WAP371 client disconnects

[anthonya1]

I have a similar issue as others have had with the WAP371 and clients disconnecting randomly. most of the discussion didn't have any real content, just said to open a case, which I have not done yet as im still researching this but I wanted to see if anyone has advice on my issue. I have both the 2.4 and 5ghz radios on, connection is good and all works fine. after 1 or 2 days, they just stop passing data. my clients show a connection but I cant do anything with it. I CAN access the AP from them but I have to reboot the AP in order to get network access back. It isn't like clockwork, but it does happen at least every 2 days or so. a reboot fixes it. sometimes, say 1 in 4, I lose complete connection to the ap and it will not rejoin. it DOES show up in the connection list, the ssid that is. the event logs are of little help, not indicating anything wrong. I thought originally channel interference, but ive ruled that out since. also worth noting, this replaced an apple airport extreme ap with the same basic settings. that ap worked fine for close to a year. same client connections, cabling, etc. it has to be something on the ap. tried an older 1.0 and newer 1.1 code. same results. any ideas? thanks!

[Eric Moyers]

My name Eric Moyers. I am an Engineer in the Small Business Support Center.

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this issue. 

Possibility: The issue could be due to the client wireless cards (on the laptop or mobile devices) are on aggressive mode and actively trying to find other SSID's with better signal strength

Action: Verify if your environment has multiple SSID's acting within the same frequency band. If the Wireless clients are configured to connect to multiple SSID's, try eliminating some of those. Also, Look on the clients, See if the the "Roaming Aggressiveness" are set and either disable or settings to "Medium".

If these do not help or you have already tried this then it is possibly a compatibility issue with your NIC and the WAP. But in order to explore that we need to get you a case and connected to an engineer.

If my suggestions do not improve your issue, please call our support center and open a case so that one of our engineers can work directly with you.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/web/tsd-cisco-small-business-support-center-contacts.html

Eric Moyers
.:|:.:|:. CISCO | Cisco Presales Technical Support | Wireless Subject Matter Expert

Please rate helpful Posts and Let others know when your Question has been answered.

[anthonya1]

Hi Eric, thank you for your response. the clients vary from wireless speakers and other non-pc hardware to macbooks. I don't have access to those settings on most of the devices but ill check on my MacBook. I scanned the area and I don't see anyone else broadcasting the same ssid, I only have the one wap371 and I know Im not broadcasting multiple's of the ssid. one ssid is for the b/g/n radio and the other is for the a/ac radio. not much traffic on the channels im using. I disabled the auto channel select, it seemed to cause mass chaos so I just hard set the channels (same thing happened on my old stable AP). what's really strange is that when the issue occurs, I CANNOT reconnect to the wifi. they show up but I cant reconnect to either the N or AC radio. ive rebooted my MacBook, brought the interface up and down, etc etc. it will not connect until I reboot the AP. even after I reboot some clients don't connect without rebooting them, i.e. hp wifi printer, etc. it is brand new, im thinking maybe its defective?

[Eric Moyers]

Off the cuff, what it sounds like is that when the client loses connection, for whatever reason, that the WAP is not recognizing that the client has lost the connection. So when they try to reconnect it looks and thinks, OK it is connected, nothing to do. What type of encryption are you using?

Also I understand no one else is using your SSID, but how many SSID's in general are in your area?  

Do you have Band Steer enabled? What is the Broadcast Refresh Rate set to? Try making longer. Try 43200 or 86400.

Eric Moyers
.:|:.:|:. CISCO | Cisco Presales Technical Support | Wireless Subject Matter Expert

Please rate helpful Posts and Let others know when your Question has been answered.

[anthonya1]

im using WPA2 AES encryption. there are quite a few BSSIDs in my area, my ap sees around 10, but ive scanned and seen way more. the signal strength is pretty low on them and there are only 2 on my 2.4 channel and they are medium in strength and there are 0 on the 5ghz channel. I do not have band steer on, I believe I had 50ms for beacon interval but I uped it to 1sec. (didn't see broadcast refresh rate). its also worth noting I have a netatmo weather sensor that constantly connects and disconnects (to save power im guessing) below is a quick snippet from the log:

office-ap.ch.com Mar 13 09:28:21 host
apd[2256]: station: 00:24:e4:18:60:b0 deauthenticated

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog
Mar 13 09:28:21 office-ap. Mar 13 09:28:21 host
apd[2256]: STA 00:24:e4:18:60:b0 deauthed from BSSID 1c:de:
a7:65:e7:c8 reason 4: Disassociated due to inactivity

