Solved: WAP321 clients disassociating/disconnecting

Jeremyricci · ‎01-21-2015

We have 2 Cisco WAP321 APs in a cluster in a small office. Almost all the wireless clients disconnect several times per day, then reconnect. This causes them to lose whatever data they were working on in their web portal.

We constantly see "mac address disassociating from BSSID Reason 8: sending sta is leaving bss" (see attached image)

I've updated our firmware to latest 1.0.5.3, I have disabled bandwidth management, assigned both aps to channel 6 and removed rate limits 1, 2 and 5.5 (all based on community notes from the past several years on these APs).

How do I get my clients to simply stay connected (this happens when they are stationary in an office, not when walking around and bouncing to another AP)?

cchamorr · ‎01-23-2015

Hello,

I see that you have done a lot of research on the issue and I agree with almost all of the changes you have done so far.

There are a few things to consider:

1- Have you done a scan of the wireless networks around you? How does it look?

This first question is very important because, recently I have noticed that, on places where this issue is happening, there are dozens more wireless signals using all available channels and just saturating the entire frequency range creating all sorts of issues. If that is your case, I don't see other solution than trying the 5 Ghz frequency.

Now, if you don't see any significant amount of signals around you and they are not using the channel you are using then we will need to focus our efforts on some other issues.

2- You mentioned the access points are clustered, which indicates they are hardwired on the same network.

If that is the case, then having them on the same channel is a mistake, they will both be fighting for the same frequency and since they are in such close proximity (I'm assuming they are) that could be a problem. So please put them on different channels, maybe change just one to channel 1 or channel 11.

Lastly, as usual, if you are still under support contact us and we will be happy to troubleshoot the issue further.

I hope this is helpful

View solution in original post

cchamorr · ‎01-23-2015

Hello,

I see that you have done a lot of research on the issue and I agree with almost all of the changes you have done so far.

There are a few things to consider:

1- Have you done a scan of the wireless networks around you? How does it look?

This first question is very important because, recently I have noticed that, on places where this issue is happening, there are dozens more wireless signals using all available channels and just saturating the entire frequency range creating all sorts of issues. If that is your case, I don't see other solution than trying the 5 Ghz frequency.

Now, if you don't see any significant amount of signals around you and they are not using the channel you are using then we will need to focus our efforts on some other issues.

2- You mentioned the access points are clustered, which indicates they are hardwired on the same network.

If that is the case, then having them on the same channel is a mistake, they will both be fighting for the same frequency and since they are in such close proximity (I'm assuming they are) that could be a problem. So please put them on different channels, maybe change just one to channel 1 or channel 11.

Lastly, as usual, if you are still under support contact us and we will be happy to troubleshoot the issue further.

I hope this is helpful

Jeremyricci · ‎01-28-2015

Thank you very much for your reply.

I have done a site survey and unfortunately it is extremely congested. It's a doctors office complex, so many of the offices not only have wifi, but are also broadcasting guest networks as well.

Oddly enough it appears to me that channel 11 is the LEAST congested, but 1 and 6 seem about equal.

I have taken your suggestion and hard coded channels 1 and 11 on the WAPs and will monitor over the next 24 hours. If we don't see some improvement, I will call in.

We purchased these WAPs about 2 months ago, so I have to imagine there's some kind of warranty for support coverage??

cchamorr · ‎01-28-2015

Hello,

To answer your questions, yes, if you bought the devices from a authorized retailer then the units are covered for phone support (Configuration questions) for a full year from the purchase date.

Now, we will be happy to look at your configuration and give you some recommendations that could improve the connection a little bit, but just to set the right expectation, when the channels around you are so saturated there is really not a lot that can be done besides jumping to 5Ghz.

In any case, try changing the channels and let us know if you see any improvement, if you don't then please give us a call and we will be happy to assist you.

I hope this helps.

cchamorr · ‎02-19-2015

Hello,

I just wanted to touch base with you and see if you were able to find a solution for your issue or if you are still having problems.

Please let us know.

Jeremyricci · ‎02-20-2015

Hi there,

So we made the change to the 5ghz band and the problems for 3 or 4 days seemed to be resolved. Now I am getting reports of the drops happening again. The one thing I heard that stuck out was a failure connecting to DHCP. I'll pull some of the logs and post here. Maybe I overlooked a setting?

Jeremyricci · ‎02-20-2015

ok, I pulled some logs from the AP.

it seems the APs are disassociating clients due to inactivity? If that's the case, how do I disable that setting? They are constantly in use, I can't imagine why these would have that setting enabled.

Eric Moyers · ‎02-23-2015

My name Eric Moyers. I am an Engineer in the Small Business Support Center.

If you have already tried these please disregard.

1) Go to the Wireless-Bandwidth Utilization tab and disable Bandwidth Utilization.
2) Go to the Wireless-Radio tab and under Legacy Rate Sets supported and basic disable rates 1 and 2.
3) Change fixed multicast from auto to 54.
4) Disable the "Broadcast key refresh rate" duration from 300 seconds to 0 seconds.

If this does not improve your issue, please call our support center and open a case so that one of our engineers can work directly with you.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/web/tsd-cisco-small-business-support-center-contacts.html

Eric Moyers
.:|:.:|:. CISCO | Cisco Presales Technical Support | Wireless Subject Matter Expert

Please rate helpful Posts and Let others know when your Question has been answered.

pwebendorfer · ‎09-09-2016

Hi Eric - sorry for rehashing this old thread, but we have been having fits with dropped connections on WAP321 APs and I have been going through quite a few Cisco forum posts. This is the first time I have seen the suggestion of dropping the Broadcast key refresh rate to 0. Would you please elaborate on the reason for this change?

Thanks!