Illegal SSID name issues with WAP2000 firmware 2.0.4.0

InternSupport · ‎04-19-2011

Cisco has recently released firmware 2.0.4.0 for the WAP2000 wireless access point. This firmware has two annoying bugs in new JavaScript code which validates SSID names on the "Basic Wireless Settings" page.

First of all, this firmware does not allow SSID names to contain spaces, even though a space is a legal character in a SSID name!

Secondly, this firmware only allow the first SSID name to be 31 characters longs, even though the maximum allowed SSID name length is 32 (and the input field even allows 32 characters to be entered in the first place!)

If either case you will get an "Illegal SSID Name!" alert message (the developer could apparently not be bothered to make the message more specific and tell the user WHY the SSID name is supposedly illegal), and you will not be able to add additional SSIDs, or configure these existing SSID's on new access points that have this firmware.

The workaround is to revert back to firmware 2.0.0.5. You can upgrade to 2.0.4.0 after adding the "illegal" SSID names, they will remain after upgrading.

The new firmware does have an interesting new feature: it can download its configuration from a TFTP server (either through DHCP or by specifying the server), but I have not been able to find the documentation on how to get this working.

streaves · ‎04-26-2011

Hello Intern Support and thanks for participating in the Small Business Support Community. I've shared your comments with Product Engineering and want to share their response.

"First of all, this firmware does not allow SSID names to contain spaces, even though a space is a legal character in a SSID name!"
Although the standard itself doesn't exclude values, the NULL string is prevented due to the potential for harm.

"Secondly, this firmware only allow the first SSID name to be 31 characters longs, even though the maximum allowed SSID name length is 32 (and the input field even allows 32 characters to be entered in the first place!)"

Good point. Addressed in an upcoming firmware release.

"If either case you will get an "Illegal SSID Name!" alert message ... and you will not be able to add additional SSIDs, or configure these existing SSID's on new access points that have this firmware."

Addressed in an upcoming firmware release.

"The new firmware does have an interesting new feature: it can download its configuration from a TFTP server (either through DHCP or by specifying the server), but I have not been able to find the documentation on how to get this working."

Please see attached screenshot of WAP2000 UI.

Thanks again for taking the time to post your concerns. This is exactly the feedback we need as we develop and improve Small Business products. Extremely valuable and greatly appreciated. When the new firmware is available we'll post an announce in this Community. Stay tuned ......

Stephanie Reaves

Cisco Small Business

InternSupport · ‎05-11-2011

Thanks for the reply. Please note that I was not referring to NULL values (how would one enter this in a browser anyway?) but the fact that spaces are not allowed in the SSID name.

As for the configuration TFTP, I have seen the help screen, but frankly this does not nearly give enough details to know how to configure this without this becoming a trial and error procedure, which would defeat the purpose of making configuration of multiple access points easier. Which settings for example are affected by this configuration and which are not. If for instance the Channel is affected, that it wouldn't make any sense to use this, since we use particularly choosen channels for each access point to prevent interferrence from neighboring access points.