I need some wireless help...

Hey everyone, sorry if this is in the wrong forum section.

I had a wireless network that I'm troubleshooting and I'd really like some insight if anyone has any. It's an RV park that I'm trying to configure WiFi access for and clients repeatedly get disconnected. The network is setup as shown:
DSL Gateway (DHCP, DNS, DG)>Aironet 1300 AP with 1000' antenna in parent mode>Aironet 1300 AP with mile omnidirectional antenna connected to parent AP through an infrastructure network. This access point broadcasts a guest network that all clients connect to and connects to the infrastucture network which is not broadcasting its ssid.

I know by a steady ping test that the access point with the mile antenna stays connected to the network. When viewing the logs I see
Interface Dot11Radio0, Deauthenticating Station 0024.d600.ea00 Reason: Sending station has left the BSS
Packet to client 0024.2b64.9186 reached max retries, removing the client
consistently. Cisco's website specifically states that these error messages are due to interference, but I need to be positive that the access points are configured correctly before making any addtional recommendations for more equipment.

The parent access point is set for channel 11, and the child access point's only option is to stay on the channel that the parent is broadcasting (understandable). My question is whether you can set separate channels for the extra SSIDs or am I allowed only one for the interface as a whole? I'm thinking that with the infrastructure network running at channel 11, I'd like to set the public guest network to channel 1 or 6 to see if that's what's causing my interference issue.

Any and all help would be appreciated.

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Comments

joshgibson82

Agent6376 wrote: »

Hey everyone, sorry if this is in the wrong forum section.

I had a wireless network that I'm troubleshooting and I'd really like some insight if anyone has any. It's an RV park that I'm trying to configure WiFi access for and clients repeatedly get disconnected. The network is setup as shown:
DSL Gateway (DHCP, DNS, DG)>Aironet 1300 AP with 1000' antenna in parent mode>Aironet 1300 AP with mile omnidirectional antenna connected to parent AP through an infrastructure network. This access point broadcasts a guest network that all clients connect to and connects to the infrastucture network which is not broadcasting its ssid.

I know by a steady ping test that the access point with the mile antenna stays connected to the network. When viewing the logs I see
Interface Dot11Radio0, Deauthenticating Station 0024.d600.ea00 Reason: Sending station has left the BSS
Packet to client 0024.2b64.9186 reached max retries, removing the client
consistently. Cisco's website specifically states that these error messages are due to interference, but I need to be positive that the access points are configured correctly before making any addtional recommendations for more equipment.

The parent access point is set for channel 11, and the child access point's only option is to stay on the channel that the parent is broadcasting (understandable). My question is whether you can set separate channels for the extra SSIDs or am I allowed only one for the interface as a whole? I'm thinking that with the infrastructure network running at channel 11, I'd like to set the public guest network to channel 1 or 6 to see if that's what's causing my interference issue.

Any and all help would be appreciated.

I'm not sure of the topology but it sounds like you have a Cisco 1300 trying to act as a bridge and also serve clients. Is that the case? I do not think the 1300 model is capable of doing that. Do you have a switch plugged into the wired side of the bridge or what?

2ndly, the channel is set per radio, not per SSID. The parent bridge and child bridge have to be on the same channel to communicate.

3rd, an omni antenna with high gain also has a very narrow beamwidth which means that the fresnel zone can be come obstructed very easily by trees, or whatever and that will definitely affect the throughput.

Agent6376

Thanks for the feedback Josh. One access point is configured as an AP, and the other is configured as a repeater. The repeater is what clients are associating with which then relays back to the AP connected directly to the gateway.

My signal will stay consistently at 80-100%, but it drops-reconnects for 10/15 seconds-then drops again. I didn't originally configure the access points, but instead was called out with the frequent disconnects. The RV park has pine trees everywhere, so line of sight is hit or miss for some clients-but even clients who have perfect LoS to the access point get dropped off of the network. I wish I had some config files to post, but unfortunately I had to leave in a hurry. I'm scheduled to go back out on Tuesday and I'd really like to resolve this issue for this client.

joshgibson82

Agent6376 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback Josh. One access point is configured as an AP, and the other is configured as a repeater. The repeater is what clients are associating with which then relays back to the AP connected directly to the gateway.

The clients are never going to get "great" signal using this setup. The better solution would be to use a directional antennas on the AP and repeater using the 5 GHz radio and then have the the 2.4GHz radio serve the clients from the repeater (which would the be called a bridge). I don't know if 1300's can do this but I know 1500's can. The directional antennas would give you a better chance of pointing the signal through a LOS without any obstruction to the Fresnel zone.

Agent6376

Would you go as far as to say that having the repeater and access point configuration the way it is, using the 2.4ghz band and broadcasting on the same channel as the infrastructure network would cause disconnecting issues as I've cited or just a lower signal?

