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.

[leecoxhouse1]

I changed band steering to off and I have not seen this problem again.  I don't know if this had anything with it or not. It could be something I was doing on the WAP581.  I noticed the WAP581 has LLDP on.  Should I turn on LLDP with smart port on my SG300-28 and SG300-10MPP switches?  What about the RV340 router?  Will any of this help or is LLDP just for SIP phones? Will it help with Wi-Fi calling?

Both my WAP581 APs were factory reset using 1.0.2.0 firmware before I configured them in single point setup.

[mikes_philly]

Hi,

I know this is late now, but I just encountered this same exact issue, purchased two WAP581s, set them up about 3 weeks ago, I have them setup in a cluster configuration, so they are running the same wi-fi configs, etc,  so that I have full coverage and no dead areas.

My upstairs WAP581 would run somewhere like 4-8 hours, then the ethernet interface actually stops responding, even though the WAP581 is actually still running and connecting clients.  I was seeing your issues as well, with being unable to ping from the wireless network, as well as clients saying 'no internet', and others also throwing the error 'unable to get ip address'...

all related to what seems to just be the WAP's ethernet interface just no longer working, even though the PoE is working fine, unit is up, but no longer responding to pings, therefore cannot bring up the GUI, etc.. and yes, a reboot fixes it for a while, until it goes down again.

Now, I did notice today that one WAP actually came with 1.0.2.0 firmware (as you), but one came with 1.0.1.3.  The one with the 1.0.1.3 was downstairs, and it NEVER went down or lost it's interface.  So, you definitely don't want different firmwares running a cluster, that's for sure. 

And I noticed something the other day, 1.0.2.0 firmware does NOT appear anywhere for download from cisco, only the release notes, latest you can pull down is 1.0.1.5...

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/wireless/wap581-wireless-ac-n-dual-radio-wave-2-access-point-2-5gbe-lan/model.html#~tab-downloads

1)  So for one I'm thinking cisco may have pulled this firmware release, maybe there is a major bug?

2) you can downgrade your WAPs to any version, even if it's below what you are on now..

3) I updated both of my WAPs back to 1.0.1.5 (latest you can D/L from cisco), and re-did my configuration of both.

4) The firmware update in the GUI seems to never get the 'success' message it's looking for, so the upgrade pop-up box just sits there forever until it eventually says it timed out... just watch the BLUE LED flash on your unit when you upgrade, the upgrade/downgrade does actually work.  Once you see the blue flashing stop, and it reboots, eventually you can ping your WAP again, and just close the browser and reconnect.  Verify it's at the correct FW version.

My WAPs are now back in the cluster, and everything now seems clean.   They've been running 4 hours now, and all seems good...so downgrading both WAPs to 1.0.1.5 seems to have fixed all the issues.

I'll update tomorrow with the status, hopefully now with both on the 1.0.1.5, they will not die overnight and all is good, we shall see in the morning...

[mikes_philly]

All good...

running smooth on 1.01.5. no hiccups, no reboots.... no loss of ethernet, cluster is working perfect.

[mikes_philly]

**** UPDATE ****

Uggh, I guess I had false hope, ran for 3 days without issues, then last night once again my upstairs WAP581 went offline, completely unresponsive as usual.

So a reboot is what brings it back... and this is on 1.0.5.1 FW..

at this point I need to see if it's hardware related or something else, so I will swap them around, and reconfigure them, to see if it follows the hardware or not...

[mikes_philly]

Just wanted to put in my final update on this..

I tried a brand-new WAP581, purchased from NewEgg... after about 1-2 days, it again went off-line, stopped responding to pings, etc... other unit in the cluster stayed alive.

And I was still having intermittent clients losing connection, some traffic not going through, etc... I gave up.  Removed my two WAP581 units.

I switched to installing two Ubiquity Unifi-AC-HD units, which have been just awesome.... I'm running them again as a cluster setup, and they are balancing quite nicely.  No issues with connections, or loss of comms, etc, they have been running perfect for weeks now..

So I'm sticking with the Unifi, I will no longer be using the WAP581s, will sell them used.

[TechNickAll]

Same exact issue! They finally released a new Firmware (v1.0.3.1) and unfortunately it has the SAME issue. Ugh. Very frustrating. I have 7 WAP581 units doing the same thing and I am fielding a LOT of angry user complaints. To add insult to injury our WAP371 units did the same thing and since they were at EoL I talked the company into upgrading every access point to a new WAP581....ONLY TO HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. I am devastated right now.

[mikes_philly]

Hi,

Oh wow, I'm sorry to hear this..... I too would be so pissed if I bought 7 of these for an upgrade and have them going offline!  so frustrating...

Since you mention the WAP371 have the same issues, it sure sounds like they are working from the same code base...It's very frustrating with Cisco anymore, I don't know whom exactly is doing their development anymore?  It seems like they have outsourced so much, the quality and relibability that Cisco always had in the past has really diminished...

