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Cisco 881 Stops Broadcasting?

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:14 pm
by pingsteve
Hi All,

About 6-8 months ago we upgraded the WiFi infrastructure in all the buildings in our stake. We are using the Cisco 881 and either 2 or 3 of the Cisco access points (forgot the model number) depending on the building.

For the most part it works very well. However, I have had two reports where members were unable to access the internet in the area of the building where the 881 is located. When I fire up InSSIDer, I see the two access points, but I do not see the 881 broadcasting.

Not knowing what else to do, I power cycled the firewall/router. It didn't come back immediately, but when I checked a few hours later I saw that everything was working again.

Has anyone else seen this behavior?

Thanks

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:37 pm
by rbeede
Your other two AP's should be Cisco 1041N's. You may be getting interference from your other AP's especially if they aren't synced with the 1041n.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:39 am
by rbeede
Another option is to connect a wireless client to your 881w and have it download something really big for 6+ hours. If that causes it to go out check that it isn't in a location where it would overheat.

Also if you had a power fluctuation that could cause strange behavior. A UPS battery backup would be useful in that situation.

If it happens frequently you may need to simply get the hardware replaced under warranty.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:51 am
by pingsteve
How would I know if the 1041N APs are synced with the 881 or not? I know how they're physically connected, but should I look to see if they're broadcasting on the same channel?

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:05 am
by john84601
pingsteve wrote: ...should I look to see if they're broadcasting on the same channel?

They should for sure be on different channels. Although... I don't think that would cause a WAP to stop working. It could be indicitive that they are not talking to the wireless LAN controller.

Did you reboot the 881?

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:08 am
by rbeede
Assuming a standard configuration (all SSID are LDSAccess with the same password) then check to see they are all on the same channel. You can always power cycle the 1041n's to make sure as with the standard configuration they won't work unless they are able to sync at power-on.

My guess is that if you've only had this happen once in 6 months it was probably a power blip that didn't completely reset the 881w but caused it to drop its wifi. This is the most common issue of sporadic or rare issues with network gear I've seen.

There is also a small chance that the 881w saw so much signal from the other APs that it decided t back off to reduce interference. If you have a lot of overlap you can ask the GSC to adjust the radio power settings to help reduce it.