Agent6376

Shameless bump here...What if I set these two access points up as a WDS network, elminating the two separate broadcasting networks and work with just one. This will prove or disprove the theory that the interference is because of both 2.4ghz networks.

Thanks in advance.

joshgibson82

Agent6376 wrote: »

Shameless bump here...What if I set these two access points up as a WDS network, elminating the two separate broadcasting networks and work with just one. This will prove or disprove the theory that the interference is because of both 2.4ghz networks.

Thanks in advance.

SOrry but you completely lost me with this one. If you have 2 separate SSID's then why would you have a them in a AP/Repeater topology? WDS is used for roaming, so that would negate any need for 2 separate SSIDs but I thought you were trying to cover a long distance with RF signal. Can you clarify?

Agent6376

Well...in all honesty to didn't realize that WDS in Cisco gear meant something completely different from Wireless Distribution System from which I'm used to. The idea was that the interference that I was getting is due to two separate networks broadcasting using the exact same frequency, so I would eliminate the infrastructure network and configure one access point (the one directly connected to the switch) as a WDS Main node and the other access point as a Remote node. This one large network would be configured as a guest network so my client's local LAN subnet would not be tampered with in the process.

I'm not sure why it was configured originally with two SSIDs, but I'm looking for a better solution all around. I'm not very familiar with wireless networks of this size, nor Cisco Aironet 1300 capabilities.

I'm sorry if I'm making this difficult to understand, but let me take another shot at it.

Take two buildings, building 1 and building 2. These buildings are about 100 meters apart (if that).

Building one has an Aironet 1300 connected to the exterior of the building which broadcasts an infrastructure network with WEP encryption and the SSID hidden. The Aironet is connected directly to a Netopia Gateway which handles all DHCP, DNS, Routing, and PPPoE authentication for the client.

Building two's Aironet (which is sporting a mile omnidirectional antenna) does not physically connect to the network at all. Instead, it connects to the infrastructure network that building one is broadcasting, then broadcasts a completely separate guest mode SSID which clients in the park are supposed to connect to.

I have to have a repeater topology since the access point on building two does not physically connect to the network. I'm looking for a solution that would allow me to broadcast a guest SSID on the Aironet on building two (since it's smack in the middle of the park and it's the highest place I can stick an AP with a power source.)

The park is filled with pine trees, so I know that interference can be an issue due to the trees, but I think that the way this network was configured is fundamentally not going to work. Also, clients get disconnected off of the network even when they are in plain LoS of the Aironet on building two, so I know that it's not just LoS issues.

Thanks again

joshgibson82

ok so now my question i guess is why not connect the AP with a 1 mile omni to the netopia and remove the repeater all together? if your desired range is 100 meters, the 1 mile omni should handle that no problem.

joshgibson82

Agent6376 wrote: »

The park is filled with pine trees, so I know that interference can be an issue due to the trees, but I think that the way this network was configured is fundamentally not going to work. Also, clients get disconnected off of the network even when they are in plain LoS of the Aironet on building two, so I know that it's not just LoS issues.

Thanks again

Have you checked around for other networks or other devices causing interference? Do you have a spectrum analyzer?

Agent6376

The main building has quite a few trees that will be a problem if I put the mile omni on it instead of using the AP on building two. There are no other networks nearby, but I have gone as far as to use Netstumbler to perform a site survey of the entire park. The network broadcasted from building two lights the place up as far as signal is concerned.

joshgibson82

Agent6376 wrote: »

The main building has quite a few trees that will be a problem if I put the mile omni on it instead of using the AP on building two. There are no other networks nearby, but I have gone as far as to use Netstumbler to perform a site survey of the entire park. The network broadcasted from building two lights the place up as far as signal is concerned.

I'm not sure what antenna u have on the 1300 but, if you have a directional antenna being connected to by an omni repeater, I'm not sure that you will ever get a clean environment. You may want to check and see if that's an "approved" set up.

Agent6376

I don't have the exact model numbers, but both Aironets have omnidirectional antennas. One is rated for 1000ft and the other is for a mile.

joshgibson82

Agent6376 wrote: »

I don't have the exact model numbers, but both Aironets have omnidirectional antennas. One is rated for 1000ft and the other is for a mile.

Have you tried moving them closer together to see if the performance improves?

Agent6376

They never disconnect from one another. I held a ping -t for over 10 minutes on the wired network to the access point on building two without a single timeout. Each reply came back under 20ms as well.

joshgibson82

Agent6376 wrote: »

They never disconnect from one another. I held a ping -t for over 10 minutes on the wired network to the access point on building two without a single timeout. Each reply came back under 20ms as well.

How big was the packet size? Will it do a 1500 byte packet with that performance level?