Aironet 1300 as AP

[curthesher]

Hey all,

I have recently been given the opportunity to provide a wireless network solution to a 3 adjacent condos. As condos at a beach go, they are composed of 99% concrete and glass. My ability to run cable is extremely limited as every cubic centimter of each suite is privately owned and there are no interior hallways, janitors closets, or otherwise air conditioned public access locations. My initial instinct was to utilize the Aironet 1300 given it's durable characterisics and the harshness of the potential environment (think blazing sun and hurricanes). The configuration could be with one root and many non-root access points. Does this sound reasonable? Are there caveats that I should be aware of (this is my first time with cisco hardware). Second I have been fortunate enough to acquire two 1300 series bridge/AP units for testing. I have utilized the CLI interface to reset them to what I belive is the "factory default" settings. Then I used the web GUI to make one 1300 a root and the other 1300 a non-root where both are set to use WEP and accept clients. I am concerned that I may have misconfigued something as the coverage of these Aironet 1300's barely reaches 50 feet in any direction where as my $50 Netgear router with AP reaches a good 250 feet in any given direction. Something seem wrong here. I've tried differnet channels with no appreciable improvment in performance. I've tried a generic 802.11B client card and the Cisco CB21AG-a-k9 client card. I've tried one AP (no bridge) and two AP with a bridge between the two. I still get consistently poor results. I'm not new to wireless networking, but I am completely new to Cisco products. Any ideas would be greatly apprediated.

[a.kiprawih]

Hi,

Q: The configuration could be with one root and many non-root access points. Does this sound reasonable?

A: Yes, but pls consider the no of users that will utilize the shared bandwidth (either 11g) if you have 1 root and lots of non-root.

Q: I am concerned that I may have misconfigued something as the coverage of these Aironet 1300's barely reaches 50 feet in any direction..

A: Pls check the AP's transmit power. By default, it should be maximum (100mW). I believed your AP comes with integrated antenna instead of RP-TNC Type Connectors model.

IN CASE if it comes as a RP-TNC Type Connectors model, you have to use Cisco-approved antenna.

Rgds,

AK

[rhobab]

Hello

Just one correction to the question

"The configuration could be with one root and many non-root access points. Does this sound reasonable? "

Careful, repeater access points should be used as a last resort. When you have many repeater access points they may associate to each other and roam depending on radio conditions. The repeater always associates to the lowest possible hop count to the root. That means that it may associate to a repeater that associates to a root. If you don´t configure parent mac addresses you end up with wireless loops which are fun to deal with. If possible always use root access points.

[andrew.brazier]

If your 1300's have tnc connectors (screw-on connectors next to the LED's) then you'll need an antenna; no antenna, no range. If the don't have the tnc connectors then you're using the built in antenna which is directional so you will only get any sort of range in one direction.

[andrew.brazier]

If your 1300's have tnc connectors (screw-on connectors next to the LED's) then you'll need an antenna; no antenna, no range. If the don't have the tnc connectors then you're using the built in antenna which is directional so you will only get any sort of range in one direction.

[josephhancock]

I have alot of experience with cisco and with cisco think inside the box and with the 1200 -1300 look at you antennas. We did a few hotels in Atlanta and every other room was made out of a speacial fire material. In short the effect was in the halls signal str was around 40-50 for 400 to 500 feet when we put the ap in the stairwell signal was only good for one room over i would say roughly 10 feet (in a different enviroment they worked great. I would say take it outside and see what result you get then look into the antenna u say you have 2 for test i assume it is the cisco test units but still you might want to look into antennas to meet you penitration needs. maybe a mix of valuepoint 15 or 18 dbi rugged antenna line and the cisco I have had great penitration with that mix, and they only run like $100. hope that helps. Pardon my spelling speed was factor here on another mission.