Cannot automatically connect to 1200 when SSID Broadcast is off.

[bvaughan3]

I am new to Cisco gear and am trying to set up and test an Aironet 1200 running 'g' wireless backwards compatible with our 'b' users. If I turn on SSID broadcast my 'g' laptop sees it and connects automatically. If SSID broadcast is turned off the laptop cannot find the SSID, and will not even connect manually.

I am puzzled. My Netgear access point at home has broadcast off but the laptop connects automatically every time. So do other access points I have used.

We are running System Software 12.2(13)JA2. The laptops are all IBM Thinkpads, (T30's and T40's). I have set the AP for Open Authentication w/ MAC, and the MAC addresses are in the list. It works perfectly with broadcast on; I just do not want to broadcast our SSID around the entire industrial park.

I saw in a posting abour "Cisco Extensions" enabled can cause problems. Could this be it?

Thanks for any suggestions any of you can make.

[scottmac]

You may also want to set the AP for "Default" instead of "Throughput" or "Range" optimization (in the web GUI)|Interfaces|dot11radio 0|settings (tab at the top).

12.2.13 is a little old, I'd also suggest updating to 12.2(15)XR2 to cover some bugs.

12.3 is the most current, but there have been some problems. 12.2(15)XR2 has been working well for me at home and in the Lab / at work.

I use a variety of laptop NICs (Cisco, D-Link, Linksys, 3COM ...) and haven't had any problems with the clients associating to the AP12xx with the SSID broadcast turned off. For all NICs, I've tried with both the Windows Zero Wireless Config and the Vendor application. I'm using WPA of one flavor or another in both places (home / work).

Good Luck

Scott