WAP581 with Wireless Offline Problem - Page 3

leecoxhouse1 · ‎10-03-2019

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.

Graeme (Netherlands) · ‎10-19-2020

Dear Martin, and others having this problem,

I'm sorry it's taking so long to provide you with the outcome of the case I opened with Cisco on this topic (see my earlier messages).

Together with Cisco we have been attempting to pinpoint the cause of this issue by adjusting various settings, not only on the WAP but also on the (managed) switch. After each adjustment, on average, I had to wait several days for the WAP to fail again, and eventually wait even longer to declare the WAP stable. Yes, the WAP appears to be functioning without this issue now, though the exact cause remains undetermined. I could simply provide you with the (long) list of all changes made, but ascertaining the exact cause would be better.

I am now in the process of backtracking to determine exactly which setting (or combination of settings) is the cause of the issue. As you can imagine, this process takes some time. At the moment, I'm pretty sure the Green Ethernet arrangement between the WAP and the switch has something to do with it, but I'm not done yet.

My suggestion at this time would be for you to try the following:

disable Green Ethernet on the WAP (WAP581 menu: LAN > More > Port Settings Table > Green Ethernet)
if you are using a managed switch, disable 802.3 Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) on the relevant switch port (SG350 menu: Port Management > Green Ethernet > Properties)

Alternatively, you can wait until I have finished my investigation, which should (only) take another few weeks. I will post the result as soon as possible - nearly there.

Good luck!

mikes_philly · ‎10-20-2020

Nice, glad to hear back that you are still on this investigation..

Just as an update (as well as others on here said the same), I do NOT have any google home or other devices on my network. I only have typical laptops, PCs, and various mobile devices of my family members.

My two WAP581s were connected via POE straight to my cisco firewall, a small FPR1010 appliance, replacement for the depracated ASA5505 appliance. I am not sure if the ports on the FPRxxxx devices do 'green ethernet', but it's something to look into...

Please keep us posted on what you find out! I really hope you've finally found a solution!

gmarani01 · ‎10-24-2020

Thanks for letting us know about your setup. Mine is connected to a Cisco SG300-20 and powered with a Cisco SB-PWR-INJ2-NA injector. I'm using both ethernet ports in link aggregation. Some months ago it was configured without LA, using a single ethernet port: it does not make any difference. Either way, it freezes after some random time (last freeze was after 4 days), with no informative logs. I did not try yet logging in debug mode to an external log server, but this should be job of Cisco, not mine.

Not sure it it could be relevant, but I have now everything hooked up to a pfsense network appliance running on a Supermicro SuperServer E300-8D. In fact, last year the security appliance was different, and the WAP581 was still freezing randomly. Longest uninterrupted time time was about one month.

Alucidnation · ‎12-09-2020

Hey guys,

Any further updates to this?

Cheers.

Graeme (Netherlands) · ‎12-10-2020

Hi,

I'm still trying to find the cause of the problem. I had my WAP running well for several weeks after changing a large number of settings and am now still in the process of changing the settings back and forth, one-by-one, to find the culprit.

I reported earlier that using green ethernet might be the cause, but I have now ruled this out - green ethernet is probably not the problem (maybe in combination with other settings, but I'm not looking into that yet).

I am now investigating the Bonjour protocol setting on the WAP but may unfortunately have to wait a number weeks before I can determine if this setting is the problem. I will of course post again when I have (good) news.

Paesan · ‎12-16-2020

I've been working with the Cisco team closely since my first reply on this thread. I have a special debug FW they had me load up on my WAP's. I've been sending them over all the various files as the WAP's crash. It's a single point setup issue (which I figured). I really want single point setup to work. But if you need a fix right now, I think disabling single point setup should fix the issue for you now.

They sent me a fix build, but the issue still persist. It just takes longer for wifi on a WAP to have no connectivity/internet access. I'm working daily on this and I know Cisco is too, so hopefully there will be a fix coming out for it soon. I just want to make sure we get this tested properly so it stops happening for good.

tberuff1183 · ‎12-18-2020

Me too, have done something similar without results. We continue with the same initial problem, the device is disconnected from the Lan today. Hoping to find a solution, for now we use another brand of this technology. Thanks.

PatrickHorrigan32572 · ‎01-08-2021

Any solution for this issue? I too am having this same issue. It occurs every 30 to 60 days. I even had the device RMA'd and the replacement has the same problem...

Paesan · ‎01-08-2021

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update. Over the Holidays, my AP's went down about 4 times with the special fix build they sent me. I sent Cisco the requested debug files for each AP that went down immediately. Cisco was shut down during the holidays, so they didn't get back to work on anything till the beginning of this year.

They told me this is an extremely high priority. Currently there are 2 issues that they are seeing that they're working on fixing ASAP. One issue is the Cluster Daemon. The other is a wireless driver issue that they are diagnosing. What's taking time is that they are analyzing and rebuilding a simulation environment.

It sounds like this is their top priority. I've done the most I can do and have sent everything they've asked for. They also know about this thread so hopefully we will have a fix soon.

JonathanChaput55733 · ‎02-17-2021

Hi Anthony, still no update ?
For an "extremely high priority", I was expecting a faster release

torbjorn · ‎11-12-2021

Do you have any explanation? I have this problem to still 6 month from you write....

gmarani01 · ‎01-30-2021

A quick update from me as well. Cisco replaced my WAP581 with a new one. As soon as I did put it online, it started to show the same behavior, randomly going offline. Two more tests I did were:

disable link aggregation: no changes.
purchased the Cisco power supply specific for this unit and remove the POE: no changes. Still freezes randomly.

I'm not losing one more month back and forth with Cisco to get another replacement since this is clearly a problem intrinsic to the WAP581 series.

Final solution for me: I have purchased the equivalent Ubiquiti unit and all the problems are gone.

mikes_philly · ‎01-30-2021

Hi Guys,

I'm really hoping CISCO eventually figures this out. I can't believe it took them this long to realize they needed to setup an actual simulation environment in their lab. You would think this simple cluster setup would have been setup in a lab at design time, and they would have encountered this problem, as it's so easy to reproduce with just two APs!

It just blows my mind that they would have to send a customer DEBUG builds to try and capture the failures that way, rather than just set this up from the get go in their own lab, as anyone can reproduce it!

This is why I too put away my WAP581s and replaced them with Ubiquiti Unifi HDs...and they are running fine. I still would like to have a resolution and get back to using these WAPs, as it is nice being able to manage them directly via web connect versus Unifi, where you have to manage via another controller.

Amazing at this point Cisco sent you another AP, even though some people in Cisco know they are actively addressing this problem... but my guess is Cisco is so spread out and outsourced everywhere for tech support, one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing..

I'm hoping Anthony hears something soon and they fix this problem once and for all... keeping my fingers crossed

leecoxhouse1 · ‎01-30-2021

My WAP581 APs have not gone offline since I have been running mine. They just work 24/7. Power outages and firmware updates are the only time my system is down. I would never run Ubiquiti units as you need to switch over to their hardware to have a good system to have it really work well. I like running a Cisco L3 switch and Ubiquiti can't compete.

cyberconsultants · ‎01-30-2021

Agreed on UI.

What Cisco switch are you running? How are the switchports the WAPs are connected to configured? What's the rest of your network like? How many VLANs? Is the switch doing inter-VLAN routing—or is it not operating in L3? How many SSIDs in your cluster?