WAP551 DHCP issue

[Maik Schulz]

Hi,

I have trouble with new WAP551 accesspoints.

For supplying a new building on our campus we decided to use WAP551 accesspoints. Another building is working with WAP541 models an all is working fine.

The accesspoints are working in cluster mode with 16 nodes. They are supplying multiple SSIDs in multiple VLANs with different DHCP Servers in some VLANs.

When I start switching between the SSIDs I will not get a DHCP address. When I am going to look at the switchport, where the AP is connected, I cant see any DHCP Packet passing by. It seems that the AP stops passing DHCP. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, then suddendly a DHCP request passes by and my client gets an address.

To isolate the issue, I took one of the new WAP551 to the old building and installed it there as single AP, but it is the same there (so it has nothing to to with my infrastructure of the campus) and the WAP541 are still working fine - I can switch between the SSIDs a couple of times and always get an DHCP address.

I installed the latest firmware of 2015-01-19 - 1.1.2.3 - but no change - still the same.

I have no idea whats going on, has anybody here new ideas?

[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. 

This seems to be a very involved network. In order to more quickly troubleshoot and resolve 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.

[Brendan Marmont]

Hello Eric, I was looking at putting a WAP551 into a remote office, they are connected to our network but have a shocking latency of 450ms+ and can't utilize our 5508WLC.

Does the WAP551 act as an extension to the physical switches, ie I can plug it in and it will pass DHCP broadcast to authenticated clients.

Thanks

[Eric Moyers]

Hello Brendan, I saw your other post and was fixing to answer then noticed this one.

Short answer is yes.

Long answer is Yes, there is some configuration of course. What type of authentication are you using?

Give me some background info on what exactly you are trying to accomplish, how many active users, level of encryption you need and etc. The WAP 551 should be able to handle it no problem. If it is possible that you could have a mix of 2.4 and 5 GHz clients I would suggest a look at one of our Dual Radio models, WAP371, WAP561. For an added feature set that may be useful look at the WAP351 with an added switch port capability.

Looking forward to discussing this further with you.

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.

[Brendan Marmont]

Thanks Eric, max 10 users, purpose to allow smartphone/tablets access to internet. We have a local 'pda' wireless network, I was thinking about routing the devices back to same subnet using the WAP561.

Authentication would be shared key. No domain access required.

If they change their minds about Laptop access, then we would utilise NPS with EAP

Other option is to commission new DSL and have local break out for these devices.

Thanks

[Brendan Marmont]

Looks like we could enable bridged mode on the WAP561, clients access the same subnets as the local LAN - I'm reading up now :) This may work for us.

[Eric Moyers]

If there is a cable run into that area I would choose that over a wireless bridge. But based on what I read the WAP561 would be they way I would go.

Eric Moyers