AP1200 Forwarding State

[bgerdon]

We've been noticing lateley that the forwarding state on the internal and external radios is 'Blocking' on some access points and 'Forwarding' on others. All of the access points are basically configured the same with the same code (12.03T) on them (although this behavior has been seen on earlier releases).

The access points appear to put themselves in this blocking state and can not be easily forced into forwarding again. This unexpected change of state bounces users from one access point to another and can terminate their VPN sessions in the process (even if both access points are of the same VLAN).

The whole thing reminds me of spanning tree, but STP doesn't appear to be mentioned in any of the configuration pages for the radios.

I'm curious if anyone else has seen this. Thanks

[c.tenley]

I don't think the forwarding state has anything to do with it.....When the forwarding state reads blocking it means this is the state when no stations are associated. When you see forwarding you have stations associated. I would check the channel distribution of your APs, and make sure that you have your channels spread out. Also there are some issues with VPN connections and roaming on APs.

[bgerdon]

So they do. 🙂 The channels may be an issue, but for as much as we can, we've been using the non-overlapping channels. There may be some interference from access points from other organizations.

The VPN part is interesting because I can walk and roam from one AP to another without any problem, but whenever _this_ happens (whatever _this_ is) it kills the connection.

Thanks for the note.

[derwin]

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/wireless/airo1200/accsspts/ap120scg/bkscgch3.htm#48531

If you have clients associated when you see it in blocking state then it is possible that for some reason you have lost etherent connection and your AP as switched over to repeater mode

Make sure you set the default action to none and try again

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/wireless/airo1200/accsspts/ap120scg/bkscgch3.htm#45233