Best way to set up wireless for roaming RDP user to prevent disconnects

[chris.chisholm]

I am trying to resolve a wireless issue for a busy medical office I work at; it is an 11,000 sf building with many exam rooms and offices, and 20-30 wireless users. We tried placing three WAP4410N devices around the building on different channels with a shared SSID, so that users would have connectivity anywhere in the building. The medical assistants and doctors connect to their EMR software using laptops connected via RDP and we seem to have an issue with connections dropping briefly when they move throughout the building. The disruption is enough that their RDP connections often become unresponsive and they have to take time to disconnect and reconnect again. The other issue is that the laptops would jump to a stronger signal when, for instance, a nurse walked to the front of the building to get a patient and came close to a different WAP, but then when they came back to the exam area, the device would hang onto that signal as it grew very weak instead of jumping back to the closer WAP.

We've also had issues with the a couple of the devices becoming completely unresponsive but I am hoping the firmware update will fix that. Is there a way to make this work properly with this model of router? How many devices should we need for full coverage?  If they just aren't up to this task, what should we be looking at to replace them? From what I have been able to research, what we are looking for is 'seamless roaming' and these devices don't support that. But I was told by a support tech that even the Aironet WAPs will have a few dropped packets going between APs so I would hate to upgrade yet again and still have the problem remain.

Thanks,

Chris

[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.

The issue your describing is normal for WAP4410N's.

Since there is not a wireless controller used with those WAPs, there is no way to control the roaming so that it is seamless. Without the controller, wireless signals actually have to drop before they can move from one signal to another.

The only solution to get seamless roaming is to include a wireless controller into your network. The small business APs in our current inventory do not support.

Aironets with a wireless controller is your best solution. Would just need to see what Cisco has that works within your budget.

Thanks

Eric Moyers    .:|:.:|:.

Cisco Small Business US STAC Advanced Support Engineer

CCNA, CCNA-Wireless

866-606-1866 ext 601027

Mon - Fri 09:00 - 18:00 (UTC - 05:00)

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