Best / Correct Configuration for Multiple WAP371 AP's?

[LeeSteventon]

Dear All,

I'm trying to figure out the best way to connect multiple (at the moment 3) AP's (371's) to allow roaming around a large house, as well as easy maintenance (firmware upgrades, adding extra VAP's, etc.), but I seem to keep hitting brick walls in the setup and I think I am doing this wrong. Any advice would be much appreciated!

The Setup

Attached is a logical diagram of the setup.

• At the core is a 2811 Router configured as DHCP Server for all VLAN's on the network. Its G0/0/0 interface is split into sub-interfaces, 1 per VLAN.
• Attached to the router via a Trunk is a hub-and-spoke arrangement of switches (all C3560). The switches are connected to each other through gigabit Etherchannel connections which allow all VLAN traffic.
• An AP is connected to each switch (as the switches are located in different areas of the house) to provide distributed WiFi.
• Multiple (hidden) Virtual AP's on each Physical AP (2 per VLAN - 1 2.4GHz and 1 5GHz) to allow wireless access to each VLAN.

Setting Up / Configuring

I have tried to setup all 3 AP's initially connected to a single switch. Each port of the switch where the AP's are connected to for setup is on VLAN 50 (my designated WLAN VLAN) and configured as an access port. I also connect my laptop to the same switch on a VLAN 50 access port for the setup.

All goes well with this setup and I can create a Single Point Setup cluster, and also assign an IP address to the cluster for managament access.

Each of the AP's is given a static IP address on the 192.168.50.0 /24 network

In order to allow access for the multiple VAPs to their respective VLAN's I think I need to connect each physical AP to it's switch and configure the port it connects to as a trunk that allows all VLAN traffic. However, when I do this, I lose connectivity to the AP and cannot see it anymore via a web browser or even ping it's static IP address.

What am I missing?

Is this the right way to setup multiple AP's for maximum WiFi coverage? Should I be using WDS instead (I think I lose the ability to use Single Point Setup if I use WDS)?

Any help is appreciated!

[Ric Beeching · Accepted solution]

Hi,
What's the config of your trunk ports? You may need to set "switchport trunk native vlan 50" for the AP connectivity to work. Single point setup looks the right way, you want to avoid WDS where possible vs WPA2.

Cheers,
Ric

[LeeSteventon]

Hi Ric and many thanks for your reply.

The trunk ports are configured as follows:

switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk native vlan 100
switchport trunk allowed vlan 10-200
switchport mode trunk

My native VLAN in the whole network is VLAN 100. However, if I change that to 50 as you suggest, this works!:

switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
switchport trunk native vlan 50
switchport trunk allowed vlan 10-200
switchport mode trunk

I can see all the AP's on the network and configure them as a single point.

However, this does raise a new question: do I now have to switch my native VLAN to 50 on all switch configurations (including the EtherChannels between switches)?

[kingbily96]

Connect two access points to the same network.

Make sure that there is only 1 DHCP server.

Use the same wireless network name (SSID) for both AP's.

Use the same password and encryption settings for both AP's.

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