WAP581 with Wireless Offline Problem

[leecoxhouse1]

I bought 2 Cisco WAP581 wireless APs.  I am having a problem with the wireless going offline after a day or two.

My Windows 10 laptop comes up and says there is no internet access after 24 hours. From the wireless laptop I cannot ping the WAP581 from the wireless side. I also have an iPad which states no internet.  The WAP581 has a DHCP IP address.  I can ping the WAP581 from a wired PC in the same network.  There are 2 SSIDs on WAP581.  If I try to connect to the other SSID my laptop will not connect stating there is no internet. I do have internet on the wired PC. If I reboot the WAP581 AP it all starts working again.  What is going on?  

I am in the USA with version WAP581-A-K9 V01. I am running firmware 1.0.2.0.

I replaced Cisco WAP371 APs with these WAP581 units and never had this problem.  The WAP581 are connected to a SG300-28 switch in L3 mode on a trunk port with 2 VLANs defined to the WAP581 AP. The 2 WAP581 AP are setup in single point mode using DHCP off the SG300-28 switch. I am using a SG300-10MPP switch to power the WAP581 APs connected to the SG300-28 using a trunk port.

PS

I did not state I am running both bands with band steering on.  If you need me to start a support case send me contact info.  If you want me try something I will be happy to as this is my home network with complete access all the time. Let's get this problem fixed.

[dropshadow]

i believe the 581 has trouble filtering out nearby interfering signals, and if you are on a busy channel sooner or later, the 581 will crash like you described. i solved this by turning off band steering (which i don't think is the problem, but the 581 does a horrible job of it) and finding a clean channel spectrum. i haven't had a problem once i moved to a clear channel myself instead of letting the 581 auto select channels.

filtering out nearby channel interference is a basic function of an AP. extremely disappointed in this enterprise-level WAP. consumer level WAPs do not have this problem.

[Graeme (Netherlands)]

Thank you dropshadow,
I do have quite a congested 2.4GHz band. There are 20-25 other WAPs. In the area were my clients generally are, approximately a third of those other WAPs have a stronger signal than my WAP581. Channel 13 is the most promising. The 5GHz band is not so congested.

I will set fixed channels for both radios and ensure that band steering is disabled. I will give it some time and post an update.

[mikes_philly]

Hi Guys,

@dropshadow, that's a good find, quite interesting if that is what is causing their issues... odd that the wifi module stays running, but the ethernet portion crashes out.  I believe this thing is running embedded Linux, wonder if it's a driver that blows up but other components stay running?  would be fun to try and telent into the device (when it's working) and see if you can get a shell in.. maybe something will show up when it wrecks or maybe a crash dump?

Anyone know the proper channel or procedure for opening an actual Cisco Trouble Ticket?  sure seems like nonone from Cisco is on this thread, so maybe we need a real ticket submitted?  I just don't know if you need a cisco support account for that (I certainly don't have one)?

Also, same here, my 2.4Ghz band is so darn congested, all my neighbors have their home routers jacked up high, so really no clean channels... 5Ghz was always fine... but I too never tried running my WAPs with a fixed channel in either band...

I saved one WAP581 (I had 3, and sold 2 of them) just in case there was ever progress, so I may fire it up today and do some experimenting, I'll see if I can get a shell or something...

[Vartan Narinian]

Thanks for this discussion, it is very useful.

I was considering the WAP581 but given this discussion plus problems with the WAP371 I think I will go for something else.

The product highlights say "Provides peace of mind with a limited lifetime hardware warranty." but it seems it's limited to returning the unit in case it doesn't work. No way to report/track/fix software faults.

[Graeme (Netherlands)]

An update...
I have tried various changes to the WAP, including: replacing the Ethernet cable, setting a static IP address, setting fixed channels for both radios, disabling Band steering, DHCP Auto Configuration, Bonjour and LLDP, reverting to a previous firmware version (1.0.1.3).
Unfortunately, none of these changes have prevented the WAP failing again this morning (WAP accepts clients but has stopped connecting them to LAN/Internet; WAP has stopped responding to pings from the LAN side).
I have contacted Cisco and will post the outcome.

[mikes_philly]

Thanks for trying all of that out.... at least you gave it a shot.

Awesome that you opened a support ticket with Cisco, hopefully that will finally get someone at Cisco to actually troubleshoot the issue.

