WDS on WAP371 breaks wireless

[Kyle9091]

I recently bought a second WAP371 in order to extend the range in my house. To the best of my knowlege, I've configured both AP's according to:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/smb/wireless/cisco-small-business-300-series-wireless-access-points/smb5070-wireless-distribution-system-wds-configuration-on-wap371.html

When I first set it up everything seemed to work as planned. However, after I unplugged the second AP to make the power wiring neater and it rebooted upon plugging it back in, it stopped transmitting wireless. Currently on either AP, if I have WDS enabled it will stop transmitting wireless. Unchecking the enable WDS box and saving will bring wireless back online. I haven't seen any errors in the log, and nothing changes in the Network Interfaces page, it shows both WLAN0 and WAN1 as being up, and all WDS as being down. Both AP's are on firmware 1.3.0.7.

Any advice or help would be much appreciated, thanks,

Kyle

[psandel]

Hi Kyle,

My name is Puneet Sandel and I am from Cisco small business technical support center.

As per your issue, can you check WDS settings on the 2nd AP because the AP rebooted and may be some of the configuration of WDS got erased. You might have to select the remote MAC in 2nd AP WDS settings again which may be the issue in your case due to reboot.

Infact you will need to check the WDS settings on 1st AP also. In case the settings are the same then try to reset the routers and configure them one by one for WDS.

Also try to reset the 2nd AP and start the configuration again.

Please confirm your first AP is able to get internet.

If yes, try to reset 2nd AP and configure WDS again. It should work.

Note: Kindly provide any helpful votes and mark this post as the solution if the issue gets solved.

Regards,

Puneet Sandel

Technical Consulting Engineer

Global CX Centers – Small Business Support

[Kyle9091]

Hi Puneet, I made some progress on this. I'd applied MAC filtering to the AP's, when I added the remote AP address to the filter table it fixed the wireless stopping when WDS is enabled. However, it doesn't appear the two points are talking to each other over WDS. When I got the the Network Interfaces status page, it shows:

Network Interface  |  Name (SSID)  |  Status  |  MAC Address  |  VLAN ID  |  Profile  |  State

WDS0                   | (blank)             | Down    | (mac of VAP0) |       -         |      -     |     -

For the remote AP, does it need to be powered by a DC power supply, or can it be powered by POE via an injector or switch?

Kyle

[psandel]

Hi Kyle,

Please confirm whether you checked the configuration on both the APs. If yes, then I am not sure why adding entries in MAC filtering was necessary and worked.

Also as per your query related to the 2nd AP, you can use a PoE capable switch to deliver power to the WAP371. It is not mandatory to use a AC power supply to power the 2nd AP.

Note: Please provide helpful votes for the answered queries.

Regards,

Puneet Sandel

[Kyle9091]

HI Puneet, I've double checked everything that I can think of and the config seems the same to me, but WDS is still showing as down. I've attached screenshots of the Radio and WDS pages for comparison, do the settings look right to you?

I've also disabled MAC filtering for the time being, just in case.

Kyle