Extricom wireless solution

[chilbs]

if you can see ground floor network upstairs channel 9 will interfere with 6 and 11

 

In any area where they overlap you can only have channels 1,6 and 11 so therefore you could only use 3 radios on b or g

 

you can run multiple ssids on the same channel with the access to various parts of your network set by the ssid the client is connecting to.

 

I would try to seperate your radios to run either g only or b only otherwise g clients will be pulled down to b speeds when there is a b client connected

 

Chilbs

[AzteQ_Grant]

Hi,

 

I can straight away see something that may be a problem, Can you see the upstairs wireless from downstairs. If so you getting a complete clash, 1,3,6,9 are all interfering.

 

The other issue may be associated with firmware, what are the releases, are they different? Is the network all fed from the same DHCP server or different, is it Windows 03, if so you may need to change the DHCP broadcast from Multicast (default) to Unicast.

 

I have a problem with our extricom solution. We have 2 switches in our school and it seems that laptops will connect to one switch fine (the one on the top floor) but if i take a laptop down to the ground floor it then should use the switch and APs which cover the ground floor but the laptop isn't able to login successfully.

 

I am not sure if the channels are causing the issue, all our thin AP's across the building have 2 radios built in, on the switches the channels are configured as follows:

 

Switch 1( Top floor): Radio 1- channel 6, radio 2 - channel 11

Switch 2(ground floor): Radio 1 - channel 3, radio 2 - channel 9

 

Has anyone had this problem when your able to connect to one switch but not another?

 

Thanks

[ranj]

I was wondering if someone would be able to advise on the best way to setup the Extricom system to support PDAs which would connect to our Extricom wireless network.

 

I am having a few issues and believe it could be to do with the channel configuration on the two 24 port switches we have in situate.

 

Throughout our school we have 2 radio AP’s with 2 SSID’s setup on 2 different switches.

 

Switch 1 – Radio 1 uses 802.11g only, is on channel 1 and is using 1st SSID.

Switch 1 – Radio 2 uses 802.11b only, is on channel 11 and is using 2nd SSID.

 

Switch 2 – Radio 1 uses 802.11g only, is on channel 6 and is using same 1st SSID from switch 1

Switch 2 – Radio 2 uses 802.11b only, is set to channel 1 but the SSID is not activated in fear of channel collision with Switch 1.

 

1st SSID – used for laptops and connects through a Radius system using Microsoft IAS. Generall connection has been good but have found occasionally on some laptops we will receive a message to say it has limited connectivity, only way to resolve is to turn off the wireless and turn it back on again.

 

2nd SSID – is a visitor SSID and is used to create manual connections to the wifi network. Have tried to use all encryption technologies, the only successful one I have had it working with is WPA Personal but have found it is an intermittent connection, sometimes it will work and sometimes it won’t. e.g. it will connect to one switch as soon as your in range of the other switch it will refuse to connect. A Common application being accessed on a PDA through wireless is exchange synchronisation (activesync).

 

I have heard of issues with DHCP servers and the Extricom system as in previous posts above and have changed the registry entry on the DHCP server to go from broadcast to unicast and haven’t seen any improvements as of yet.

 

Also are there any benefits of changing any of the configuration in the ESSID settings page to improve performance of the wireless (i.e. faster throughput) e.g. Allow store and forward, Enable Multicast, Beacon Rate control etc.

 

If someone could suggest an improved way of configuring our switches it would be most appreciated. I not sure the way I have configured them is the best.

[cerberus]

Extricom may be a great solution. But beware of some of the suppliers out there!

 

We just had Extricom installed and it's far from working properly. I had a better wireless cloud with 12 DWL7100's.

 

Here's a quote from an email reply from the MD of the company we used, chasing me to pay the invoice.

(which I'm not paying till they sort the wireless out)

 

"You may find this unacceptable but making your client devices work on the network was not in scope of the project."

 

Nice!

 

I won't name names here because I'm not sure the etiquette.

 

I'm a very unhappy Network Manager today

 

C

[techie08]

Extricom may be a great solution. But beware of some of the suppliers out there!

 

We just had Extricom installed and it's far from working properly. I had a better wireless cloud with 12 DWL7100's.

