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WAP4410N bringing LAN to its knees

dfosbenner
Level 1
Level 1

I have a two WAP4410N’s. WAP#1 is configured as an Access Point with “Allow wireless signal to be repeated by a repeater” checked. WAP#2 is configured as a Wireless WDS Repeater. Both are running firmware 2.0.4.2, with WPA2 Personal. Each gets it’s IP addresses via DHCP.

The APs run fine for weeks, and then suddenly I start getting complaints from users of the wired Ethernet LAN that everything is “frozen”. A quick check shows a massive amount of traffic on the wired LAN coming from the WAP, such that the LAN is virtually unusable. My Ethernet switch shows a large amount of Rx errors on the port for WAP#1.  As soon as I unplug the WAP from the LAN switch, the LAN goes back to normal. I plug the WAP back in, and the network slows to its knees. A simple way to see this visually is setup a ping session from one wired client to another. As soon as I plug in WAP#1, the pings start timing out.

I did some experimenting with this today. With NO wireless clients enabled, and WAP#2 powered down, I plugged in WAP#1 – no problem. However, when I powered up WAP#2, the LAN bogged down again. Unplugged WAP#2, and back to normal. Next I tried to connect to WAP#1 via a web browser, and it wouldn’t bring me to the logon page, even though WAP#1 was responding to ping. I power cycled WAP#1, now everything is working normally again.

In summary – for some inexplicable reason, the WAP4410N is going into a mode where it is sending so much traffic to the wired network that it is slowing it to a crawl. The biggest problem I have with this at the moment is that if it happens when I (the only IT guy) is out of the office, I have no way to stop it. I can’t remote in, or anything, because of the interruption to the LAN.

I would really like to get this figured out and fixed. I replaced WAP#1 with a brand new WAP4410N, and that didn’t help. I don’t have any other ideas.

Thanks

4 Replies 4

rocater
Level 3
Level 3

Hi David,

I have a few questions for you. Is WAP#2 attached to anything? Are you using one SSID? Are both WAPs on the same channel?

Robert,

WAP#2 isn't attached to anything, it gets its signal from WAP#1.

Yes, I am using one SSID.

Both WAP's are using channel 6.

Both are in Mixed B/G/N mode, as we need to support all these.

David,

Do you have a packet capture of the traffic that is being generated?

Cisco Small Business Support Center

Randy Manthey

CCNA, CCNA - Security

I don't.  Is there a utility you can recommend that I can use to do such a capture?  I'm willing to try it the next time this issue arises.