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WAP4410N stops responding very often

xvillafuerte
Level 1
Level 1

Hi, we have 9 WAP4410N with PoE in our network. They were purchased on August. We found that very often in a week, they stop responding to any clients so they cannot get IP addresses, but we can ping the devices and enter the administration page. The only solution is to reboot the AP. I found some references to the same problem in the Cisco Forums and even some bad recommendations in Amazon.com about these APs, but now is too late and we need to found a solution.

We upgraded to firmware 2.0.3.3 but problem remains. We are completly sure that IP and DNS configurations are fine and that our switches and DHCP servers work fine, too. We have in the same LAN, APs 3COm from the 9150 series with no problems. These 3Com APs use the same network services that the 4410.

Currently we are testing the Force LAN to 100 Mbps option and using mixed encryption algorithms (AES and TKIP) because at the begining, we were only using AES. But, I feel that it is not a smart procedure because it is not based on any real fact; it is, may be a desperate choice.

In order to administer those APs, we normally connect at the night so we don´t affect anyone on the network. However, when I check the administration page, I can see that the utilization rate in all the APs is always more that 40%, and I am sure, nobody is using the AP at the night. Wierd. In a normal day, no more than 20 clients are connected to each AP.

Logs have no valuable information to use in order to find a solution.

So, any ideas or help would be much appreciated.

Xavier Villafuerte

246 Replies 246

Just tried with firmware 2.0.4.2 and that rendered the A/P completely useless.  There wireless configuration via the web interface had no effect, could not select the wireless mode to "enabled", and no options available in the dropdown box for the wireless channel selection.

Downgraded back to 2.0.2.1.

We still have to reboot all of these access points every 24 hours or so just to avoid the DHCP traffic from being blocked after a day or so.

cisco2188170
Level 1
Level 1

I posted the following in a different thread (WAP4410N firmware 2.0.4.2 bug: 300Mbps data rate not possible), but I'll repost it here in case it is helpful to others:

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.

I found that by disabling auto-channel, my problems went away.

I should also note that I had turned off SSID broadcasting, but I think that this problem exists even when you turn it on.

pablomarchiori
Level 1
Level 1

I called support again, told me that Cisco is aware of this problem, they're working on it and possibly a new firmware is available in early February.

This is a very common issue with this product. Are you running the latest firmware WAP4410N-fw-2.0.4.2-K9.img ? Another possible cause of the issue might be having the AP too close to a heat source. (though Cisco hasn't released anything comfirming this) You might wanna try giving the AP a nice cool home.

************** Tristan Manduley Cisco TAC

Yes, is a very common issue, here is the answer from Cisco Engineer (weeks ago, the answer was different, the error was not recognized)

"As discussed in the phone call, the problem you are experiencing is already recognized by CISCO and now are working to release a new version of firmware that is supposed to fix the problem.

Agree to the information we have available, should be published in late January to early February, but still do not have an exact date.

I have included your name and email address on a list of people who will be notified as soon as the firmware is released.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and assure you that we are working day and night trying to publish the firmware as soon as possible."

"Como lo discutimos en la llamada telefonica, el problema que usted esta  experimentando ya esta reconocido por CISCO y en estos momentos se esta  trabajando en publicar una nueva version del Firmware que se supone  solucione el problema.

Deacuerdo a la informacion que tenemos disponible, deberia de ser  publicado para finales de Enero principios de Febrero, pero todavia no  tenemos una fecha exacta.

He incluido su nombree y direccione de correo electronico en una lista  de las personas que seran notificadas tan pronto el firmware sea  publicado.

Sentimos mucho los inconvenientes que esto pueda causar y le aseguramos  que estamos trabajando dia y noche tratando de publicar el firmware lo  mas pronto posible."


BrokenBungee
Level 1
Level 1

The solution that finally solved this for my clients was to enable Clear To Send (CTS).  You'll take a small hit in terms of performance but its better than dealing with the dropouts.  I also have the access point restart every night like a Keep Alive.

The CTS feature is found in admin ->  Wireless -> Advanced Settings -> CTS Protection Mode.  Set it to Auto (Disabled by default).

The problem was that the AP wireless dropped out once or twice a day, and the unit needed to be restarted.  During this time, the SSID was not being broadcast, but the unit was on and could be reached through the GUI.