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog
Mar 13 09:27:31 office-ap. Mar 13 09:27:31 host
apd[2256]: STA 00:24:e4:18:60:b0 associated with BSSID 1c:d
e:a7:65:e7:c8

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog
Mar 13 09:27:31 office-ap. Mar 13 09:27:31 host
apd[2256]: Assoc request from 00:24:e4:18:60:b0 BSSID 1c:de
:a7:65:e7:c8 SSID

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog
Mar 13 09:27:21 office-ap. Mar 13 09:27:21 host
apd[2256]: station: 00:24:e4:18:60:b0 deauthenticated

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog

13 09:27:21 office-ap. Mar 13 09:27:21 host
apd[2256]: STA 00:24:e4:18:60:b0 deauthed from BSSID 1c:de:
a7:65:e7:c8 reason 4: Disassociated due to inactivity

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog
Mar 13 09:26:32 office-ap. Mar 13 09:26:32 host
apd[2256]: STA 00:24:e4:18:60:b0 associated with BSSID 1c:d
e:a7:65:e7:c8

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog
Mar 13 09:26:32 office-ap. Mar 13 09:26:32 host
apd[2256]: Assoc request from 00:24:e4:18:60:b0 BSSID 1c:de
:a7:65:e7:c8 SSID

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog
Mar 13 09:26:24 office-ap. Mar 13 09:26:24 host
apd[2256]: STA 14:10:9f:ed:6c:c6 associated with BSSID 1c:d
e:a7:65:e7:c0

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog
Mar 13 09:26:24 office-ap. Mar 13 09:26:24 host
apd[2256]: Assoc request from 14:10:9f:ed:6c:c6 BSSID 1c:de
:a7:65:e7:c0 SSID

host = office-ap. source = udp:514 sourcetype = syslog

[Eric Moyers]

Hello

Broadcast Refresh Rate is set in same section where you select WPA version and enter your key for encryption.

Eric

[anthonya1]

found it and changed it. thanks! will see what happens....

[anthonya1]

I've had a bit of time to see what happens, i didn't see this change help BUT I've done a lot more research and what i found is I'm almost 100% sure its some kind of interference. my old ap didn't have this issue BUT the A radio is working find now after changing the channel from the auto to a specific channel, i found a few through a wifi scan that seemed clean. A radio is running clean now. b/g/n is still a struggle. i get a TON of FCS errors, transmit retrys, ack failures, duplicate frame and multiple retry. changing the channel helped but they won't get even close to the A radio, and yes i know its both normal and expected but not this many. i compared it to other environments and its way way high. i powered on my old ap and i don't see them go this high. i tried changed RTS and a few other settings but they don't help. i realize this is everyones bane, but any remaining suggestions? thank you for all your help!

[anthonya1]

ive tried all kinds of setting and changes. the 5ghz radio works fine and for the most part the 2.4ghz radio works. it seems to be VERY flaky with non-pc devices. on my mac and iPhone its fine. at this point im all out of ideas so I guess its a closed issue. it works sporadically and a wifi stumbler doesn't find anything abnormal. I don't have the resources to get a spectrum analyser so I guess case closed. thank you for your input.

[Eric Moyers]

There is still some troubleshooting that can be done.

You say that it seems very flaky with non PC devices but that your MAC and iPhone are fine. What non PC devices are you referring to?

Are you running multiple vlans on radio or just one vlan on each radio?

Since my suggestions have not improved your issue, Would you be willing to call in and open a case with us? Letting one of our engineers work directly with you may result in a faster solution than trying to do this through the forums.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/web/tsd-cisco-small-business-support-center-contacts.html

Eric Moyers
.:|:.:|:. CISCO | Cisco Presales Technical Support | Wireless Subject Matter Expert

[anthonya1]

I have wireless speakers, 802.11g they worked fine but they just don't play nice with the WAP371. also I have some other devices, like scales, temperature sensors etc that go in and out. the speakers are the main problems. I have 1 vlan that is on both radios and 2 ssid's. one on each radio. pretty simple setup really. I was hoping for a quick fix but I can see that isn't going to happen so yes, ill open a TAC case. thank you!

[Eric Moyers]

I think that opening a case is the right step. Once you get that let me know the number and I can check on it as well from my end.

Just trying to go through the different things to look....

Taking one thing at a time, lets look at the speakers first.

Do they have a GUI to login to? Can the drivers for them be upgraded? Give me make and model and I can research if you like.

How long have you had them? The FCS errors you mentioned could come from out of date drivers. (Just one possibility) Doing a wireshark capture, which the case engineer can help with, should give you some more in depth information.

Eric Moyers