers
Cisco Network Support Engineer
SBSC WIreless and Surveillance SME
CCNA, CCNA-Wireless
1-866-606-1866

[cisco2188170]

Hi, Eric.

When I called in (on November 17 around 4:30pm EST), I spoke with an engineer about this to see if I could get any information about this problem.

I refered the engineer to this post by reading the URL over the phone. He "pinged" the network development team, and he relayed to me that the issue was known.

I cannot remember if a case was created specifically for this issue because I didn't have a WAP4410N unit at the time. I was having so many problems with the ones that I had tried up until that point that I wasn't sure if I was going to keep trying.

Quite honestly, there seem to be a number of critical long-standing issues where there seems to be no immediate fix, this issue being one of them. This is surprising to me, since I have long worked with other non-Linksys Cisco enterprise equipment without these kinds of problems.

For example, I was also having this issue WAP4410N stops responding very often, which I think is caused when you have auto-channel configuration enabled, but I cannot be sure.

I hope this helps.

[bradolliver]

Hi James,

Having had my WAP4410N for over a year I have tried many things including using a fixed channel and trying different setting combinations with no success.  I also have had the WAP4410N just stop and not come back on for 10-15 minutes.  I no longer use it as it is too unreliable.  I now use other competitors devices which have a good track record.  I have used Linksys/Cisco products exclusively for over 15 years with only minor concerns but this product is useable and needs either a firmware or firmware and hardware redesign.  I question whether it even has the hardware onboard to use Gigabit LAN.  Maybe Cisco can help answer what is being done to correct the products shortcomings.

Best regards,

Brad

[cisco2188170]

Hi Brad,

With firmware 2.0.3.3, when I had auto-channel enabled, I was having problems connecting with Windows 7 clients. I think it might secondarily be a Windows issue in terms of how Windows determines whether a combination of SSID/AP hardware address/channnel are treated as being in the same wireless network.

Ironically, I tried out this WAP4410N model specifically because it has gigabit LAN. Over the course of time, I developed the same concerns about the actual gigabit hardware. Were you ever able to achieve speeds of more than 100Mbps to the LAN (not just to other wireless clients)?

I guess my question at this point is if there is a firmware update in the works for any of these problems. It's been more than six months since the last firmware was released.

Thanks

[bradolliver]

Hi James,

When I bought the WAP4410N I was still using Vista and a beta of Windows 7 x64.  My PC was reporting 300Mbps but I never believed it and just figured this was better then the Linksys Wap54g with DD-WRT. I was only showing 54Mbps on my laptops but the amount of data I could download over a minute was better then the WAP4410N.  The best speed I can achieve (but only lasts a few minutes) is 130Mbps from the WAP4410N and downloads are painfully slow.  Using a desktop gadget "network meter" on one of my desktop PCs with a wireless N USB adapter it is showing a speed of 54Mbps and a signal strength of 70% at a distance of 4 feet from the WAP4410N.  At this distance I also experience interruptions in connection and poor performance.  I do not know if my WAP4410N is defective but a beta firmware is to be released this month that is supposed to help.  I have had to recommend other brands in this price range to those wishing to buy a stable product as this performance is not acceptable.  My network is mostly GigaLan devices and strangely the intelligent switch reports the WAP4410N as running at 100Mbps with the firmware set the 1000Mbps so there is another mystery.

Best regards,

Brad

[John Frankish]

I'm using a wap4410n as an ap with another wap4410n as a range extender.

I had many problems with the two wap4410n, but upgrading to 2.0.4.2 seems to have solved most, if not all of them. Using a win7 laptop connected to the range extender, the laptop reports a connection speed of >200mb/s and I can use iPlayer to stream video in real time - given that the range extender effectively halves the bandwidth, this must indicate a reasonable data rate.

My remaining issue is - and it's not clear if the problem is with the wap4410n or the rvs4000 they are connected to - that +/- once per week everything slows to a crawl, the browser interfaces freeze and I'm obliged to cycle the power on all three devices to get things working again.

[cisco2188170]

Can someone from Cisco confirm whether or not this problem will be addressed for rumored firmware update?

Also, I am having more technical success by downgrading to firmware 2.0.3.3 with regards to this issue, as well as other issues like WAP4410N stops responding very often.

To get everything to work, I had to turn off auto-channel configuration as well, but that seemed to do the trick for me. I haven't had any additional problems the access point freezing up. As I mentioned previously, I think Windows 7 (in my case) is having trouble determining whether combinations of SSID/AP mac address/channel are on the same wireless network.

[spongebob2]

Hello,

I was having issues getting above 130Mbs myself. I downgraded the firmware to 2.0.3.3 but I don't think that was the fix. I set Channel Bandwidth in the Advanced Wireless Setting to "Auto" to allow both 40Mhz and 20Mhz bandwidths. Channel config was always "Auto" and now InSIDDer reports 300Mbs on channel 1 and 5.

Guess I should upgrade the firmware back and make sure it all works still.

Sorry to all the wireless adapter vendors I bad-mouthed over this issue