Strange behavior with Cisco AP and Intel 3945 wireles card

[kirchhoffa]

Hi,

I have an interesting problem with an Intel 3945 A/G card, and my cisco APs.

1. Given:

Cisco 1100 and 1200 AP running IOS 12.3.8-JEA

Two laptop, one with Intel 2200 MPCI Card, the other with Intel 3945 MPCI Card

Microsoft AD with IAS radius server

a. 1 SSID with Simple EAP-TLS configuration Enterprise WPA/TKIP, no vlans, broadcast SSID. both card associate correctly and operate normally.

b. 2 SSID, 1 with simple EAP-TLS configuration Enterprise WPA/TKIP (broadcast), and 2nd SSID Open/No encryption/No authentication (not broadcasted), both cards associate correctly and operate normally.

c. 2 SSID, 1 with simple EAP-TLS configuration Enterprise WPA/TKIP (broadcast), and 2nd SSID WPS-PSK (not broadcasted), both cards operate normally.

Now it gets interesting:

c. 2 SSID, 1 with EAP-TLS/WPA Enterprise on its own VLAN 102, 2nd SSID Open/No Encryption/No authentication on a separate VLAN 105, VLAN 1 is used for admin and radius backhaul to IAS.

If both SSID are broadcasted via mbssid guest-mode both Intel cards work as expected

If neither SSID are broadcasted, both Intel cards work as expected

If either SSID is broadcasted via normal guest-mode command, the Intel 2200 associates and works correctly, but the Intel 3945 refuses to assocate to the AP.

Has anyone heard of side-effect?

Alan

[joelkeranen]

It sounds kind of like this issue:

http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/cs-022427.htm

[linhthasack]

This is due to roaming features on the new 3945 ag card. PEAP/WPA will not work. My work around was to go ahead and disable broadcast on all SSID. We run a very big University campus and have different laptop vendors that have built in 3945 ag cards that students brings to the campus. This card caused alot of problem for us when it was first introduced. Disableing the ssid worked for us.

[jcornford]

I'm seeing a similar issue with the 3945 right now. However in my example the following is the case;

APs are 1200 series IOS upgraded running 802.11b interfaces only. There are multiple SSIDs NONE of which are broadcasting.

We've got a few different client types. The Cisco CB21ABG cards are fine, as are the Intel 2200 and 7920 phones. It's only the 3945 that has a problem and it's running Intel's 10.5.1.68 driver which is the latest. I'm considering downgrading it to an older driver.

Anybody got a definate fix for this Intel card???

[matthiasgoodman]

I would say that that is not strange behavior for an Intel 3945 card, it is very normal behavior for an Intel 3945 card. Our fix was to lower the roaming aggressiveness down to 3 instead of for. We were seeing the card roam before it was even dona authenticating.