I am still baffled by the FW 2.0.0 that my units came with, no idea what that firmware is?  I still suspect it was recalled and they just don't say anything about it.... but yeah, they had the same issue on the 2.0.0 FW, and I tried the 1.3.x versions, 1.2.x, nothing, same issues....

I feel your pain, I couldn't imagine if I had customers on these....I'd be losing my mind.  For me it was just my home network, 2 units in a cluster for upstairs and downstairs... but still, I"m out the $700 or so I spent on 3 total units (replaced one thinking it was a bad unit, but they all are messed up).... then having to spend another $400 on two units from Ubiquiti...

Hopefully they get their act together... but considering this problem was in the 371, and followed it into the 581, and they haven't fixed it?   not looking good...

[dropshadow]

was a solution to this problem ever found by anyone?

[mikes_philly]

was a solution to this problem ever found by anyone?

Hi,

Not as far as I know... My setup was pretty much like the other people on here, single point setup, nothing fancy turned on, same old stuff... was running two devices, in a cluster... each at about 50-75% strength.

But always after about 12-24hrs one of the WAP581s would go down, the wireless part of the device remained active and running, so clients would stay connected, etc, but it's ethernet interface would go down.  Wouldn't even respond to pings.

I really think there is something wrong with the ethernet hardware on these WAPs, dunno if it's a software driver, or something with the actual hardware...as the rest of the WAP seems to run fine, it's just the ethernet portion that dies. 

I noticed the ethernet does act strange sometimes when you boot these things up, after a couple minutes of power-on the interface starts responding to pings, but if you just have it on a continuous ping, it will eventually die.  Almost like it has a built-in DOS detection and shuts down the interface.  But also, without doing this, after a couple of minutes, the interface comes up, I fire up the web interface to login to the device, and then at some point the web interface just stops responding.  Then I check for pings and the interface is dead... so god knows what is up with these things?

I did try using different POE Injectors for testing, as well as my actual setup which is a Cisco Firewall (FPR1010), which has actual POE outputs on the device.   Same offline issues no matter what method I tried..

So I ended up selling 2 of my 3 WAP581s used on ebay, I'm keeping one around just in case Cisco finds the magic solution someday... until then, I'm running the UniFi APs without issues..

[tberuff1183]

Thanks.

I have the same problem, it is incredible how cisco has been demerited on this device.

[ILPARK4449535]

Exactly same here too.

I struggled this issue during almost 2 years so far

I changed every single recommended options on the internet, reset device, reclustering single point setup

Firmware upgrade, changed lan cable and power adapter but nothings changed.

I unplugged power cable almost every two or three days.

I think this is WAP581 hardware problems.

No more trust cisco again :(

[leecoxhouse1]

I had a few issues right at first due to me.  But the Cisco WAP581 wireless APs have turned out to be the best wireless units I have ever run.  I have 2 units setup with single point setup and they run great.

With your units going offline what is your power source?  I had 3 Cisco WAP321 APs before with injectors.  When I first setup my Cisco WAP371 APs I issues because the old POE power was not POE+ power and did not supply enough power.  You might want to check your power source. I currently have a Cisco SG300-10MPP for my power source for the WAP581 wireless APs which works great.

On my WAP581 APs I use single point setup.  I use 2 SSIDs.  One being LAN and the other guest.  My SSIDs contain both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz I do not separate them.  I do not use band steering. I have my wireless radios set to N and AC only no b. I lock my channels as there are too many neighbors around.  My WAP581 APs just work in the back ground and give no trouble.  My latest Dell laptop with a AX200 wireless card works well.  The only thing changed in the Intel driver is I excluded b.

[ILPARK4449535]

Thank you very much for your answer.

Here's my situation

- Model : WAP581-A-K9 V01 X 3 EA

- Firmware : 1.0.3.1 (Up-to-date)

- Power : External Cisco Adapter (NU60-F480125-I1, 48V-1.25A Output) X 2 EA, and Using one PoE+ Support Injector

- Distance of each AP : more than 50 meters aparted

- Switch : Extreme X460G2-24t-G4, L3 Port (Using Switch DHCP Server itself)

- Interface : ETH0

- Only Using 5 GHz 802.11n/ac, 80MHz

- Single Point Setup Clustering

- 50% Transmit Power and Not use Band Steer

- SSID Broadcast and WPA2-AES, PMF Not Required

- QoS : Custom (default)

- Automactic Channel Assignment Every 12 Hours, No Lock Channel

Indeed I have no idea at all :(

[Graeme (Netherlands)]

Hi,
I'm experiencing the same issues described above. I have only one WAP581, connected to an SG350-10MP switch and with a fairly much out-of-the-box configuration (FW 1.0.3.1). The WAP581 uses POE power from the switch. After about a day the WAP581 would not connect devices to the Internet (the radios were on and receiving clients). The WAP581 was unreachable from the LAN side (no response to pings). Disconnecting and reconnecting power brought the WAP581 back up, but only for another day or so. I changed some settings, assigning a static IP address among others. This seemed to help but after about 5 days the same issue occurred. Not sure what to do now.

Any ideas?