cheekycharly Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Hi guys one school I visit keep having repeat issues in classes getting all the laptops to connect to the Internet. For example there may be 30 laptops all at the same time firing up and wanting a connection but some fail to grab it. We at first thought it was down to the Netgear Access points so we swapped them all out for D-Link DAP-2360's and all was ok when we asked the teachers at first but they are now again reporting that not all laptops are getting a connection. Any thoughts or ideas guys as I only get 2hours a week there and this is becoming a nightmare. Thanks in advance. CC
edutech4schools Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Do you have 'Wait for network' setup in your GPO's?
Michael Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Are you operating on 2.4GHz, 5GHz or both? And how many other wireless networks are in the immediate area?
Roberto Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 (edited) We at first thought it was down to the Netgear Access points so we swapped them all out for D-Link DAP-2360's and all was ok when we asked the teachers at first but they are now again reporting that not all laptops are getting a connection. There are all kinds of reasons why this may be happening, as Michael's reply alludes to, but I will say that swapping out netgear because it isn't up to the job and replacing it with d-link is like saying "I needed a ford transit, so I replaced my smart car with a fiat panda." Edited March 12, 2015 by Roberto
cheekycharly Posted March 12, 2015 Author Posted March 12, 2015 Do you have 'Wait for network' setup in your GPO's? I have used this at other schools with success but haven't rolled this out at this school. Last time it was added to the local group policy of a batch of small netbook a at a school that were loading up too quick and network connectivity being the last thing it would load. That fix worked then. Can this be applied by GP from the server? The wireless ap's are set to the 2.4Ghz range at present.
ZeroNeg Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Is there any load sharing settings in your AP's. Sometimes that helps.
edutech4schools Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Can this be applied by GP from the server? Yes. I will get the settings tomorrow for you
wedemire Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 We have a mobile lab that is 2.4 only and we run into 100% utilization on the 2.4Ghz band which leaves some computers without a network connection in areas that they only have access to one AP.
m25man Posted March 12, 2015 Posted March 12, 2015 Are the laptops 5Ghz capable anyway? If not your unlikely to see more that 70mbs and that's shared....
psydii Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) The above are all good starting points to an investigation in to solving your issue, (And "Wait for Network" is the first GPO Setting you should set on any School AD joined computer) you have as you have only 2 Hours a week to solve this I suggest a radical solution: Buy a second AP set a new SSID with WPA2 Personal, put it on a different channel (1,6,or 11 *ONLY*). Configure Half the laptops to use the new SSID. *HERO* Otherwise you could easily spend the next four weeks trying to troubleshoot the problem and getting nothing else done. To investigate it (and to be honest you shoudl of course at least check for interference before installing an new AP): What other wireless networks are around? What channels are they on? (Why Channels 1, 6, and 11? MetaGeek.com) If you look after multiple sites then this is a great tool to invest in: Wi-Spy + Chanalyzer - 2.4GHz & 5GHz Spectrum Analysis Disable Bluetooth on every device you can. (Bluetooth and WLAN coexistance) Is the WAP dual radio? Can it use both at the same time? Is it in the room with the laptops? Could you enable 5GHz (if it isn't already)? Make sure you have got your SSID set to use WPA2-Personal, that is using CCMP (AES) otherwise you are crippling performance before you start. Disable power saving features: You may experience connectivity issues or performance issues when you connect a mobile PC that is running Windows to a wireless access point Install enterprise hotfix rollup and associated additional hotfixes: An enterprise hotfix rollup is available for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Current hotfixes for Windows 7 SP1 enterprise clients that have folder redirection enabled on servers and clients. Update Firmware and Drivers Look deeply into what is happening on the client machines: Get all the machines out, install the Windows Performance Analyser on them, and then reboot them all simultaneously via the boot/restart profile. Drill down the graphs to see where the pauses etc are. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/jj663181.aspx Cross reference with the event logs, particularly System and the Computer Management>Event Viewer/Applications and Services logs/Microsoft/Windows/WLAN-Autoconfig log. Mirror the switch port that the WAP is connected to and capture it in Wireshark. Check there isn't too much traffic, check for unusual delays in streams of data between offending clients and the server(s). Hope there's something in the above that helps you get the performance needed. Edited March 13, 2015 by psydii 3
edutech4schools Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Sorry for the delay. These are the group policies I use at all my schools that should help with your issue. Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System/Logon - Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon = Enabled System/Scripts - Run logon scripts synchronously = Enabled System/Scripts - Run startup scripts asynchronously = Enabled
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