Connectvity issues with HP Chromebooks and Meru AP320 APs

[Bruce123]

Hi,

 

We are experiencing intermittent dropped connections on our new HP Chromebook 11 G3 devices when connected to Meru AP320 APs.

 

Typically, the Chromebook will stay connected for a while and will then lose connectivity (continuous dropped pings for a while). Sometimes the connection will be re-established automatically and othertimes it requires the user to disconnect and reconnect to the wireless (using the GUI).

 

This is causing the Chromebooks to be unusable. We don't experience these issues when connected to AP332i or AP832e models of APs.

 

Also, while the Chromebook is experiencing this, the wireless icon tray icon is still showing the connected icon and signal strength. The Chromebooks connect to the AP320 on .n and to the AP832e on .ac.

 

ChromeOS versions 41-46 (haven't been able to try previous versions)

Controller: 6.1-2-28 MC4200

 

An Acer Chromebook used as a benchmark is unaffected.

 

Has anyone experienced this or similar issues?

 

Many Thanks,

 

Bruce.

[njc235]

There is a new Meru release which has solved the recent iOS problems. Maybe this will help you too?

[Bruce123]

We're going to try upgrading the controller to the most recent firmware.

 

However, I understand that a release is due out in December which doesn't support the 320 APs (they will stop working).

 

Bruce.

[CyberNerd]

The AP320's are end of life now.

[SpaceInvader83]

AP 320's are EOL but will carry on working on your current firmware, we have around 200 Chromebook 14's and don't seem to have any connection issues but we are running a slightly older version, controller is on 6.1-0-3.

[Bruce123]

AP 320's are EOL but will carry on working on your current firmware, we have around 200 Chromebook 14's and don't seem to have any connection issues but we are running a slightly older version, controller is on 6.1-0-3.

 

We have upgraded the firmware of the controller to the latest version that still supports AP320 (7.0.9.1), but on testing this morning the Chromebook 11 G3 devices are still experiencing drop-outs.

 

SPR - Are your Chromebooks HP Chromebooks? What model are they?

 

We have 1,400 of these Chromebooks and 92 AP320 APs on the controller (so replacing either would be quite expensive).

 

Thanks,

 

Bruce.

[SpaceInvader83]

We have the HP Chromebook 14 G3's, the only issue we had was originally they came shipped with an old version of Chrome OS 36.12 I think and these suffered with connection drop outs which was even preventing signing in reliably, we updated them to v45.XX and it seemed to alleviate our issues. It's probably worth noting we are running controller version 6.1-0-3 but we run a custom firmware version on the AP's (D41367) due to reliability issues when it first got installed after many engineer visits.

[CyberNerd]

We have upgraded the firmware of the controller to the latest version that still supports AP320 (7.0.9.1), but on testing this morning the Chromebook 11 G3 devices are still experiencing drop-outs.

 

SPR - Are your Chromebooks HP Chromebooks? What model are they?

 

We have 1,400 of these Chromebooks and 92 AP320 APs on the controller (so replacing either would be quite expensive).

 

Thanks,

 

Bruce.

 

We have a very similar setup, 1400+ chromebooks( Lenovo) and 100+AP's. We didn't find the AP320's dropping connections, but did find that they don't cope with load as well as 832's. Sometimes if 30 machines booted simultaneously we'd see 3 or 4 not connecting, but they would connect following a restart of their network connections. Luckily for us we were due for an AP upgrade so managed to do the lot.

I'll happily go through my controller settings with you if think it may help?

[psydii]

Given these were a high end AP and on sale only two to three years ago, I don't think that it is unreasonable to expect them to have 5 years of software support available after they move to end of sale. Enterprise Infrastructure kit has a slow refresh cycle and needs to keep working with newer clients. (c.f switch firmware)

 

Unfortunately http://www.merunetworks.com/collateral/misc/ds-meru-end-of-life-policy-2013.pdf suggest that Meru only give you two years.

 

So that means if you only finished building out your 802.11n network in 2013 using the AP320 (lets say you started a three year programme in 2010) you only have two years before it starts to not work properly with newer clients (iOS being notorious, but in this case ChromeBooks being the issue).

 

Something we all need to look out for when making purchasing decisions in future.

[CyberNerd]

 

So that means if you only finished building out your 802.11n network in 2013 using the AP320 (lets say you started a three year programme in 2010) you only have two years before it starts to not work properly with newer clients (iOS being notorious, but in this case ChromeBooks being the issue).

 

Something we all need to look out for when making purchasing decisions in future.

 

If you started a three year program you wouldn't be fitting AP320's after 2010 because they were not for sale. The kit is software supported for 5 years (as are chromebooks).

You do need a rolling program for infrastructure !

[psydii]

If you started a three year program you wouldn't be fitting AP320's after 2010 because they were not for sale. The kit is software supported for 5 years (as are chromebooks).

You do need a rolling program for infrastructure !

 

They were still on sale in 2012.

[CyberNerd]

They were still on sale in 2012.

 

Really!

We bought some refirb units around then but didn't know that they were selling them new!

[Bruce123]

We have the HP Chromebook 14 G3's, the only issue we had was originally they came shipped with an old version of Chrome OS 36.12 I think and these suffered with connection drop outs which was even preventing signing in reliably, we updated them to v45.XX and it seemed to alleviate our issues. It's probably worth noting we are running controller version 6.1-0-3 but we run a custom firmware version on the AP's (D41367) due to reliability issues when it first got installed after many engineer visits.

 

Hi spr,

 

When I saw your post, I hoped that the HP Chromebook 14 G3 was the same spec as the Chromebook 11 G3, but with a 14" screen (a ray of hope . But when I checked it has an different WLAN chip (Marvell on Chromebook 14 and Intel on Chromebook 11).

 

Thanks,

 

Bruce.