Xirrus radio issues

[Sheridan]

We've got about 50 Xirrus Xr-600 series APs which have been in use for a few years with no real issues

 

However in the last few weeks, even with the same number of clients we're seeing radio 'drop out' symptoms on the clients (which are laptops or chromebooks). These devices will see the wireless, and connect and then disconnect and see nothing, or a very weak signal. This is happening across the whole array - it just depends on where the mobile devices are being used to where its noticed

 

Rebooting the whole array usually sorts this (after 5-10 minutes) but its not a solution - and it happens 2-3 times a week. I can't see any reason for this as interference wouldn't hit the whole lot, and the number of clients is well below each APs limit. Xirrus have recommended switching off beam forming and load balancing, but these have been on by default for years with no issues

 

I'm baffled, as our radius server shows normal activity and the fact the signal drops/disappears tends to suggest a radio issue - which would maybe affect a faulty AP or two, but not the whole array? The list of Rogues shows the usual nearby houses with pretty weak signals.

 

We were thinking of upgrading these APs, but I'm now thinking about the Unifi kit if I can't find a solution to this

[Netwacky87]

We had an issue thereby the radio's would randomly drop out ipads and laptops with no explanation. It took a senior chap at Xirrus and a few weeks of debugging to work out it was when there was a network key (not radius) and a portal connected to it that there was an issue. It took weeks of diagnosing and was fixed in a recent firmware release. We were kept on an old firmware for months due to the issue.

 

If you get hold of Xirrus, they're tech support is really knowledgable if you get high enough!

[noelmm]

We're having the same issue at our site. We run around 60 XR630 APs and our devices can sometimes connect to the network but when they do the signal is so weak the device lose connection. Yesterday we have all of our radios go down and we don't know why. I contacted our LA who supports our network and they were able to bring the radios back online but couldn't see what caused the problem. This is on top of the random APs that have been rebooting themselves over the past few weeks.

 

We 've never had any real issues up until recently and now our wireless network at times is unusable and know one knows why. Our LA have now raised a service call with to see if Cambium can be of any help.

[Sheridan]

That's ominous, it sounds like a firmware issue. We also have noticed further weird behavior. 20 Laptops in the same room as an AP and they all connect to an AP several rooms away - with a much weaker signal

 

When I check the AP thats in the room the log shows hundreds of these messages:

 

"Station [mac], IAP iap2: deauthenticated, reason: Authentication no longer valid"

 

And nothing connected to it. Its becoming a major headache as we're moving the students around a lot so need the wifi more than ever!

[StephenPink]

Sounding very similar to issues here - we upgraded our entire wired network over the summer, so was expecting things to improve not get worse! Lots of AP's restarting themselves causing clients to drop off, and then more weirdness with connecting - not sure if iOS14 is making things worse...

[noelmm]

We have now been told by an external company our LA brought in to investigate the problems that the issue is a firmware issue and the firmware on all of our AP's will be updated this weekend. The funny thing is the firmware hasn't changed in the last 2 years and we have only just started seeing these problems on this scale. While I'm hoping the firmware update resolves the issues I'm still a little sceptical.

[StephenPink]

Hmm - we are on the latest firmware already it seems; using XMS Cloud and it's set to automatic. So all AP's are running 8.5.7-7694.... let me know how you get on though, I have a ticket open with Xirrus/Cambium support now but curious to see if it helps your issues.

 

Thanks,

Stephen

[Sheridan]

I manually updated all of our APs to 8.5.7 (Build 7694) and so far things have settled down. I had a case open with Cambium I find their support lacking and responses are often delayed

 

We still have the occasional weak signal issue, but that will always be the case until we have a AP in every single room!

8.5.7 (Jun 08 2020), Build: 7694

8.5.7 (Jun 08 2020), Build: 76948.5.7 (Jun 08 2020), Build: 7694

[Netwacky87]

Honestly guys, it took weeks of diagnosing and had a really great guy (Mark) from USA speaking to me daily to do some diagnosing. It took a lot of pushing and we were rolled back to a previous firmware and have only just been fixed a month or two ago. Drove me crazy and got a lot of people frustrated.

 

Push push push was the answer to get things fixed.