 

Here's a quote from an email reply from the MD of the company we used, chasing me to pay the invoice.

(which I'm not paying till they sort the wireless out)

 

"You may find this unacceptable but making your client devices work on the network was not in scope of the project."

 

Nice!

 

I won't name names here because I'm not sure the etiquette.

 

I'm a very unhappy Network Manager today

 

C

 

Are you allowed to mention who installed it?

[Haptic]

Extricom may be a great solution. But beware of some of the suppliers out there!

 

We just had Extricom installed and it's far from working properly. I had a better wireless cloud with 12 DWL7100's.

 

Here's a quote from an email reply from the MD of the company we used, chasing me to pay the invoice.

(which I'm not paying till they sort the wireless out)

 

"You may find this unacceptable but making your client devices work on the network was not in scope of the project."

 

Nice!

 

I won't name names here because I'm not sure the etiquette.

 

I'm a very unhappy Network Manager today

 

C

 

thats not good , I would name and shame in the section below to make sure this company doesnt keep getting away with it,

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/bad-experiences/

[cerberus]

Are you allowed to mention who installed it?

 

 

Don't know. I think while it's still "going on" I should give them a chance to fix it

before I name them and tell the whole sorry tale.

 

But I have to say given my experience of them so far I would LOVE to 'tell all' and

urge people not to use them!

 

C

[techie08]

Don't know. I think while it's still "going on" I should give them a chance to fix it

before I name them and tell the whole sorry tale.

 

But I have to say given my experience of them so far I would LOVE to 'tell all' and

urge people not to use them!

 

C

 

Give me a clue? Id like to see if they are the same company who done ours!

[Haptic]

Extricom may be a great solution. But beware of some of the suppliers out there!

 

We just had Extricom installed and it's far from working properly. I had a better wireless cloud with 12 DWL7100's.

 

Here's a quote from an email reply from the MD of the company we used, chasing me to pay the invoice.

(which I'm not paying till they sort the wireless out)

 

"You may find this unacceptable but making your client devices work on the network was not in scope of the project."

 

Nice!

 

I won't name names here because I'm not sure the etiquette.

 

I'm a very unhappy Network Manager today

 

C

 

Also if you need any help with your situation we are an official Extricom partner and would be more than happy to help you,

[techie08]

Also if you need any help with your situation we are an official Extricom partner and would be more than happy to help you,

 

Do you install the equipment or just sell it?

[cerberus]

Also if you need any help with your situation we are an official Extricom partner and would be more than happy to help you,

 

Good to know. Might be asking for your advice soon!

 

I cant quite comprehend a company saying that actually being

able to connect clients wasn't in the scope of a wireless project...

 

Just.... Amazed.... wtf....!

 

C

[Haptic]

Good to know. Might be asking for your advice soon!

 

I cant quite comprehend a company saying that actually being

able to connect clients wasn't in the scope of a wireless project...

 

Just.... Amazed.... wtf....!

 

C

 

Yeah I have to admitt I was pretty shocked to see that quote from your current supplier, well pm me if you need any help fella:cool:

[HateMe]

I have looked at enterprise wireless in depth now (for schools). Extricom impressed me until I discovered that every access point had to be directly wired to their controller switches. As we are a multi building site, this would have been very expensive as the controllers are pricey.

I have since discovered Meru networks, which work on a similar channel bonding system but can route APs back to central controller via fibre.

 

I will be going to their reference school - Heathlands very soon to see it in action. We intend to issue each student with a laptop.....

 

Tom

 

Based on your comment, I just want to confirm that Extricom APs require physical layer 1 connectivity from the APs DIRECTLY to the controller via CAT5/6 cabling ? This is very different to say Cisco APs can be deployed on any LAN switches as long as the APs can reach the controller via layer 2 (vlans). Could you confirm that this is still the case for Extricom?

[mac_shinobi]

Can I point you to our good friends at Net+Ctrl please who do Ruckus Wifi which is designed with VOIP comms in mind They presented at the Northeren Conference and we have a few members on here that have got trial kit from them and / or bought it now or are saying they will be doing ASAP.

