wireless association

[suthomas1]

We had few ap's providing wireless coverage in an office space. 2 new Ap's were put in to these. Now, if i wanted to test only the 2 new ap's, what is the best way.

I tried by disassociating myself from current ap and hoped that laptop would reconnect with any of the new ap's as these were very near and closest to my laptop.

However, i found that laptop associated only once with one of these ap's and other times always associated with other existing ap's even after disconnecting and having the new ap's nearby. Why is it so?

Thanks in advance

[George Stefanick · Accepted solution]

Your client dictates roaming... If your client attached to the old access points and they still have good signal they may not roam to your new APs even if they are right under the new access points.

You could lower the power of your older access points this would make them weaker and allow your client to associate to your new aps.

You could turn off the surround access points

What type of access points and are they autonomous or capwap ?

[suthomas1]

Thanks George. they are LAP 1142.

another question related to this, in a layout where there are 3 seminar rooms ( not very big though ), if i attach only one ap on the outside of second seminar room , will the third seminar room be able to get proper connectivity.

the three rooms are in line to each other, seperated by door and a straight wall.

thanks

[George Stefanick]

You would need to do a coverage validation. Ill share with you the basics that should help you get through..

1. Make sure your AP is not transmitting more that 50mW. You can go lower if your like, just dont go 100mW.

2. Connect to the AP and then walk out to the edge of coverage until you see -76 db on your wifi client. This is the edge I like to use for reliable data. Once you hit -76 this is were your coverage should end. So if you go into the next room and you get a -80 then its time to add another AP.

3. How many clients and what type of data you plan to push on that ap is important. WiFi is a half duplex medium, just like a wired hub. Normal web browsing you should be good with 20 or so wifi clients with no issues. If you are pulling down heavy data and or voice clients are on the aps as well then you should try an deisgn the cell for say 10 clients or so.

Does this help you a little ?

[suthomas1]

Yes, WLC is being used.

1. where do i set the ap trnamitting power. is it the power rating you said earlier.What happens if it goes over 50mW.

2. where do i see -76db on client. i dont recall having seen this sort of no. on my client.

3. the no. of clients & data will be not be huge.it will be only normal browsing or emails.

thanks again.

[George Stefanick]

1. where do i set the ap trnamitting power. is it the power rating you said earlier.What happens if it goes over 50mW.

- You can set this static or let RRM handle it. But your WiFi needs to be disigned such to allow for RRM to work proeprly. I would go with static. In the WLC:

-->Wireless--->(Left hand side) Radios 802.11bgn-->Select your AP (blue square right hand side -- config)--> You will see a TX power level. Chnage that to "2".

1 - 100mW

2 - 50mW

3 - 25mW

etc ...

2. where do i see -76db on client. i dont recall having seen this sort of no. on my client.

What type of client do you have ? Intel ?

3. the no. of clients & data will be not be huge.it will be only normal browsing or emails.

Then you should be fine ...

[George Stefanick]

Have you considered to do 802.11n with your access point ?

[suthomas1]

I am using a thinkvantage client.

No, i havent tried the 802.11n on ap. will it benefit me.

thanks

[George Stefanick]

I havent used that supplicant. You might want to poke around, perhaps under the wifi client and details or are you using Windows to manage your WiFi connection ?

Yes, 802.11n can get you 144 mbps on the 2.4GHz radio and if you bond on the 5 GHz side you can get 300 mbps.

Lets get you situated on the coverage first and then we can toy with 802.11n if you want ...

[George Stefanick]

So you are using a WLC?