Is AP 1200 incompatible? Netgear ME102 in Ap Client mode problem.

[kmleon]

AP 1200 with 12.01T.

Netgear ME102 with 1.4h.4

AP 1200 as Root AP.

Regular clients can connect ok (though a pain with XP users, and SSID Broadcasts have to be on for XP to even work with it, big pain), but when trying to connect the ME102 in AP CLient mode to the AP 1200, It keeps doing:

Authenticated, Associated, Disassociated, over and over.

Occasionally it'll let a ping or two get through (maybe one every 5 minutes or so). Have tried with 5 different ME102's just to be sure, with various different firmwares and drivers.

They can act as AP Client to other Netgears and Cabletrons no problem, but can't get it to work with the Aironet.

Have tried turnning of Aironet extensions. World Domain, etc. To no avail.

Any suggestions on why the AP 1200 won't let the ME102 connect?

Any logging/debugging I can turn up to get more information, than the generic "Authenticated, Associated, Disassociated" log entries that don't describe the WHY it's disassociating?

Thanks.

[kmleon]

Here are Cisco's TAC responses:

"The configuration you are trying with an AP in client mode connecting to our AP is not a supported config. This is not an 802.11b standard setup and as you can see will not work."

" When you setup an AP in client mode it acts like a repeater which is not a 802.11b standard, but it's vender specific. If you want to use our AP1200s, and connect a user via ethernet Cisco really only has two options. 1. Work group bridges : With this you can have up to 8 clients connect into a hub, then the work group bridge connects to the AP. 2. Bridges : Connect the client using bridges, and a hub. Because you are in theory bridging traffic from one client to another."

We also verified the same refusal from the Cisco AP to allow full connectivity (note, some traffic did make it, but most was dropped byt the Cisco AP) with Linksys, D-Link, Belkin, Orinoco, and Blitz, all with the same issues unfortunately.

Note: ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS WERE ABLE TO WORK IN THAT MODE WITH EACH OTHER THOUGH, ONLY THE CISCO ONE REFUSES TO ALLOW IT> Ironic since repeater modes aren't supopsed to be part of the 802.11b standard either, and yet Cisco supports that (just for Cisco to Cisco).

We ended up finding the 3Com 3CWE820A that allows us to connect, with a network port on one end, and accepts a PC-Card 802.11b card on the other and acts (as far as the Cisco AP is concerned) as a regular client, but allows the whole network to be connected.

Note: Orinoco cards worked, but Dell Trumobile cards did not, even though under Linux (and other OSes) they're identical.

Hope this helps out anyone else who runs into this.

[kmleon]

FYI for those others who may run into this, here is how we found a solution since Cisco does not offer one.

3Com has an ethernet to wireless bridge client:

3CWE820A

It has a slot for a PCMCIA wireless card.

It doesn't accept ALL cards, but most will work, we used the orinoco/lucent/agere ones just fine, we'll be testing it with a Cisco one shortly, though since Cisco charges 2-3 times what everyone else charges for the same equipment, and don't back up there products without additional charges, we'll likely stick with the Agere ones (or others).

The 3com unit is available for around $150 plus a card around $70.

We're also starting to evaluate Linksys' WET11 ethernet to wireless bridge which doesn't need an added card and has an external antenna connector, all for only $110.00. We'll evualuating it's performance.

D-link also has a similar unit for around $80, but we're wary of dlink's performance and quality.

Hope this helps out anyone else in similar circumstances.