Cisco AP541N Mis-represented re 'Guest Access'

[hobbcomp12]

'Cisco AP 541N includes an easy-to-follow graphical user interface (GUI) to guide you through the setup of a guest network. This highly secure guest access solution lets visitors get online without granting them any visibility into your business network and without impeding the performance of your business applications. The solution even lets you provide a welcome screen to greet visitors using your guest network (it could be a welcome screen or company policy).'

I've been all over the GUI and cannot see it for looking or it doesnt exist!

Anyone fancy sharing?

[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.

For Guest Access:

Highly secure guest access:

In a world where technology touches virtually every aspect of business operations, vendors and customers often need to access the Internet when visiting your business location. The Cisco AP 541N includes an easy-to-follow graphical user interface (GUI) to guide you through the setup of a guest network. This highly secure guest access solution lets visitors get online without granting them any visibility into your business network and without impeding the performance of your business applications. The solution even lets you provide a welcome screen to greet visitors using your guest network (it could be a welcome screen or company policy).

From the Admin Guide:

Redirect Mode Enable the HTTP redirect feature to redirect wireless clients to a custom Web page. When redirect mode is enabled, the user is redirected to the URL you specify after the wireless client associates with an access point and the user opens a Web browser on the client to access the Internet. The custom Web page must be located on an external Web server and might contain information such as the company logo and network usage policy.

NOTE: The wireless client is redirected to the external Web server only once, when it is first associated with the access point.

Redirect URL Specify the URL where the Web browser is to be redirected after the wireless client associates with the access point and sends HTTP traffic. Length is 1 to 120 alphanumeric and special characters, in the form "^[A-Za-z]+://[A-Za-z0-9-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9]+"). For example: http://cisco.com.

I do agree that for the AP541N, creating the guest Network is not the easiest or most intuitive. But, it is available and possible. HTTP Redirect will direct your users to a separate Webserver. For it to be separate from your internal network, it will also have to be on a separate VLAN and the router needs to be able to turn inter-VLAN routing off or disable it.

I hope this helps.

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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[hobbcomp12]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your reply.

It does not list in the product guides that an ADDITIONAL device is needed to deliver the guest functionality though?

It seems that I am not the only person that has encountered this ( https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2064968 ) and in my opinion the product literature suggests no other devices are required in order to provide the guest access feature

I'll take a look at the admin guide and see if I can get it to work with our Sonicwall TZ215.

Thanks

Pete

[Eric Moyers]

No Sir, you are not the only one that has had questions on the topic. Please let me know how it goes.

Eric Moyers