Please keep us posted on any progress, as it seems there are many that are encountering this same issue as you!

[Paesan]

Thank you for opening a ticket.  After downloading iOS 14 and having one of my ap’s going out again, I saw an interesting message about the network blocking dns traffic in the wifi settings.  Please see the attached screenshot. 

I have the wap 581’s all in a cluster with their own channels and wifi crowding is not an issue where I’m at. The same one keeps going down if i reboot them all. If I were to just reboot the just first one having the issue and not them all, the same 2nd one goes down. 

I’ve spent so much time troubleshooting that I’m sick of it.  The last thing I’m going to do now is just remove the cluster and single point.  I have a feeling there is something wrong with the single point access. If anyone has tried that please let me know so I don’t waste more time. 

I really hope Cisco fixes this. 

[torbjorn]

Hi Graeme!

I have exactly the same problem!  Have found the solution? 

Best Regards

Torbjörn

[Graeme (Netherlands)]

Hi Torbjörn,

Unfortunately, there is no solution yet. I have been busy with Cisco Support for quite some time and they are still looking into it. There are two workarounds in the meantime: either switch off the 5GHz radio (use only the 2.4 GHz radio) or schedule an automated (twice) daily reboot. If you have recently purchased the unit, then returning it is also a good option. I will post any further developments.

Best regards,

Graeme

[torbjorn]

Thanks for the feedback, the are 9 month since I bought them…
But I think of replacing them all….
I have a case so if I find a solution I com back to you!

[dropshadow]

i've been reading about when google home's cast function will flood routers and knocks wifi routers offline. this occurs when google home "wakes up" and needs to do an update. i did not have any issues for a long time after disabling band steering, but then my wifi went offline again repeatedly, 3x in one day in fact. i've had my google home off now for a week, and so far so good.

it seems like this is a known issue and many router mfgs patched against this...i'm wondering if cisco is not aware of the issue.

[dropshadow]

i am 99.9% convinced the issue for both the wap581 and rv series wifi routers is caused by this:

From Tp-Link: Following initial research and investigation, our Engineering Team is confident that they've determined one of the key origins of the issue. From what we have gathered so far, the issue appears to be related to some recent releases of Android OS and Google Apps. This issue stems from these devices' "Cast" feature, which sends MDNS multicast discovery packets in order to keep a live connection with Google products such as Google Home. These packets normally sent in a 20-second interval. However, we have discovered that the devices will sometimes broadcast a large amount of these packets at a very high speed in a short amount of time. This occurs when the device is awakened from the "sleep mode", and could exceed more than 100,000 packets in a short amount of time. The longer your device is in "sleep", the larger this packet burst will be. This issue may eventually cause some of router’s primary features to shut down – including wireless connectivity.

I unplugged my Google Home and have not a single issue in 1.5 months. You guys smarter than me should be able to see this traffic if this is what is bringing your WAPs down. I'll check back in another month or two, but I've been rock solid for almost 2 months now.

[gmarani01]

I have exactly the same problem, and I don't have google devices. 

My WAP581 has been quite unreliable since the beginning of its life. The longer it has able to live without a reboot is one month.

Quite often, it freezes with no apparent reason. Clients may or may not stay connected, but when they stay connected there is no throughput. Also, the web interface is unaccessible, sometime just from the ethernet ports, sometime from from either the ethernet ports or radios. After freezing up, the light is still blue as if nothing happened. Log is empty. The only solution is unplugging the POE line. I use the recommended Cisco POE adapter. Tried also different ethernet cables to rule out a bad wire.

The AP was installed in an unattended location and hence the freezings are unacceptable. As a comparison, I have a 20$, 15 year old Linksys router flashed with dd-wrt that never went offline once. Never. And in any condition (crowded wifi, etc.). This 20$ unit now replaces the WAP581 doing a much better job as availability. What a joke...

Moreover, Cisco is asking me to buy a service plan to fix my WAP581, which means you are better off ordering a new unit, in terms of time+money overall balance.

I would suggest anyone that is looking into buying this unit to steer away.

[Martin Aleksandrov]

@leecoxhouse1 

Hello,

Please reach out to our technical support team and open up a case. You can either contact them by phone or raise a case through the online portal:

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

or 

https://mycase.cloudapps.cisco.com/case 

Regards,

Martin

[gmarani01]

Thanks Martin. Appreciate your feedback.