1142N radio configs to support older clients

[lcaruso]

I'm new to Cisco dot11radio configurations.

Can someone please share the commands I would use to set the 2.4 and 5Ghz radios so that older laptops can see their SSID broadcasts and connect.

Thanks in advance.

[lcaruso]

When a wireless network has a mixed environment of 802.11b clients and 802.11g clients, make sure that data rates 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps are set to required (basic) and that all other data rates are set to enable. The 802.11b adapters do not recognize the 54 Mbps data rate and do not operate if data rates higher than 11Mbps are set to require on the connecting access point.

[lcaruso]

Is it true that older adaptors cannot see WPA2 enabled radios (aes-ccm)?

[Surendra BG · Accepted solution]

It depends upon the vendor.. that is.. if the adaptor supports AES-CCM encryption then we can connect with WPA-2

Regards

Surendra

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[Surendra BG · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you map the SSID to Radio 0, then you can use B and G clients.. that is by enmabling 1,2,5.5,11 Datarates..

the commands i guess you have already configured these..

int dot11 0

ssid

speed ?          (if you hit the question question mark you will come to know various possibilities)

end

Regards

Surendra

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[lcaruso]

Thank you

[lcaruso]

Please see attached configuration...I'm using multiple SSID/VLAN combinations so each SSID is associated with each radio and its subinterfaces.

Can I still accomplish what you mention above in this configuration?

VLAN     Use

-----------------------

10          Native

20          Internal

30          Public

Does this configuration pass your sanity check?

[Surendra BG]

I can see that the speed settings are in Default configurations.. that means.. this supports B/G/A..

Regards

Surendra..

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[lcaruso]

I can see that the speed settings are in Default configurations.. that means.. this supports B/G/A..

If that's true, why do they go to such great lenghts in the IOS manual to state this below and give examples?

When a wireless network has a mixed environment of 802.11b clients and 
802.11g clients, make sure that data rates 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps are 
set to required (basic) and that all other data rates are set to enable.
 The 802.11b adapters do not recognize the 54 Mbps data rate and do not 
operate if data rates higher than 11Mbps are set to require on the 
connecting access point.

For exampe, I thought I had to do the command below instead of leaving it at the defaults.Please clarify.

int dot11radio 0
speed basic-1.0 basic-2.0 basic-5.5 basic-11.0 6.0 9.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0

Is there a command that shows the enabled speeds/types rather than the available speeds obtained by typing speed ? under dot11radio0

[lcaruso]

You helped me realize I could better organize my configuration (since I had both SSIDs mapped to both radios).

If you map the SSID to Radio 0, then you can use B and G clients.. that is by enmabling 1,2,5.5,11 Datarates..

This way, internal users get the higher bandwidth radio to themselves which is intended.

Thanks again for this comment.

[Surendra BG]

Thats nice to hear!! so i guess everything is working fine??

Regards

Surendra

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[lcaruso]

Sorry to say--No, I still have the same problem.

The built-in card on my test laptop, which is a  three year old Dell Inspiron 1525 with a Dell 1395 Mini WLAN card, has never seen the 1124N SSID broadcasts no matter how I confgure encryption or speed on dot11radio0. When I switch the a newer USB based card, it always sees the 1124N.

Do you have any suggestions for me to try?

[lcaruso]

I've tried it both ways, with the default speeds and this

int dot11radio 0
speed basic-1.0 basic-2.0 basic-5.5 basic-11.0 6.0 9.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0

but neither allows this Dell 1395 mini wlan card to see the 1142N.

When I use the alternate adaptor, it reports dot11radio0 as being in 802.11g mode.

What commands will put the radio into 802.11b mode?

[Surendra BG]

The speed configurations is allowing the B-radio.. so no problem in the configurations, looks more like a client issue.. what happens if you download intel proset or any dricer and see what happens?? also make sure the client adaptor supports AES.. because i guess we have configured WPA2-AES

Regards

Surendra

[lcaruso]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the confusion.

In order to eliminate any possible issues like AES or any other encryption, I temporarily configured the SSID I'm attempting to connect to as completely open--and it still is not seen by the Dell. The client does not even see the beacon.

My new client reports the beacon radio type as 802.11g. I'm positve my older client does not support 802.11g. Is there any way to configure the radio so it appears to be a downlevel radio like 802.11b?

Please note my config has this SSID/VLAN combo on dot11radio0 alone with no others.

If this were purely a client issue, then this older Dell client would not be able to connect to my Checkpoint Z100G--but it can and has never had any problems there. Based on this experience, I don't believe it is purely a client issue.

The Intel Proset appears to be intended for Intel based adaptors, or at least I could not download it w/o one since it want to detect and update my Intel adaptor or leads to a manual download list where it does not exist.

or any dricer

What?