 

Contact is Mark Power 01473 281 211

 

Net-Ctrl - Ruckus Wireless is the page and there site. I know Mark is going for a few days well earned rest before too much longer (if not already gone) but one of the team there will be happy to sort you out im very sure.

 

Nothing against Simon @ CP LTD but he made his first post and it mentions ruckus in his signature but was surprised he didn't mention it in his post ( might of been a sales ploy to talk about it on the phone ? )

 

Seen a lot of posts giving + rep to Ruckus wireless solutions

[Haptic]

Nothing against Simon @ CP LTD but he made his first post and it mentions ruckus in his signature but was surprised he didn't mention it in his post ( might of been a sales ploy to talk about it on the phone ? )

 

Seen a lot of posts giving + rep to Ruckus wireless solutions

 

I think at the time of the original post CP wasnt a Ruckus Reseller but when you change your signiture it changes all your previous post signitures Macshinobi:cool:

 

p.s I have to say though even as a Ruckus reseller that the only benefit Ruckus Wireless has over Extricom Wireless is cost.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Haptic

[mac_shinobi]

I think at the time of the original post CP wasnt a Ruckus Reseller but when you change your signiture it changes all your previous post signitures Macshinobi:cool:

 

p.s I have to say though even as a Ruckus reseller that the only benefit Ruckus Wireless has over Extricom Wireless is cost.

 

Lol helps if I check date & time when post was

made doh!!

[tdawson]

I notice some of the others commenting in this section have had trouble connecting Fujy stuff to their Extricom network.

 

Has anyone had any luck resolving this as we are about ready to chuck 64 perfectly good tablet PCs in the bin.

 

Suggestions (the fit to print ones at least) so far include -

 

1. Upgrading to Windows 7

I'm going to try this with a new image this week and will post results.

 

2. Editing DHCP settings

Think we've done this but my old network manager was doing most of the fiddling so I will have to check.

 

3. Use most recent wireless drivers

Tried this and finally got down to bitterly disappointing converstaion with FS engineers in Germany (I think) who went from "you need to download this bios update" to "there is no such bios update, it must be Extricom" within the space of 2 wasted days.

 

4. Firmware update for Extricom kit

Used this and it fixed a problem with Vista laptops not being able to logon wirelessly but then working OK if you disconnected Ethernet and went to wireless.

 

5. Polling fix for XP

Done that, seemed to work. May have been a bit helpful but still not resolved issue.

 

Any help welcome but no "ha ha told you so" as I may well cry.

[m25man]

We have Extricom installed on a few sites and would probably have used it more if it wasn't so expensive.

Zyxel rebadge the Extricom blanket kit as their own and this is considerably cheaper.

 

Rember that the switches are the APs not the radios the biggest problems arise when this is forgotten and people start thinking cells not blankets!

The dual radios may be your undoing especially if the blanket on the top floor is seen by the lower floor switch at a useable strength.

 

I would try running each switch on one radio channel first say 6 and 11

if you need more bandwith on one floor add ch1 to either or switch not both.

 

Important, do not use or have spanning tree enabled on the switches that the extricoms take their uplinks as this will compound the dhcp issues.

I have seen stp shutdown the link to an Extricom switch as it incorrectly detects a problem as several clients all chirp for dhcp requests at the same time!

 

Also, as the switch is the ap not the radio one bad or mismatched client wifi card can render the entire system unusable so you need to watch the switch logs carefully for signs of trouble.

 

If used properly for what it does best which is roaming I think the Extricom is probably the best in it's class, so for PDA or Voip it is an excellent choice but as you have found not as easy to set up as they would like you to think.

There were bugs in the firmware when applied to certain models one such bug was when WPA was selected the switch defaults to WPA2 and some clients could not detect or negotiate this so again whilst testing do not encrypt make sure it all works first then encrypt.

 

I know all this as I am fortunate enough to own my own Etherscope which in wifi mode will display the conversations in realtime between clients and AP switches.

If your installer does not have access to this type of kit he will probably follow you around in ever decreasing circles until he diappears up his own backside.

 

Bill & Charles @ Extricom are nice guys and will talk you through to a vanilla setup but that's all they can and are obliged to do, you need to be sure that everything your end is in a fit state to support these switches otherwise you may as well have installed something else!