Issues with Intel Proset NIC and 1230 associations

[d.beaver]

Hi all.

I have a client that we have built a wireless network for consisting of 36 access points over 4 floors. We are using LEAP authentication, and TKIP with WPA. The computers they intend to use are Fujitsu Lifebook T's with Centrino processors and built-in Intel Proset 2200B wireless NIC's.

The problem is that when we take a notebook out into the environment, the connection is lousy. It will drop and reauthenticate a number of times as we move from AP to AP. I can take another laptop with a Cisco Card through the same area, and it is solid as a rock, never dropping or reauthenticating.

We have updated the AP's to 122.15XR (according to TAC, 123-2.XC2 is still a little buggy), the laptops to the latest firmware, have tested the AP's and laptops with no LEAP, TKIP, or WPA, changed the throughput on the AP to require 1 and 2 megs only, turned off Aironet extensions, etc.

We are beginning to think it is a lost cause. We didn't know if anyone else had run into the same with the Intel Proset NICs.

Any assistance would be welcomed.

Thanks all,

David Beaver

[paul.collins]

Hi,

We have had very similar problems with the Intel 2200 cards. Cisco cards are no problems at all.

We've managed to get some stability with the Intel cards by configuring the following:

1: Disable Cisco Client Aironet Extensions on the Wireless Access Point.

2: Activate CAM (continuous awareness mode) on the laptop network card drivers to prevent the shutting down of the wireless NIC by the laptop for power saving purposes.

3: Set the protocol type to 802.11b on laptop network card drivers which will negate the need for autonegotiation between client laptop and WAP.

4: Configure the laptop power management engine to be "always on" on never go to sleep/idle or hibernate. (Power Supply Options in Control Panel).

[jdrubino]

We are going through the same issue.

Are you both useing 9.0.1.0 driver versions?

We are using the Intel driver and mgt software.

[gwcrook]

We use IBM Laptops with Intel integrated wireless card. We have reached a dependable connection under the following conditions --

Laptop Settings

Windows Zero configuration

DHCP

uncheck fast reconnect

uncheck authenticate machine

AP1200's

Had to downgrade to 12.2(15)JA none of the XRs worked neither did the 12.3(2)JA.

Currently testing 12.3(2)JA2 released last week.

WDS

12.2(15)XR2

ACS

3.3(2) Build 2 tac had to supply this because of another authentication problem. I don't know if that has an impact.

We use open and PEAP as well as Mac authentication

[ssylliaasen]

I was just wondering how did your testing go with the 12.3(2)JA2

[d.beaver]

Yes, that is a good question. After speaking with TAC, we decided not to move to 12.3(2)JA2 and stay with 12.2(15)XR2. They seem more confident in the XR2 code than they did with the new JA2 code. We also tried the fix Intel posted and found that it gives a better signal strength, but doesn’t do much in the way of dropped packets. I hope others are experiencing better results, but so far that is what we have seen.

[jdrubino]

I have been working with TAC and Intel. Both have owned up to a bonafied issue on the Intel side.

They sent us an Engineers driver for testing.

We did 3 things:

-1st we installed engineers driver on problem laptop with AP's on 12.3(2)JA code. Marginal improvement.

-2nd we upped our AP's to 12.3(2)JA2 code - immediate improvement with occasional drops ( 1 or 2 a day ) on NON Engineers driver

-3rd we upped another problem laptop to Engineers driver - this gave a slight improvement.

NOTE:

As baseline we kept all Intel settings at stock.

We are running AES with LEAP, CCKM - on.

I ran 3 Laptops side by side with ping plotter.

Laptop A with Intel 2200 BG card

Laptop B with Cisco Aironet CB21AG card

Laptop C with HP WL500 ( mini PCI like Intel )

Results Laptop A still had sporadic drops ( nothing like before )

Laptop B and C did not miss a single ping over 48 hours.

NOTE:

The HP card uses the Atheros client AN EXACT clone of the Cisco ADU.

The HP card is rock solid and appears to be a slightly more expensive alternative to the Intel card.

[jdrubino]

I saw this on Intel's web:

http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-006205.htm

I have not tried their work around yet so I can't vouch.....

