Problem with WAP4410N as Repeater

Oliver Barth · ‎02-25-2014

Hi,

we have severe problems to get two of WAP4410N running one as AP and one of them as repeater.

First of all we upgraded both to: WAP4410N-fw-2.0.7.4-K9.img. After that we factory reset both.

One of them configured as AP with:

SSID Broadcast: enabled

Wireless Network Mode:B/G/N-Mixed

Wireless Isolation:(between SSID): disabled

Wireless Isolation:(within SSID): disabled

Security Mode: WPA2-Personal

and it works well. We can connect with PCs, mobile phones, etc

and we get an IP and can connect to the internet.

Then we tried configured the second one as repeater. We confingured it with the same parameters.

In particular the same SSID, with the same encryption, same channel, ...

We used the "Site Survey" button to get the wireless MAC and we doublechecked the AP

to have selected AP Mode "Acess Point" with the corresponding wireless MAC, and the other

one as "Wireless WDS repeater" with the right corresponding MAC of the AP.

"Allow wireless signal to be repeated by a repeater" has been enabled. We powercycled both

deviced several times. We changed security settings to WEP, no security, changed the isolation

modes, changed the channels and the modes to force only G or B mode with no success.

We did not manage to get it work. We have been able to connect to the repeater with the

appropriate security settings but we did not get an IP. It seems that it does it job very well, unless

it does not repeat the signal to the AP. We checked that we can connect to the AP from the location

where the repeater was located, and the "Site Survey" button showed up the corresponding AP.

So it has been visible to the repeater physically. Communication should have been possible.

We have no idea anymore how to get it work and would appreciate every single hint.

Thanks in advance

Oliver Barth

Oliver Barth · ‎02-25-2014

I just want to mention that we had not plugged in the router a wired connection.

mpyhala · ‎02-26-2014

Oliver,

Are the devices new? If so I recommend that you open a case with support. I have not configured the devices like you described since a few firmware versions ago, but it worked fine. There may be a problem with WDS in the latest firmware. I see no problems with the configuration as you described it.

www.cisco.com/go/sbsc

- Marty

Oliver Barth · ‎02-27-2014

We have more than 10 of these APs. But we want to start with two of them. Unluckily I can not state at the moment when these have been bought since we did not buy them all together.

jdaultonfcc · ‎02-26-2014

We are having the same issue. We have 4 WAP4410N devices... all 4 have been updated to the latest 2.0.7.4 firmware. 2 stand-alone AP's appear to be fine. The other two have been configured as an AP/Repeater and the connection is dropped. The connection will reconnect after a power-cycle of both devices but the connection will drop again after a few hours. Configs for both devices are the same. To troubleshoot I reset the repeater to factory defaults and re-configured but the problem still exist. I have yet to try this with the AP.

This setup was solid for quite some time on firmware 2.0.6.1

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jeremy

Oliver Barth · ‎02-27-2014

You mentioned that you have a connection. I think its not really a connection since one of the devices is only repeating the WIFI signal. You said you had a connection for at least several hours. Does this mean you have been able to connect to the AP via the repeater? With which firmware (2.0.7.4)? Is there any opporunity to test for the repeater if it actually is repeating the signal, or to see the connected devices on the AP? Maybe by login via ssh to the busybox console? As I can judge the sitution we had no "connection" at all. We have not been able to get an IP via the repeater. Direct client connections with mobile phones and PCs to the AP work fine.

Is there any possibility to check if the two devices are "connected"? How would be a debugging scenario? Where to start with debugging if I can not check for connected devices on the AP or check for the repeated signal to reach the AP?

I have to mention the devices had not been next to each other. However, we tested the signal strength of the AP from the repeaters location and the "Site Survey" Button also showed up the AP. So physically it should be possible to repeat the signal to the AP.

mpyhala · ‎02-27-2014

Oliver,

A good way to test is to put the "repeater" into WDS Bridge Mode and plug a laptop into it. If the bridge is connected to the main AP wirelessly, you should get an IP address on the laptop and be able to communicate with the LAN/WAN. In general Bridge uses the same technology as Repeater. The difference is that with Repeater the connected host(s) are wireless and with Bridge they are wired. I would say that if bridge works, repeater should also work.

- Marty

Oliver Barth · ‎02-28-2014

A colleague of mine allready tried to setup this bridging mode. With no success. This would support your theory that both modes behave very similar. As next step we try to downgrade both devices to 2.0.6.1 firmware. And thank you for this valuable hint. We are going to try to setup the bridging mode first.

mpyhala · ‎02-28-2014

Oliver,

If you confirm that WDS is broken in the latest firmware, please open a support case at:

www.cisco.com/go/sbsc

Make sure that you mention that you factory reset the devices after you upgraded the firmware.

- Marty

jdaultonfcc · ‎02-28-2014

Oliver,

Yes, we have been able to connect to the AP via the repeater. I downgraded to 2.0.6.1 as well(on the repeater only). So far the connection has been stable but I'm not holding my breath.

Jeremy

Oliver Barth · ‎03-12-2014

after hours of testing, here is what I found out:

----------

(all devices with 2.0.6.1) OR (AP with 2.0.6.1 and repeaters with 2.0.7.4):

----------

repeating works well, get an IP, everything seems to be fine

if I disconnect (take of power) a configured repeater from the network the ping latency rises up to factor of 10 for the remaining AP and repeater, ping was sent through the wired connection of the AP to the AP and the remaining repeater, network is not usable although websites are reachable, but very slow, changing encryption or speed settings does not help

----------

all devices with 2.0.7.4

----------

no client connected to any repeater or the AP:

repeater and AP know eachother, ping through the wired connection to AP and the repeaters is stable and fast

no client connected to any repeater or the AP:

if I disconnect (take of power) a configured repeater from the network the ping latency rises up to factor of 10 for the remaining AP and repeater, ping was sent through the wired connection of the AP to the AP and the remaining repeater, same situation as with 2.0.6.1

one client connected to the AP:

everything is fine, get an IP, can surf webpages

one client connected to the AP:

if I disconnect (take of power) a configured repeater from the network the ping latency rises up to factor of 10 for the remaining AP and repeater, ping was sent through the wired connection of the AP to the AP and the remaining repeater, same situation as with 2.0.6.1

one client connected to one of the repeaters:

client connects to the repeater but does not get an IP, ping through the APs wired connection does not reach this repeater anymore, ping latency for the remaining devices rises again, there seems to be no connection between this repeater and the AP anymore, this repeater and the AP have to be powercyled to restore, changing speed and encryption settings dont have any effects

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

It seems that in both firmwares a loss of a configured repeater takes down the rest of the AP<--->repeaters connection, or at least it gets very slow. Ping through the wired connection to the AP is still fast but to the remaining repeaters is very slow. For the latest firmware (2.0.7.4) it seems not to be possible to setup the easiest scenario with one AP and one repeater and connect to the repeater. With this firmware the devices seem to know eachother but any connection to a/the repeater breaks the network of the AP down. It seems that the AP always has a problem if a repeater is not reachable or visible to it and it seems that a "repeating setup" is not possible with latest firmware at all.

Oliver Barth · ‎03-12-2014

Maybe I should mention that all wifi connection tests has been done under OSX 10.9.2 (Mavericks)