Tech Forum

We have a meetinghouse with a Cisco 881W firewall and four 1041 WAPs. The 4th WAP never finishes booting up. It just flashes green.

I can change the order of the four WAPs, and I can make any of the four be the last one to try and connect. In every case, the 4th WAP stops at the flashing green stage.

Any suggestions?

I'm unaware of the waps having any special requirements as far as wiring goes (assuming you're connecting them to the same port of the firewall - the last port being reserved for FM stuff. The second to last for FHC - if you have one.) I'd give global service a call. Maybe there's something in the firewall has changed that limits the number of expected WAPs and that needs to be adjusted.

russellhltn wrote:I'm unaware of the waps having any special requirements as far as wiring goes (assuming you're connecting them to the same port of the firewall

They all come into a switch connected to Port 0.

my question would be if you go to the command line on the router, do you see an IP address for the four WAP MAC addresses? I have one building that has 4 WAPS in it and they all work correctly.

Terry

I have a building with almost triple the number of waps and they work fine. So whatever is going on is not a global limit. But it does sound like something in the firewall.

Hmmmm. How long did you wait? I seem to remember that it takes something like 15 minutes to add a wap. I thought it was so the wap gets it's info from the "mothership", but maybe it's something in the firewall that has to configure.

At the Access Points tab, I am seeing the internal WiFi and three (not four) WAPs. I will restart them in a different order and see if I get the same result.

Two of the WAPs have the same controller number in the right column. Is that okay?

Yes it is. I have one unit that has 3 WAPS on the same controller. Now, I know that in that unit there was one that would come up, check in, but then would go down with a flashing red light not green.

Now looking at the LED indication the flashing green usually means that it is booting. You might try to reset it to factory. We had to do that on one of our WAPS. Here are the steps to factory reset the WAP.

Resetting to Default Settings Using the MODE Button

Follow these steps to reset the access point to factory default settings using the access point MODE button:

Step 1 Disconnect power (the power jack for external power or the Ethernet cable for in-line power) from the access point.

Step 2 Press and hold the MODE button while you reconnect power to the access point.

Step 3 Hold the MODE button until the Status LED turns amber (approximately 1 to 2 seconds), and release the button. All access point settings return to factory defaults.

You will need to be at the WAP when you do this. Hope this helps.

harddrive wrote:Now looking at the LED indication the flashing green usually means that it is booting.

I think that's what it does while waiting to check in with the mother ship. The WAPs are centrally configured and it does take quite some time to do that for the first time. I thought it was the WAP itself that was configured, but now I'm thinking it's really the firewall getting updated to manage the WAP.

Looking at the help center, it says "Once everything is plugged in correctly, the standard WAPs will automatically receive software updates and be configured. This process may take up to two hours to complete; however, in some international locations this process has taken as long as 24 hours."

I don't know if this was resolved, but the length of the network cable can have an effect on the WAP's ability to set up. I usually connect my WAP's to the router with a shorter cable for the first time, then once it's configured by the router, move it out to the installation location.

Personally the only reason that I would see that the cable length having any effect on the WAP's ability to set up is that the cable is longer than the IEEE standard of 100 meters, or it could be a poor quality cable, or there is some interference that is getting introduced on the line.