1100 series AP to use at home for wireless internet

jgladwell

How do I set this up?

It was part of a bundle I bought, included 2500 router and 1700 router. I didn't have any plans for it until I decided to use it for wireless, the signal gets killed in my house

tiersten

Check that its running the autonomous version of the firmware. You don't have a WLC so the LWAPP version won't work for you. Firmware is on the Cisco site and you probably need a full account with a SMARTnet contract to be able to download it.

Apart from that, its all configured via the web interface or the CLI. Quick start guide.

tech-airman

jgladwell wrote:

How do I set this up?

It was part of a bundle I bought, included 2500 router and 1700 router. I didn't have any plans for it until I decided to use it for wireless, the signal gets killed in my house

jgladwell,

What kind of wireless client technologies are you using?

1. 802.11a?
2. 802.11b?
3. 802.11g?
4. Other?

jgladwell

802.11b/g in mixed mode currently.

Trouble is that I get horrible signal just 15 feet away. Pretty sure it is the crappy USB wireless adapters that I am using on the kids' computers. Before I buy better adapters, I'd like to use what I have at hand already, and hopefully pick up some experience at the same time.

tiersten

Allowing 802.11b clients onto your network will slow it down considerably.

If you're getting such a bad signal that close then its most likely that you're on a congested channel. Move it to one of the others. You don't get much choice however as most of them overlap. The non overlapping ones would be 1, 6, 11 or 14 if you can use it. You're not allowed to use 12 to 14 however in the US.

tech-airman

jgladwell wrote:

802.11b/g in mixed mode currently.

Trouble is that I get horrible signal just 15 feet away. Pretty sure it is the crappy USB wireless adapters that I am using on the kids' computers. Before I buy better adapters, I'd like to use what I have at hand already, and hopefully pick up some experience at the same time.

jgladwell,

Has your Cisco 1100 AP been upgraded with an 802.11g radio?

jgladwell

tiersten wrote:

Allowing 802.11b clients onto your network will slow it down considerably.

If you're getting such a bad signal that close then its most likely that you're on a congested channel. Move it to one of the others. You don't get much choice however as most of them overlap. The non overlapping ones would be 1, 6, 11 or 14 if you can use it. You're not allowed to use 12 to 14 however in the US.

Channel 6 is what I am running on now. I'll try one of the other ones. I'll also try running "g" only.

Thank you!

tech-airman wrote:

Has your Cisco 1100 AP been upgraded with an 802.11g radio?

This is an Aironet 1100, can I upgrade the radio?

I haven't looked into this much at all since I didn't plan on using it for anything, just hanging on to it until I found someone interested in it or found a use.

kryolla

check your power setting which are directly related to bandwidth that is available. It is a way of controlling the RF spread i.e the farther out from the AP the lower the bandwidth. HTH

tiersten

jgladwell wrote:

This is an Aironet 1100, can I upgrade the radio?

The 1100 APs came in two versions. One with a 802.11g capable radio and one that only can do 802.11b. In both cases, the radio is actually a mini PCI board inside. Cisco sells a kit where you basically swap out the radio board inside to change an 802.11b AP to a 802.11g capable one.

You can tell what one you've got by looking at the web interface or using the CLI. Assuming somebody hasn't already upgraded the radio, then looking at the model number of the AP will also tell you.

tech-airman

jgladwell wrote:

tech-airman wrote:

Has your Cisco 1100 AP been upgraded with an 802.11g radio?

This is an Aironet 1100, can I upgrade the radio?

I haven't looked into this much at all since I didn't plan on using it for anything, just hanging on to it until I found someone interested in it or found a use.

jgladwell,

The Cisco Aironet 1100 AP comes with a 802.11b radio that you can upgrade to 802.11g. The benefit of doing so would raise your wireless bandwidth from 802.11b's 11 Mbps to 802.11g's 54 Mbps. An 802.11b AP is compatible with only 802.11b clients. An 802.11g AP is compatible with 802.11g clients but some 802.11g APs can also be backwards compatible with 802.11b clients. That's because 802.11b and 802.11g both use the same 2.4 GHz frequency band. However, be advised that due to 802.11b's maximum throughput of 11 Mbps, when the AP is operating in "802.11b compatible" mode, you're going to see a performance degredation issue until you upgrade all of the clients to 802.11g as well as operate the AP in "pure 802.11g" mode. However, from an operational perspective, the wireless clients should work.

dtlokee

Do you have the correct antennas connected to the radio?