[pam]

I was wondering if you have had any luck stabilizing these cards. i have a similar installation running gateway laptops and motion computing tablets in a 5 story hospital. both of these machines use the integrated 2200 bg card. we are running eap-fast using both funk's odyssey client and intel's supplicant. they appear to work about the same. i wuld like to think that intel's application would work better. i talked to intel (and i still have a ticket open with them) and their tech support said that they have had a lot of problems with roaming. he suggested that i downgrade to 8.0.1. the problem with that is that i would get mic tkip errors on the access point and then the access point would turn off temporarily kicking off all clients. i will say that the problem we have is with a telnet client application where the connection has to stay active all of the time. everything appears fine with web traffic and for that matter i can keep the sessions up for about an hour without a drop (unfortunatlely that is not good enough). within the intel client you can configure the power to constantly aware mode and the transmit power of the card. i have tried multiple settings and i have found that not taking the default and setting it to the maximum helps. both company's suggest turning off wireless zero config.

i tuned our radios using wlse and have experimented with mdifying the power settings. i thought that they would roam better if i turned the power down but that was not the case. i think things improved by turning up the radio power in certain settings.

hope some of this helps but we aren't all the way there either

paul

[ssylliaasen]

We are having success with our IBM T42 with the Wireless 2200BG NIC. We downloaded a driver verison of 9.0.1.21 from IBM web site. Also we upgraded the INtel PROSet Wireless WLANCX2A driver which updated the AEGIS Protocol to a v3.1.6.0.

The AP are running the latest code.

[d.beaver]

OK, tell me where to find the WLANCX2A driver update and what will the AEGIS update do for me? I have looked on Intel's website for the WLANCX2A with no success. The latest version of the 2200B/G driver on the Intel website is 9.0.1.0, Device Management 9.0.1.59, Device Driver 9.0.1.9.

And you are running 12.3(4)JA on the AP's? We are running 12.2(15)XR on the AP's and the above version of drivers for the wireless NIC's and are still experiencing random drops. We are running Medhost in the ER and Clinician View on the floors, both locations are having issues.

I wonder if I can use the IBM drivers?

[jdrubino]

I have a long standing TAC case open on this issue.

We are running 12.3(2)JA2

JA2 cleared up allot of issues.

TAC advised stay away from 12.3(4)JA.

We have the driver from Intel's website 9.0.1.0, Device Management 9.0.1.59, Device Driver 9.0.1.9

And the connectivity issue pesists. I ran "ping plotter" side by side with 2 other laptops

1 with the Cisco client a/b/g adapter

the other with the HP WL500.

Only the Intel would disconnect and drop pings.

The other 2 cards perform flawlessly.

The Intel is about a 3rd the price of the Cisco and HP cards ( you get what you pay for ).

I am convinced no driver fix is going to help this issue. I now believe this to be a poor wireless chip design.

[pam]

I also work at a hospital where we did a major rollout with wireless bedside carts. we were using the new gateway laptops with the 2200 bg cards. i tried all of the latest drivers and they continued to drop connectivity. these hospital applications are not like browsing but are much more sensitive to lost packets. i finally put in the cisco abg cards with the latest dirver and used funk's odyssey client to run eap-fast. this seemed to solve the problem of dropped sessions. i also upgraded the access points to 12.3(4)JA. i believe that version works better with non cisco cards. now that cisco has released their client for these cards that supports eap-fast, i can migrate these users to this client and avoid the additional cost of the odyssey client on these pcs. i don't doubt that eventually intel will get the driver right but it was not worth stress of having disgruntled users/boss to keep fighting it.

[kenjohnson]

You mentioned

"i believe that version works better with non cisco cards. now that cisco has released their client for these cards that supports eap"

Is this some new wizard download that supports Cisco compatible (but non-cisco-branded) cards? I was unaware of this - is it available for download?

It would be execellent to only have to have one or two sets of documentation for our users connecting to our LEAP/EAP-FAST secured network...

- Ken

[ssylliaasen]

I am not sure if you can or not but in the readme file it does only show the IBM devices. But we got the driver updates and everything at this link.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=ibm&lndocid=MIGR-54956

We are running this code on the AP 12.3(2)JA2, and the XR code on the WDS.