Cisco AIR-AP1242AG-A-K9 Multiple SSID, multiple security

[aklatt]

Hello,

I have a Cisco AIR-AP1242AG-A-K9 Autonomous AP running firmware 12.4(25d)JA.  I wish to set up multiple SSID's (2) each having their own separate security types.  Both security types may end up being WPA2, but would have separate keys.

I do not have a managed switch, the AP is connected to a "dumb" switch in an office environment, with no VLANS.  Also this is only for 1 access point.

I have tried creating 2 SSID's, but my issue is that only one SSID will actually work at a time, meaning that only the native VLAN in the AP will actually allow wired traffic through it's SSID. 

How can I set up 2 different SSID's, with 2 independant security types and have them work simultaneously?  Is this functionality supported by this AP?

I feel that this is possible, as I can easily set this up on other access points from othe rmanufacturers.

Thank you for any assistance.

-Andrew

[Scott Fella]

Take a look at this thread, it will help answer your question

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3677323#3677323

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

[Marco Gonzalez]

Hello Andrew,

With Cisco APs you need to configure myltiple VLANs in order to configure seveal SSIDs because you need to link each SSID to an specific VLAN (this is assuming that you already configured VLANs on your AP), then you will configure the encryption on each VLAN and the WPA PSK on each SSID.

The issue that you are having is that you need to connect the AP to a switchport that is configured as trunk in order to understand VLAN tagging; this way the switch will understand the traffic from multiple VLANs and normally an unmanaged switch don´t have this option so the native VLAN configued on your AP which is the only one that is not going to have a VLAN tagg is the only one that will work.

If you want multiple SSIDs configured on your SSID you can do it but you dont have to have VLANs enable so you dont have to selec a VLAN on the SSID Manager page but this would not make a lot of sense because both SSIDs will have access to the same resources.

I hope this information helps you.

[Amjad Abdullah]

Andrew:
You can simply use two different SSIDs. This is not an issue.

Your issue seems you configured your AP to use multiple SSIDs with multiple VLANs but that is not going to work.

What you need to do is remove any subinterfaces configured for radio and ethernet ports and remove the bridge groups other than bridge group 1 (the default).

This you you can simply:

- Create as much SSIDs as you want (up to 16,  max [per radio possibly]).

- use the command "mbssid" to enable multiple SSID broadcast.

- metnion the SSID  under the radio interface.

This you you'll have multipel SSIDs running. but all will be on the default VLAN due to your switch limitation. You can not use VLANs with SSIDs if your switch can not recognize the traffic. but you can still use multiple SSIDs on the same VLAN.

When using multiple SSIDs on the same VLAN do not use the keyword "VLAN" when you configure the authenticatoin. Do not use the command "VLAN X" (where X is the VLAN number) under the SSID.

HTH

Amjad

[fbarboza]

Hi,

As marco mention if you want to use different encryption methods or different PSK, then you need to work with VLANs and link each VLAN to an specifc SSID so that you can use a different PSK method or encryption for each SSID.