WAP4410N mac address changes

[julienbeauviala]

Hello all,

I'm having a weird issue with a dozen WAP4410N we just bought : The MAC address assigned to them (i.e. the one printed on the products body) apparently changes for no reason (that I can understand anyway).

I noticed this because I assigned static leases to them through our isc-dhcpd, and couldnt connect to them via their supposed IP address. Looking at the log I could see that the MAC was slightly different from the printed one : A4:93:4C:B1:91:56 became A2:93:4C:B1:91:57,2C:54:2D:38:E5:AA became 2A:54:2D:38:E5:AB, etc.

If I reboot them either from the web interface or by doing a 'shut no shut' on the POE link, they sometimes revert to the original MAC address. Sometimes not, with yet another slight variation on the MAC address.

While not a real issue - I can still make their IP static and be done with it - I want to understand what is happening and why. All the WAP4410N are connected to either Catalysts 4506 or 2960, VLAN is enabled, Default VLAN ID is not default, VLAN Tag is set to 'Untagged' and VLAN Tag over WDS is set to 'Disabled'. All 4410N are running '2.0.5.3' firmware.

I'm rather baffled, seeking advice. Thanks.

j.

[Tom Watts]

Hi Julien, that is pretty weird. I wonder if it is somehow affixing the wireless MAC address. You can check the wireless MAC address on the repeater page. How many variations do you observe?

I could only think of 3 possibility, system id, port id, wireless ID. Since it has only 1 ethernet port, I'd imagine the system ID and the port ID would be the same.

-Tom
Please mark answered for helpful posts

[julienbeauviala]

Hello Tom, thank you for answering,

only one variation :

2c:54:2d:38:e5:aa <- what is printed (expecting that).

2a:54:2d:38:e5:ab <- what it becomes sometimes* (which is the third SSID MAC address) ;

* sometimes being 'upon reboot', either because some parameter change made it reboot, or I rebooted it on purpose. AFAIK the MAC address does not change while the WAP is up.

Maybe it is my mis-understanding of the device that is confusing me (please bare with me and my english) : On the other side of the WAP (let's say on a C2960), I configured the port as a trunk port with native vlan of 999, allowing all vlans through.

I then configured the WAP with a Default VLAN ID of 999 and the VLAN Tag menu as 'disabled'. No native mismatch, seems OK, dhcp assigns a static IP to the WAP using the labeled MAC address.

I assign 11 to the 'AP Management VLAN' field, as I might need to connect to the WAP in wireless (one of the three SSID is for Vlan 11).

Yet when I connect through ssh to the WAP and do this :

# get vlanmanagement

  AP Management VLAN: 11

# get vlandefault

  Default VLAN: 999

# get nativevlanid

  Native VLAN ID: 11  <-- surprised by this.

The third SSID (the one that seems to 'override' the AP MAC address) is specifically for VLAN 11, so I'm wondering if the bleed comes from there, and/or something I missed in the configuring of the WAP.

On the status > Local network I have :

PID VID:     WAP4410N-E V02

Software Version:     2.0.5.3

Local MAC Address:     2A:54:2D:38:E5:AB

On the status > Wireless :

SSID1 MAC Address:     2C:54:2D:38:E5:AB

SSID2 MAC Address:     2E:54:2D:38:E5:AB

SSID3 MAC Address:     2A:54:2D:38:E5:AB

SSID4 MAC Address:    

On the label barcode : 2C:54:2D:38:E5:AA

I'll keep trying stuff on my side, but I'm hoping that the above information will make the solution of this puzzle easier.

Thanks again,

j.