WAP121 extremely slow

[zacmutrux]

A client contacted me for assistance with their wireless network. They had just purchased three WAP121 wireless access points and upon setting them up discovered the devices provided extremely slow access to the Internet. They have cable Internet service from Comcast and when attached to Ethernet or an older wireless router, speedtest.net shows download speed of 30Mbps. But when connected to any one of the three WAP121 devices they get less than 1 Mbps down.

Upon reviewing the settings with Cisco tier 1 support nothing seems amiss. The issue persists even when the AP is transported to another site. I am awaiting contact from tier 2.

Anyone else seeing this kind of behavior?

[aubre]

621653149

[careyallenwood]

I would like to report that I have observed the same problem with two WAP121 units I recomended to a client as part of a new home network installation. The client purchased these new in April 2012. The ISP is Comcast and the router/firewall/switch is a Cisco ASA 5505. I chose this combination to take advantage of the PoE ports available on the security appliance. The access points are running the 1.0.0.3 firmware. I responded to complaints from the client that Internet access was slow. I spent two hours investigating the issue and have determined that the problem has to do with the 802.11n implementation on the device. Performance under 802.11b/g is acceptable. Performance under 802.11b/g/n or native 802.11n is acceptable for uploading, but download speed is consistently below 1MBps using www.speedtest.net. By comparison download speed using 100Base-T was consistently over 16MBps, download speed using 802.11b/g was better than 10MBps in all cases. I performed A-B testing on each access point and captured the results to JPG. I would like to know if Cisco is planning to address this issue? In the meantime I have set the access points to operate in 802.11b/g mode. I don't feel this is an adequate workaround.

[Eric Moyers]

Thank you for using the Cisco Community Post Forums.

Yes Sir we are looking into this issue. Please ca;; into the support center and open a case for this. Please reference this community post thread and have the agent send me the case number. They will know how to get in touch with me. (we work in the same area.) I can then work with them on this case.

I see you have already done some testing on your systems, please provide that to them as well.

Thanks

Eric Moyers

Cisco Network Support Engineer

SBSC Wireless and Surveillance SME

CCNA, CCNA-Wireless

1-866-606-1866

[careyallenwood]

The case number is 622216851. The test results have been added to the case notes.

[Eric Moyers]

The agent you spoke with, has already been over to talk with me. Thank you for this. As we progress, I will update you as to the next steps.

Eric

[Brian Bergin]

Eric,

Any movement on this?  I'm a Cisco Small Business Partner and have a customer who I was going to use WAP121's at but have put the project on hold based on this and some other threads.  I see there have been no new firmware updates as yet, 1.0.0.3 being the only one out there, so I was wondering what progress had been made on a solution?

Thanks...

Brian Bergin

Terabyte Computers, Inc.

[Eric Moyers]

I have been told that the firmware is almost through the testing and approval process. No firm date as of yet. I am also waiting to see the final release notes to see what is included in the firmware.

Eric Moyers

[John Hernandez]

Hello Eric,

Any new updates? Was reviewing this AP for some of our smaller offices but am concerned with the issue of the slow access.

[Terp84Alum]

Eric,

Any update on the firmware? I'm looking to buy 3 of these for one of my clients. thanks

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

[joergbachmayr]

Hi everybode,

also in Austria I have this problem.

Internet cable speed: 30 MBit down, 4 MBit up,

WAP121 speed: 0,7 down, 3,7 up

Seems it only affects the download speed.

And it is no difference if the device runs on PoE or on "normal" power.

But: if you set the radio settings to 802.11 b/g only (no 802.11n), then the download speed increases to 12 MBit.

Seems to be a problem with the 802.11n implementation (not very good, becaus I bought this product because of the combination PoE and 802.11n).

And it is no difference of I connect with the laptop, the mobile or the TV, no adequate 802.11n speed !!

I bought the device this week, so ... the problems are sill here (also firmware 1.0.0.3).

[joergbachmayr]

Hi again everybody!

Today I had a cisco support employee remote on my system, for two sessions, 1,5 and 2,5 hours.

Without any result.

The support employee got a test summary from me with an explaination of my network components / topology.

He will discuss this with his "SME" (his wirells specialist).

Lets see ...

The following information was also to his interest: the hw version of the WAP121:

The hardware version of my unit is: WAP121-E-K9V01

Is this the same version like your problem units ?

[careyallenwood]

The units I reported are WAP121-A-K9 V01.

[joergbachmayr]

I additionally played a little bit with the WAP121:

I already tested:

•    Using other security, no security -> no difference

•    Using shorter passwords -> no difference

•    Using PoE vs. normal power adapter -> no difference

•    Using DHCP vs. Static IP -> no difference

•    Disabling nealy every function (logging, spanning tree and so on) which is not necessary for WIFI communication -> no difference

•    Using only lower / upper channels, only 20/40 GHz -> no difference

My WAP121 is connected to a cisco SG300, internal network address 10.1.3.x

What other settings beside the factory default are other WAP121 victims using ?

[joergbachmayr]

Hi again,

today I got my replacement unit from amazon, the same issues!

Does anybody know a WAP121 owner who has no problems with the 802.11n speed ?

[joergbachmayr]

Hi Eric,

my case number is 622818519, the support employee was Stoyan Stoyanov.

Perhaps you can merge your experiences with these of Stoyan.

The replacement unit has the same issues than the original one (details see below).