Re: First 350 Bridge Installation

tschmier · ‎05-15-2002

Hi,

We are trying to install 2 350 bridges, each having a 50' Cisco cable and Cisco Omni 12DBi ant. The distance between the bridges is 300' with line of sight. The bridges look like they are always trying to authenticate to each other and we are unable to send data across the bridge. Any suggestions on where we should start to troubleshoot.

karl.west · ‎05-15-2002

Well....fist thing...why are you using an Omni directional Ant.? If you are just using them to bridge it would be best if you get a Semi-directional ant...patch, or Yagi type ant.

How do you have the bridges conf.? What do you have as security? WEP? are the keys matched on both sides? Do you have a wireless sniffer to see what is going on? you can try www.wildpacket.com you can download a trial version of there wireless sniffer product call Airopeek.

KW

tschmier · ‎05-16-2002

On the antenna issue, we wanted to use Yagis but a ordering snafu lead us to the Omnis. The SSID match and we have tried with and without WEP. We will probably download the trial version of the Airopeek. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

karl.west · ‎05-16-2002

I am assuming they both are on the same CH. Well the best way would be to use a sniffer to see why they are not talking. Sorry I can't be more help.

blue.modal · ‎05-16-2002

If you haven't already, take them down and do your testing on the ground ; )

Be sure you have bridges, not APs (there were a batch of bridges not long ago that shipped with AP code), and you might even upgrade the firmware to eliminate that as a cause.

The omnis may indeed be your problem if other 2.4GHz users or noise sources are abundant. Directional antennas of any type would help. You can get two good patch antennas for less than $100 to fix that problem.

Oh, and double-check that you have configured each bridge to use not only the right SSID, WEP key and channel, but also the correct antenna connector (that would be a real forehead-slapper).

Matthew Wheeler

Blue Modal

tschmier · ‎05-16-2002

We have tested the solution with the antenna's no more the 20' between them. The bridges functioned fine during this test. We have now run into this problem when we moved the antenna's to our roof.

blue.modal · ‎05-16-2002

You can use the Carrier Test under Diagnostics to get a quick view of other 2.4GHz signals and Noise in the area.

Did you double-check the connector setting?

Matthew Wheeler

BlueModal

kagodfrey · ‎05-20-2002

I'm not sure whether this applies with omni's, but assuming it does (I'm sure someone will correct me if it doesn't), does your Freznel Zone have the required 60% clearance, or are both the antennae just sat on a roof? Try mounting them on a 10ft or so mast - see if that does the trick.