WAP4410N problems... (they making me cry now)

Alex_Kirr · ‎10-07-2011

We have 2 of these in the office one is connected into RVS4000 and another one is in repeater mode.

Been having various issues with these 2 such as NAS disappearing from network and being inaccessable until we actually turn WAP4410N off and on, loss of wireless for the office after a while until we turn it off and on again, individual loss of wireless for several minutes. So I initially played around with settings and got it quite stable, apart from NAS going away all the time.

So, then I said ok, I'll update the firmware to 2.0.4.2 and do it properly. I updated the firmware on both units and then factory reset all the settings to ensure nothing of the old code remained. I lefl most of the settings on the default apart from forcing ethernet to 100Mbps, which gave me the biggest stability improvement.

For the first day, everything worked, in fact worked perfectly. On the second day, wireless stopped working in the morning. I restarted the WAP4410N and it was fine for the day. On third day, same thing happened again, I restarted again and it was fine for 15 min and then teh problem was back. The loss of wireless was on individual basis, some people had wireless and some had not, some would be connected by not assigned an IP, leaving them with some internal IP (169.254.172.82, or something random like that) and some would not even be able to connect. So I restarted the wireless again and it happened again... very akward for me, so I pulled some hair out shook (metaphorically) the unit and it worked just fine until the end of the day, when it decided to do the same thing again.

Really... what's going on?

Alex_Kirr · ‎10-10-2011

No one has any ideas how to improve the wireless stability of these? From what I read on these forums WAP4410N seems to be a rather unstable piece of hardware.

mpyhala · ‎10-10-2011

Hi Alex,

Can you provide some more details about the network and the configuration? What wireless channel, Security Mode, etc. Hopefully we can help you narrow it down.

clorence · ‎10-10-2011

Hi ther, sorry to piggy back on this issue, I am also having the same problem. I'll try to post my setup as well.

have 3 WAP4410N, in WDS. 1st (named A1) acting as the central AP, and 2 as WDS Repeaters (Named A2 and A3 respectively).

I setup IP address of each device statically as follows:

A1 is 172.16.0.11

A2 is 172.16.0.12

A3 is 172.16.0.13

A1 is Allowing to repeat A2 and A3 mac address

Both A2 and A3 are repeating A1's mac address

Right now, the WDS is being encrypted with WPA2.

The problem is that after a couple of hours users arent able to recconnect to the WDS repeaters or either AP, and only workaround is to power cycle AP and WDS Repeaters.

we are using in all 3 devices, the firmware to 2.0.4.2

Alex_Kirr · ‎10-11-2011

Most of the settings are currently on defaults. The wireless channel is 3 and the security is WPA-2 Personal. Apart form that I believe I mentioned the key points of the network. We have a RVS4000 router that is connected to the switch, that serves the ethernet ports in the office, one WAP4410N is connected via one of those ports in the IT corner/batcave as we like to call it, the second WAP4410N is on the other side of the office, being simply in repeater mode for the first.

I did a little experiment and left my connected but disconnected laptop over night, come the morning and it was able to reconnect...eventually.

I had a look at logs for the routers but they weren't very useful, the first WAP4410N was full of:

Oct 10 17:32:53 kernel: [][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] SUBTYPE_AUTH

Oct 10 17:32:53 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Open Authentication

Oct 10 17:32:53 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Associated

Oct 10 17:33:05 kernel: [][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] SUBTYPE_AUTH

Oct 10 17:33:05 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Open Authentication

Oct 10 17:33:05 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Associated

Oct 10 17:33:18 kernel: [][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] SUBTYPE_AUTH

Oct 10 17:33:18 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Open Authentication

Oct 10 17:33:18 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Associated

Oct 10 17:33:36 kernel: [][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] SUBTYPE_AUTH

Oct 10 17:33:36 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Open Authentication

Oct 10 17:33:36 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Associated

Oct 10 17:33:52 kernel: [][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] SUBTYPE_AUTH

Oct 10 17:33:52 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Open Authentication

Oct 10 17:33:52 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Associated

Oct 10 17:34:07 kernel: [][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] SUBTYPE_AUTH

Oct 10 17:34:07 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Open Authentication

Oct 10 17:34:07 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Associated

Oct 10 17:34:26 kernel: [][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] SUBTYPE_AUTH

Oct 10 17:34:26 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Open Authentication

Oct 10 17:34:26 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Associated

Oct 10 17:34:51 kernel: [][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] SUBTYPE_AUTH

Oct 10 17:34:51 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Open Authentication

Oct 10 17:34:51 kernel: [LG][1C:4B:D6:7A:7F:64] Associated

And so on and so forth... predominatly only that MAC. At around midnight the logs stop and only begin again at around 6.

I decided to try and turn off the repeater just in case... but my phone just lost connection to the wireless as I was typing this...

Also forgot to mention we have 2 SSIDs set up, one for general in-office use and another for guests. So I had VLAN and QoS set up. I disabled it right now, to see if does anything.

Update: I disabled the whole VLAN and QoS business, we can live without a guest network. So far everything been working fine, I had a few seconds hitch but no one complained about wireless so far. I'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Update on the situation

mpyhala · ‎10-11-2011

Hi Alex and Carlos,

It appears that you are using the devices as intended. Alex, I find it interesting that disabling VLAN and QoS made some difference. Have either of you considered setting the channel to Auto to see if the APs stay connected better? Are you aware of the channels that are being used in your area?

It would be helpful if you would call Cisco Small Business Support and open a case. If there is an ongoing issue with these devices we need to get as much detail as possible so the development team can try to work out any bugs via firmware updates. Please initiate a chat session or call at your convenience. You can find a number here: www.cisco.com/go/sbsc

Alex_Kirr · ‎10-12-2011

From scanning the network channels 3 and 11 are the least used in the area. I also found it strange for VLAN and QoS to make any difference...