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?

[peterjamesduckett]

Can i tell you mine as you may be able to replicate as it is a cisco SG200-26

[Eric Moyers]

To get a little more info before I lab this up:

Which firmware are you on for both the switch and the AP?

Are you running any vlans or special configurations or is it basically a flat network?

Eric Moyers

[peterjamesduckett]

My network is completly flat at the moment only DNS and NTP is set up with static ip address 192.168.0.2 and .3 for AP

Both switch and AP current

with single SSID

firmware

ap = 1.0.4.2

SG200 = 1.1.2.0 ( i see thier is a new firmware for this switch i might try this tonight and see if thier is any differance)

[Nagaraja Thanthry]

Hello Peter,

What is the make/model of the router?

Thanks,

Nagaraja

[peterjamesduckett]

The Router is a Sky hub v102

I have Actually had a bit of luck by playing around and managed to go from 3Mps to over 15Mbps it turns out that my Cisco Switch reconised the AP using something call SmartPort which applies macros to configure ports it reconises. Turning this off and removing the macro of the port seemed to solve the problems and the speed jumped up not to an ideal maximum but probably the maximum for the congestion in the area

[Martijn van Dijck]

I almost forgot this..

I used 2Vlan's on my router and configured vlan in the WAP121.

one VLAN 10 for guests one VLAN 1 for home.

Default VLAN (home) was my default subnet vlanID 1

My guest VLAN id 10 Did not have any performace issues....

Onle the default VLAN.

The same with no aditional VLAN configured.

[EmanuelJSC]

I find it quite remarkable that this isnt resolved, almost 1,5 years later, I have made an installation with eight of these WAP121 and one of the is exhibiting the exact same problem discussed in this thread. Is anyone at Cisco doing anything about this at this moment? Im happy to help and provide information and remote access.

My guess is that all the suggestions in this thread arent the real cause of the problem, Im drawing this conclusion from the fact that it seems to be a different thing or setting that "solves" the problem for all of the different users. I have tried all the suggestions in this thread without any change.The post above mine for example, I also run different VLAN and SSIDs but I get below 1mbit down on all of them. So as I said I dont think anyone has actually found the solution to the problem.

Another unrelated question, Cisco states that the maximum number of APs in a cluster i four but Im running eight at the moment, did I miss something?

[RICK DEXTER]

Same problem here.   121 attached to Comcast cable modem.  When I plug my laptop into the cable modem I get 75MB down and 15MB up.  When I plug the AP into the Comcast, I get 500kbps down and 12MB up.  Using speakeasy.net and speedtest.net similar results.

Firmware is 1.0.4.2.

I have tried this with one AP standalone.  I first noticed it in cluster config, and after reading this thread I took out another AP and used factory default settings (including DHCP IP address).

This is happening to me on 12 brand new AP's.

I'm done with Cisco equipment unless this is resolved before Christmas.

[mattzappasodi]

For Comcast modems:

Update Firmware, and Turn off 'N' - Just broadcast 802.11b/g networks

[RICK DEXTER]

Thanks for the tip.  Turning off N got me from 500kpbs download to 10MB download.  Changing MTU to 1472 got me an additional 2MB for about 12MB total.  Pathetic given I plug a laptop into the same wire that is connected to the AP121 and I get 75MB/15MB.

[EmanuelJSC]

Could we please get some kind of response from you Cisco? I have bought 12 of these for a single installation and several of them are showing signs of this bug from time to time. This is a MAJOR fault with this model, please fix this. This AP121 is broken right now.

[Martijn van Dijck]

I believe It all has to do with a combination of devices. (ROUTER MODEM ISP)

I had the same problem at home. (Genexis Fiber Router)

I tested the unit at work and there it worked ok. 35/35 add work and add home 2/60 (Fiber with out a Router with our own firewall)

I place the 3 units WAP121 at the location from the customer and there where now problems. luckaly. FIber from KPN With a Genexis NTU (no KPN router)

I did some  tests and reported the resulst to Cisco support.

The prommised to look at this issue.

[EmanuelJSC]

I gain nothing when I turn off N, still the same crappy 1mbps download.

[David Rodrigues]

     I submitted this issue to Cisco in December which involved jumping through several hoops for them to "prove" the issue existed. I waited almost a month and recieved no response back from anyone. Contacted support again who then pushed the case from level 1 to level 2 support and appologized for it getting delayed. I then recieved an e-mail from a level 2 support tech who wanted to speak with me. Only thing is the level 2 tech is in China which required me making an international call at 8PM EST (9AM China) to discuss. So I did. The tech, who could barley communicate with me due to the language barrier told me they knew the issue existed and were requesting a firmware with the fix and would notify me when the beta was available. At this point remeber that I had to jump through hoops to "prove" the issue existed while all along they apparently already were aware....

      So here I am three weeks later and still no response. Moments ago I made a call back to Cisco and spoke with a manager. Bottom line we agreed on was if they don't get back to me within a week (2 months total from initial request) with a fix I am requesting my money back. This issue has been clearly going on for well over a year and Cisco is aware of it yet continues to sell the defective product.

     Sorry this post does not invlove any technical assistance but I just wanted to let eveyone know according to Cisco directly it has nothing to do with external factors such as certain modems, switches or any settings. It's a straight bug in their product that they just don't seem to want to fix. I say "want" not can't" because I find it hard to believe Cisco engineers can't resolve this. If they actually can't thats pretty sad. Moral of the story don't waste your time with this product.

[Nagaraja Thanthry]

Hello David,

While it is true that the issue was reported some time ago, unfortunately, this issue could not be reproduced in a lab environment. This makes us to believe that the issue is specific to certain network environments where either the network traffic profile or other network elements cause the WAP121 to exhibit the behavior you are experiencing. Our Engineering team is working dilligently to identify the trigger that causes this behavior. We will keep you posted on the progress through the Service Request you have opened for this issue. Please feel free to contact our team members if we could be of any other help in the interim.

Regards,

Nagaraja