Disabling 802.11b client support on 350 bridge?

[jcornford]

Hello,

Does anybody know if there is a way of totally disabling support for standard 802.11b clients on a 350 bridge (both wireless root and non-root)? i.e. so that the bridges will only accept association attempts from other bridges?

NOTE: STP IS DISABLED ON THIS BRIDGE LINK!

The problem I have encountered is slightly odd. A user has a laptop (Toshiba) using it's inbuilt wireless adapter which connects to an AP1200. This AP1200 is connected via ethernet (crossover) into a BR350 (in "non-root w/o client, no stp" mode), which connects to another BR350 (in "root access point" mode (due to STP being disabled)), which in turn connects to an ADSL router.

What is happening is that the client laptop is disassociating from the AP every 5 mins. It then reassociates within a few seconds, but this causes a problem for HTTPS. I suspect that the client is trying to associate itself to the bridge because it is getting a stonger RF signal from it. The reason I suspect the bridge is confusing the client in this way, is because if I turn this bridge (the bridge nearest the AP) off, the problem stops (i.e. you don't see the regular client disassociation pattern in the AP log anymore).

Note that this is occuring even though the SSIDs are different on the AP WLAN and the bridge link, and this happens whether SSID broadcasting is on or off. I suspect that this phenomena is caused by the client behaving oddly, but I am looking for any tips to tweak things.

[jholsteyns]

Hi,

Even if you are using different channels, there can be interference between the ap and the bridge. Put both bridge and ap at least 10 ft apart.

[jcornford]

Are you sure this is the case? Have you got any technical or scientific info on why this will happen? Please post a URL or something if so.

As far as I know, when you select a channel that uses DSS, the RF from the 802.11b device will operate over a 22 MHz band around your selected frequency. By the book this should mean so long as your channels are sufficiently spaced (i.e. 1, 6 and 11 is the norm), the devices won't interfere with each other. I’ve even found some docs on the web that discuss the theory of using 4 channels in the 802.11b channels without any overlap (I’m not sure I agree with their findings though).

Unfortunately, I am very limited on where the boxes go as the site is a historic preserved town house. The boxes are hidden out of sight or the owners.

[mdcole]

Not sure if this helps, but this may be part of the problem:

Is the client running XP and using it to manage wireless networks? If so, it may have added your Bridge network SSID as an available network (you hint that you may have enabled broadcasting at some point). XP's wireless zero config will attempt to connect to the strongest of any available networks. If you had broadcasting enabled on the bridge, your client may have picked it up as an available network. Even if you later disable broadcasting, the client still has the network listed as a preferred network. One thing to check is to see if your bridge SSID is listed in your clients preferred network. Another thing (and obviously more time consuming for you) is to change the SSID on your bridges and see if that fixes your problem.