ASK THE EXPERTS : Wireless Teleworking Solutions with Bruce Tiff

[ciscomoderator]

with Bruce Tiff

Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn about the Cisco OfficeExtend 600 Series Solution that comprises the Cisco Aironet® 600 Series OfficeExtend Access Points, Cisco wireless controllers and the Cisco Wireless Control System with Cisco expert Bruce Tiff. Bruce Tiff is a Product Marketing Manager for the Wireless Networking Business Unit (WNBU) at Cisco, where he is responsible for developing and marketing Enterprise Indoor & Teleworking Access Points (AP). Bruce joined Cisco in 2008 in the Broadband Wireless Business Unit (BWBU) where he served as the Product Manager for the WiMAX Broadband Wireless Access CPE product line.

Remember to use the rating system to let Bruce know if you have received an adequate response.

Bruce might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation on the shortly after the event. This event lasts through July 1st, 2011. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

[josephsarkis]

Bruce I have a question. I have a Cisco 881G-V-K9 wireless router and my wireless signal is very weak. I have purchased a PCTEL antenna to see on strengthing my signal. The question is do I need to connect the PCTEL antenna to the wireless router? If so how? The PCTEL antenna model number is MPMB80621MPTC. The description is 806-960/1710-2170 MHZ, 5/7 dBi, panel antenna

[fredn]

The signal from the 881G should not be weak, I would mount the unit so that it is away from obstructions and ideally as close to where the users would be. The datasheet on this product can be found at the following URL http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps380/data_sheet_c78_459542_ps380_Products_Data_Sheet.html

As you can see in the picture, there should be two or three antennas protruding from the back of the device.  If so, make sure they are not blocked and are pointing upward and not "sideways behind the box".  A higher gain antenna might actually work against you (especially if the signal needs to go in all directions) as a high gain antenna generally focuses the signal in a given direction (if Omni-directional high gain) then you will get less signal UP and DOWN which can be a problem if you are not on the same floor as the router.

Please reach out to your Cisco account team, they can help you with optional antennas if required, or you can simply add another Access Point to the router to cover a different area if this is a very large home or office.

[M. Wisely]

Bruce,

I've got a couple of questions for you about the aironet 600:

We've got a potential use for this at a location where wireless is prohibited, I presume we can turn off the radios and just use one of the ports on the AP to connect a user back to our network?

There's a USB port on the AP, are there plans to allow the AP to be connected to the internet via a 3g dongle connected to this port?

Thanks

[Bruce Tiff]

Martin,

The OEAP-600 is not designed to allow turning off the radios and use for wired access only.  I assume you could get a Cisco VPN router for that.

There are no plans at this time to support 3G/4G but we are evaluating the need for this in the future..

-Bruce

[Jason Bree]

Bruce,

We have 4 WiSMs on the corporate network and 1 5508 in the DMZ as our anchor for guest access.  I see the 600s do not work with the first gen WISMs.  We are not ready to lifecycle the WiSMs yet and I was wondering if we can have the 600s join to the guest anchor as the 5508 is supported?

Jason

[Bruce Tiff]

jason - yes, you should be able to support the OEAP-600 off the 5508 in the DMZ.  For further info refer to the OEAP-600 deployment guide.

Thanks,

-Bruce

[xzosimusx]

Hey Bruce,

I have a question about the map editor in the WCS software, after uploading a map image (blueprint) I go into the editor to start adding objects (such as walls and doors) but when I look at my map the right hand side of the building is cut off about 30ft too soon. The map appears correctly in the heatmap and planning mode pages but not in the editor. This happens to about 50% of the maps that I upload. Some are cut off in the editor while others upload just fine.

This could be related to my second part of my question: after adding walls on some of the maps that are showing up properly (no cut off) I save, generate the heatmap and exit. I look at the heatmap and it was not lining up with how I drew my walls, so I went back into the editor and all of my objects seem to have an incorrect scale to the building drawing. the upper left corner is lined up properly but as you move down and right the lines get more and more skewed from where they were originally drawn! This is very annoying and I cannot find any way to fix this. I have remade entire maps (hundreds of objects) and it screws it up every time!

Am I doing something wrong in the process or is this a 'feature' ?

EDIT: We are running version 7.0.164.0

[Bruce Tiff]

Ryan,

I apologize as I am not the expert for WCS so don't have a good answer for you.  I have forwarded your question to the technical primes on WCS to see if they can provide an answer.

-Bruce

[macoy0245]

Hi Bruce,

I need help regarding of our client's cisco LWAPP connectivity. we have deployed 3 LWAPP (AIR-LAP1131AG-S-K9) and 1 Wireless controller (AIR-WLC2106-K9) to replace those old linksys access point. It's been working for few months now but our client is complaining that some of those clients connected is being automatically disconnected. Take note that this workstation are desktop and uses wireless adaptor, and only a specific area are experiencing it.

Though some of the old linksys AP we didn't remove since as a backup in anycase as requested by our clients. My question are:

1. Is it possible that the old AP is affecting it? coz on the logs it's shows some Rouge wireless.

2. Or maybe the 1 specific cisco LWAPP (AIR-LAP1131AG-S-K9) is faulty?

I attached some of the WLC logs.

Thank you

[Bruce Tiff]

I apologize but I wouldn’t know what is wrong in your specific case?

You could try removing the old AP’s and see if that corrects the problem. If that doesn’t work I would recommend you contact your Cisco Technical Assistance contacts.

-Bruce

[awad]

Hi,

     do you know if there is away to splittunnel tarffic for a home user, connected to back to corp via the office extend technology, in order to allow connectivity to local reources located at home (printer, server, etc....)

Thank you

[Bruce Tiff]

If you are connected to the corporate WLAN then all traffic is routed back to corp.  If you are connected to the personal SSID (assuming it is enabled on OEAP-600) then that traffic is not routed back to corp.

The ability for a user connected to corporate WLAN to use a printer or home storage device connected to the personal side of the OEAP-600 is a capability we are evaluating for possible future support.

-Bruce

[awad]

Thank you for the quick and informative response. I am new to the office extend game, are there any other ap's that have office extend capabilities?

[Bruce Tiff]

Yes, our 1130, 1040, 1140 and 3500i (integrated antenna) series AP's support Office Extend.

-Bruce