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Ipad troublesshoting

Moudar
VIP
VIP

Hi

What is Ipad best practices, i know about this:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/access-points/enterprise-best-practices-ios-ipados-wp.html

But what about creating a special SSID for Ipads? is this a good practice? someone did it?

Have about 2000 Ipads on my network and in some schools, they work very slowly specially when many are in use in the same classroom, no video or youtube are used, but websites with training material. AP is in the classroom!

I have FT enabled but not Fastlane. I read some articles, and many were agreed that Fastlane is not good at all to be active. Any ideas from people who have Fastlane active?

5520 WLC 8.10.181.0.

Radio policy = ALL. is it good practice to have it this way? Should it be only 5Ghz or something else? Any ideas

We have already 2 SSIDs one for internal use with certificate (PCs) and other guest SSID that uses no Layer2 security but MAC and Cisco ISE.

All Ipads are in Microsoft MDM and use that way to get authenticated to the network with help of ISE.

You network admins, how do you run your Ipads? What settings do you use to make Ipads run smoothly?

Any questions are welcome!

 

14 Replies 14

marce1000
VIP
VIP

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

@Moudar wrote:
5520 WLC 8.10.181.0.
Have about 2000 Ipads on my network and in some schools, they work very slowly specially when many are in use in the same classroom, no video or youtube are used, but websites with training material.

What model of APs are used, are they "2800/3800/4800/1562/6300 series"?

If they are, I can 100% guarantee this is CSCwd37092.  

We are using these kinds kinds 2700/2800/9120.

I have 2 schools that complain all the time, one have 2700 and other have 9120.

Ipads we use are generation 8


@Moudar wrote:
I have 2 schools that complain all the time

I manage 98 schools.  And the first thing I do when I get any complaint is to VERIFY the whole story.  

Go to the site, take an iPad with no other apps installed except FAST.  Test.  Verify.  And then investigate.

Configure each 2800 AP with a TCP MSS size of 1250 "config ap tcp enable <AP NAME> 1250". 

 

 

Today i was in 4 different schools and the problem was CSCwd37092.  

Many Ipads were connected to 2800, and when connected to 2800 fast is 0 or 2 MB 

What i did is that i moved all 2800 to my other WLC which is still running 8.5.x AireOS

Roaming is sacrificed here. The plan is to install 8.10.181.3 ASAP


@Moudar wrote:

Today i was in 4 different schools and the problem was CSCwd37092.  

Many Ipads were connected to 2800, and when connected to 2800 fast is 0 or 2 MB 

What i did is that i moved all 2800 to my other WLC which is still running 8.5.x AireOS

Roaming is sacrificed here. The plan is to install 8.10.181.3 ASAP


No, don't downgrade to 8.5.   There is a workaround:  "config ap tcp enable <AP NAME> 1250". 

Try that if it improve things.  If it does, then wait for 8.10.183.0 release or just sit on this workaround.  

Another important thing:  The bug mentions two (2) issues.  The workaround only fixes slow WiFi speed but does not fix the failed authentication due to oversize certificates.

If the workround does not fix all issues why not downgrade to 8.5?

The new release is already out or do i miss something here:?

https://software.cisco.com/download/specialrelease/53112f47f8edc7e11a26a8c0580915fa 

Another question which i got after my Ipad investigation: Why some Ipads connect to 2.4Ghz and other connect to 5Ghz, all ipads were at the same room and all of them were the same model Generation 8?! Our radio policy = All


@Moudar wrote:

If the workround does not fix all issues why not downgrade to 8.5?


FN - 72424 - Later Versions of Some Wi-Fi 6 Access Points Fail to Join the WLAN Controller


@Moudar wrote:

Why some Ipads connect to 2.4Ghz and other connect to 5Ghz, 


What channel width is set on the 5.0 Ghz?

Channel width is 40Mhz for all

I don't know if 80Mhz is a good choice ?!

Stick with 40 Mhz width.  

Arshad Safrulla
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

What we do for Apple only environments.

  1.  We use 5GHz only SSIDs, with better AP positioning you can enable 2.4 as well. If dual band ssid's are in use enabled band select and turn off 2.4 radios selectively after a survey to reduce ACI and CCI in 2.4
  2. Our secondary coverage is minimum -70dbm, while we try to maintain -67 primary
  3. We have enabled (not adaptive) 802.11r (FT) , 802.11k, 802.11v Wi-Fi network roaming with 802.11k, 802.11r, and 802.11v on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS - Apple Support (AE)
  4. We always design to have not more than 30 clients per AP in the rooms, it cannot be avoided but we use directional APs in some classrooms where maximum occupancy is more than 50. We also use maximum TPC levels of 17 for 5Ghz and 10-12 for 2.4Ghz
  5. We use disable all lower data rates, we will start from 12 or 24 depending on the customer requirements
  6. We enable Fastlane or Fastlane+ (with fancy + mark) https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/wireless/access_point/9130ax/tech-notes/fastlane-faq.pdf
  7. We recommend our customers to use an MDM and have the devices up to date with IOS/MACOS.
  8. We do not recommend to any customer to use MAC auth or captive portals, if it is compulsory to use captive portals, we enable captive portal bypass and recommend using valid SSL certs. 

Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points - Apple Support (AE)

Above are some of the common guidelines we follow, you may incorporate them to your design after doing a site survey and a feasibility study.

But if we have a mixed environment, Ipads and PCs and other Android devices.

Is it a good practice to create a new SSID specially for Ipads (Already have 2 SSIDs)?

At schools we have many Ipads (one for every student) and some PCs (Teachers and management).

 

I am not a big fan of having separate SSID based on device type. My belief is that you must design your WLAN for the lowest capable client in your network. That being said, he guidelines I have provided above are tried and tested with multiple client types across many schools which we deployed recently.

As I said key points you need to consider.

  1. Lowest capable client
  2. Client drivers, as certain Android and Intel drivers doesn't play well when FT is enabled.
  3. RF design

To answer your question about Fastlane, have it enabled. It can help to provide better connectivity when paired with a MDM and configured correctly from WLC side.

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

8.10.182.0 is now out. 

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