Cisco Air 3800 with ME - 3 SSID 1 access point custom help

Shank · ‎06-09-2022

I am new to Mobil express, and I have been trying to customize a SSID setup on ME today for a while without success.

I am sure there has to be a way, but I am starting to believe I have reached the limitations of the single access point.

Mobil express software installed - 8.10.151.0

I have 1 access point - I have created 3 SSID

Private - Public - Custom

Custom - This need to be setup to only use 2.4ghz channels 1,6,11 as well as 5ghz channels 32-48 and 149 -165

Private and Public - Will use All others channels.

After much reading, I concluded best course of action would be make a RF profile for 2.4ghz and 5ghz with custom channel.

Build a access point group, then add both 2.4ghz and 5ghz RF profiles I made to the group. This works great for just the custom group. The 2 SSID I did not add to the group (Private - Public) are now not broadcasting because they no longer have a access point.

I can not add the same access point to 2 different group. The first group which is the customized group with just the allowed channels, the 2nd group with the restricted channels I do not want the remaining SSIDs to use. I need all 3 channels to broadcast off this one AP.

Am I making this to complicated on myself? Is this a limitation of the Access point? Could use some insight on what it is that I am missing. Thank you for any help I can get.

Flavio Miranda · ‎06-10-2022

Hi

Yeah, you are over complicating things.

Create a RF profile for 2.4 and 5.0 is good practice but split in channel is not.

And, RF profile make sense if you have different areas with many AP and among this areas with high density users and low density users. Otherwise, you dont need RF profile at all.

Keep it simple. Depending on the place you are, dont mater what you do, you AP will be overwelmed with all kind of Wi-Fi signal anyway.

Shank · ‎06-10-2022

I absolutely agree with you on this. I appreciate the feed back. The problem I have is the company I am making the custome SSID for has a device they requires the channels to be setup in that particular way. (I explained to them the same logic you said spoke as well)

I have 3 more cisco a 3800 series ap waiting to be setup. I wanted to get this one finished before completing the remaining 3.

Guess the real question would be with the access point I currently have. Is it possible to broadcast multiple customized SSID on a single ap? Customized being Channel control etc.

Flavio Miranda · ‎06-10-2022

You can, as long as you setup the AP as trunk and distribute the SSID per vlan to make sense. When creating the SSID, might be an option "VLAN & FIREWALL".

But, in relation to channel, I'd let the AP decide which channel to use. For 2.4, 1 or 3 or 11 and for 5.0ghz, all the possible range.

Shank · ‎06-10-2022

From the companies requirement instruction notes: Wireless Channel Requirement: Access point must be configured to eliminate potential wireless interference. 2.4 GHz signal propagation will use only channels 1, 6, or 11. 5 GHz signal propagation will use only channels 32-48 and 149-165.

They will check this, hopefully only once. I can just go back to standard settings afterwards.

I have the AP trunked. Each SSID have there own VLAN assigned to them and a Management VLAN for access to the AP. Under VLAN & Firewall - Client IP management set to Network, VLAN tagging is on. Other then that, I found no custom channel changes.

So I can go with my next option. Setup my 2nd 3800 series AP with all 3 SSID. Which then from what I have studied I can add the NEW access point the original access point discovery group and visa versa. This will allow broadcast of 3 SSID since both custom access point groups will have a AP in the group to manage them. (Hope that makes sense)

Again thank you for your time. This company and there devices gives me a headache.

Flavio Miranda · ‎06-10-2022

You are pretty good. Congrats.

Shank · ‎06-10-2022

Was just hoping I did not have to setup a 2nd AP for them. Is this just a limitation for 3800 series or Mobil express? I am new to them both. We use much older models. But with this new device our company wants to use. We needed to update our SSID security standard for it.