Performance problem with AP1200

[csco10143007]

I'm working at an international company and my order was to install an wlan solution at our office in japan with around 25 employes. One AP1200 with two antennas.

The problem is, that we need for transfer a file off 8,2Mb from server to client over AP1200 around a minute average. I'm still shure that you agree with me that's not the performance what we can expect from this equipment.

Second problem ist that the clients complain about several timeouts. at the logs I can see that clients lose there authentication.

Here is what I've configured and I hope that someone can help me!

------------------------------

express set-up

configuration server protocol: static ip

radio 802.11g

role in radio network: access point root

optimized radio network for troughput

aironet exstensions disabled

express security

SSID no broadcast SSID in beacon

VLAN no vlan configured

security static WEP Key; Key 1, 128 bit

SSID table

SSID xxxxxx

VLAN none

Encryption wep mandatory

Authentication shared

Ley Management none

network map

network map disabled

adjacent nodes no entires

network interfaces: radio0-802.11g:settings

enable radio enable

role in radio network access point root (fallback to radio island)

data rates best troughput

CCK Transmitter Power (mW): max

OFDM Transmitter Power (mW): max

Limit Client Power (mW): max

default radio channel: 1-2412 Mhz

world mode multi-domain operations dot11d

country code japan, indoor

radio preamble short

receive antenna diversity

transmit antenna diversity

external antenna config enabled; antenna gain(dB): 128

aironet extensions: disabled

Ethernet Encapsulation Transform: RFC1042

Reliable Multicast to WGB: Disable

Public Secure Packet Forwarding: Disable

Short Slot-Time: Enable

beacon period: 100

max.data retries 64

fragmentation threshold 2346

data beacon rate 2

rts max.retries 64

rts treshold 2312

repeater parent ap timeout

security: encryption manager

encyription mode wep encryption mandatory

encryption keys 4 x 128 bit

broadcast key rotation interval disabled

security: ssid manager

vlan none

authentication settings shared authentication; with mac authentication

server priorities

EAP use defaults

MAC auth use defaults

auth key mgr none

server manager

no radius or tacas server configured

security: advanced security

MAC auth local list only

local mac address list all allowed mac addresses

security: advanced security-timers

client holdoff time: disabled

radio-802.11g auth EAP or MAC reauthentication interval; enabled every 10 seconds

EAP client timeout 65555

TKIP MIC failure holdoff time: disabled holdoff

security: association access list

filter client associoation with MAC ACL none

services

telnet/ssh enabled

cdp disabled

filters disabled

qos disabled

ntp enabled

arp cachaing enabled

hot standby disabled

dns enabled

http enabled

snmp enabled

vlan disabled

wireless services AP

participate is SWAN infrastructure disabled

WDS discovery auto discovery

wireless services wds: server groups

use group for infrastructure authentication

ssid setting apply to all ssids

wireless services wds:general set-up

nothing enabled

system software

Product/Model Number: AIR-AP1231G-A-K9

System Software Filename: c1200-k9w7-tar.123-2.JA

System Software Version: 12.3(2)JA

Bootloader Version: 12.2(8)JA

------------------------------

Every hint to save this problem is recommend! Thanks for your assitance!!!

Peter Burggasser

[will.shaw]

Firstly, running 25 users on one AP, although possible I would recommend using at least two for this setup, both for load balancing and failover.

You should probably look at changing the following config:

client holdoff time: disabled

radio-802.11g auth EAP or MAC reauthentication interval; enabled every 10 seconds

EAP client timeout 65555

Maybe increase the re-authentication interval to about 5 minutes, and change the EAP client timeout to about 30 mins not 18 hours.

It might be worth converting to the IOS image as well.

What client adaptors are you using?

[csco10143007]

we are using ibm thinkpad x40 (2371-8EU) 14 times and 5 fix based workstations. But at network flow it's calculated up to 25 users per AP.They are only working with office 2003 and SAP.

Today I've take a look on the clients. What I've seen was as follows. At the fix based clients they have a responce time around 1-3ms so it's perfect. But at the IBM side the limits of variation is about 20-350ms. That mean that you would need for an 8.55mb file for downloading about 1,2 minutes fomr the server. So I'm still shure that you can agree we with me, that doesn't fit. But at first thanks for your help!

[will.shaw]

Which client adaptors are you using?

Is there any way you could test the download whilst there are no users on the AP?

[csco10143007]

Yes of course. During the time shift I can observe this network at my daily business hours. The test results, during the time where nobody was on the AP show us the same as with coworkers on there. Maybe around 10ms better.

So the next step for me is to move all users to the old AP340 back again, build a lab and test this with other cards. Maybe its necessary to remove the build in wireless antenna from IBM and try an pcmcia card that may fits better to the AP.

What I can't understand is that all users are within a radius of 5-12 meters and it doens't work. Everybody have sight contact to the AP. The performance and espacially the result of this project is a nightmare! To get save we bought a second antenna. You can believe me to get this isn't so easy as in europe or in the staates to get this in Tokyo. Actuall situation is that domestic cards (PCI) at the desktops do there job much better as the more expansive cards from IBM.

Is this another way to bind customers to there own products? I don't know, but it looks like for me! Everbody talk about WIFI standard and everybody talk about the same but it looks that everbody cooks there own soup.