Aironet 1200 AP

[cwalter14204]

My school recently purchased a cisco aironet 1200 access point. We have been having problems with reception on it. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to come with antennae or not...but while reading the installation manual, it says to connect them in the back. So my question is, did we not receive them when the unit was shipped? Or do we have to purchase them separately?

Thanks,

Chris

[travis-dennis_2]

Sorry Chris but they are purchased seperatly. Take a look here to find out what your ordering options are:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps469/index.html

Hope this helps.

Please remember to rate all replies

Thanks,

Travis

[cwalter14204]

Well, that makes life a lot easier!

Thanks Travis!

[cwalter14204]

A friend of mine is convinced that it doesn't require an antenna to function normally (that the internal one should work fine).

Is it possible that we just got a bad unit? Or is anyone 100% sure that an aironet 1200 access point requires antenna(s) to work properly?

I did a test with another access point that we have - by taking off the antennas and I got the same behavior as the aironet 1200 - virtually no signal from 15 or more feet away.

Regards,

Chris

[scottmac]

Your friend is wrong. There is no internal antenna in the 1200 APs.

Because it can be configured for so many roles (AP, bridge, wgb, internal or external), it is shipped without antennas. You must order the antennas that fit the role for which you've purchased the unit.

Check out the sales blurb from CDW:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=385493

Near the bottom "Antennas sold separately"

Good Luck

Scott

[andrew.brazier]

As previously stated, you need to buy antenna separately, a good general purpose antenna for indoor, omni use is the AIR-ANT4941 2.2dbi dipole. They're pretty cheap as well! (You'll want 2 by the way).

A further point to bear in mind is that running the AP with no antenna connected for an extended period can actually damage the radio hardware as the signal energy is not being radiated out of an antenna it gets reflected back into the unit.

[lgilbertson]

Perhaps the answer to the question is "depends"...

The 1200 APs I've got (1232AGs) have internal 802.11A & G antenna. I opted to acquire external antenna (AIR-ANT2012 for 2.4Ghz and AIR-ANT5145V-R for 5Ghz)to improve the coverage and this certainly helped. Prior to the upgrade I would get about 80-100ft horizontal coverage and no penetration through to the lower floor. With the external antennae I can cover almost the entire facility (150ft horizontal and not just penetration to the lower floor but also 100ft across that floor)