Some more possibly relevant information:

  • AP gets IP through DHCP (persistently set in router)
  • Key renewal time is default (3600)
  • Gigabit LAN is enabled
  • Security is WPA2 Mixed
  • Running firmware version 2.0.4.2
  • v2 model
  • Running as an stand alone Access Point
  • There are about 12 endpoints connected at any time, the daily wireless transfer is 2.5 - 5 GBs

Basically I undid all of the 'recommendations' I've found and set up the AP the way I would have to begin with - with CTS enabled - and the drouputs stopped.

Dear Cameron,

Were you able to achieve data rates above 130Mbps?

No matter what combinations of firmware and settings I've tried, I haven't been able to get 300Mbps rates with any firmware version except for 2.0.3.3.

But there are other problems with that version, too.

Cisco, is there any more information regarding that firmware update?

Thanks

mjusko
Level 1
Level 1

I'm very interested in when Cisco will be fixing this issue as well.  Unlike some on this thread, we only have 2 of the units, but they are both sitting on my shelf and were replaced by Linksys AP's.  I bought them because of the Cisco name on the box, but ended up pulling them down after they kept going down.  The lack of response from Cisco related to the inability for these AP's to function as they should is simply sad.  As I was reading through these posts it becomes clear how much time and energy Cisco's customers...CUSTOMERS...are putting in trying to get these AP's working instead of being able to focus on their other tasks.  Meanwhile it appears that Cisco is happy to keep selling the units to other unsuspecting customers when they should be putting out a bulletin recalling the ones they've already sold.

If there is a magic firmware update that will make these units available, I'd appreciate a link.  If the response it that I need to waste my time telling some tech about a problem they should already be fully aware of, then forget it.  I have work to do.

Forget about the fix, Cisco doesn't care.

I have 8 of these 4410n & no matter what I do they still sometimes refuse to provide clients with ip adress from dhcp, but they're still accesible over http or ssh. Only reboot helps.

I have the latest WAP4410N_V2.0.5.2.img firmware & a bat script in scheduler reboots access points every morning over ssh

Here's the script for one of them:

C:\DISTRIB\plink.exe admin@172.16.0.91 -pw p@ssw0rd "reboot"

Here you can download plink here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Hope it helps!

Similarly, we have tried all the suggestions by others, and still the same behaviour with all of the access points.  In the end, I just have a script that reboots them over SSH very few hours.

Happy to share the script as well.

----

#!/usr/bin/perl

#

# utility to reboot wireless access points due to software bug that

# drops DHCP responses from the server after a few hours or so

#

# run from cron...

#

use Net::SSH::Expect ;

my $apusername = "username";

my $appassword = "password";

my @accesspoints = qw(192.168.100.221 192.168.100.222 192.168.100.223 192.168.100.224 192.168.100.225 192.168.100.226 192.168.100.227);

foreach $ap (@accesspoints) {

        print "Rebooting Wireless Access Point at $ap ...\n";

        my $ssh2 = Net::SSH::Expect->new(

                host => $ap ,

                timeout => 3,

                user => $apusername ,

                password => $appassword ,

                raw_pty => 1 ,

                no_terminal => 1

        );

        my $prompt = $ssh2->login();

        $ssh2->send("reboot\n");

        if (defined ($line = $ssh2->read_line()) ) { print $line . "\n"; }

        $ssh2->close();

        print "Done.\n";

}

Wow that's a big one

How do people work if you reboot them every several hours? They loose connection & reconnect after reboot? That's not acceptable in my company

Fortunately the wireless carries only the "Guest" and "Auxiliary" networks.. staff actually physically in the office are generally connected on wired connections, except in the meeting rooms.  When on the guest networks they then have to connect via VPN to the access the corporate network. 

Having said that, the AP reboot cycle takes a whole of 30 to 45 seconds, and most clients will auto-reconnect.

L.

Well.. tried (again) upgrading to 2.0.4.2 and it's even worse than on 2.0.2.1 -- Clients can hardly access at all. 

Rollback time and continuing to use the ssh reboot script in cron until Crisco manages to fix their broken gear.

L.

Forget about these APs guys! My supplier replaced them (with Unifi APs) & I highly recommend you to do the same! 4410ns are piece of junk even with latest beta firmware - 100% tested!

Sebas Mulders
Level 1
Level 1

I am still running 2.0.4.2. Had a lot of problems with the WAP4410N AP's, but I discovered that when I turned off the checkbox "Allow wireless signal to be repeated by a repeater" (and so disabled WDS) the AP's are working very well.

My first set-up was build out of 3 WAP4410N units, 2 of them were repeating the main AP. Now they all have a wired connection, same SSID, but different channels (1/6/11). Since I changed the configuration, the AP's are running stable for 45 days (!!!). I also forced 100M mode.

Hope that this helps someone!

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