Issues with Extricom EXRP - 40 and intel 3945ABG?

[Tony_Mc]

Hi guy

 

First post is a "please help" one, so thank you in advance!

 

A little while ago one of the departments in the school I now manage went about getting their own wireless kit for their department.

 

The kit they bought consists of one EXSW-800 Switch and four EXRP-40.

 

The Laptops they bought are HP 6710b with the intel 3945ABG wifi card.

 

They have 20 of the above laptops that due to never being able to find the network on boot cannot be used for teaching. We have looked into the drivers and updated them to the latest offering and also tried using the intel PRO wifi connector and we are still having issues.

 

Running a ping -t, we can see we are getting absolutely awful replies, 1ms up to 1500+ms and then dropping for a few lines and then back up to 1-50-29-100-223-1-1-2- etc etc...

 

I have just tried another laptop, my eeepc 901 and I get great, solid replies... e.g. 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1, even walking through from point to point I am getting seemless hand over, so as much as I was ready to poo poo the Extricom stuff, after reading here, it is good kit.

 

I haven't managed to find anything on the web about known issues with this HP laptop, but can anyone add an idea or something to try?

 

Thanks again

 

Tony

[marco84]

Had a similar problem with when I had managed wireless kit installed (3com) and laptops using the same 3945abg cards. In the end the supplier had to get 3com to look at it, turned out to be a problem with the firmware on the WX4400 server. Have you made sure you have the latest firmware installed on the extricom kit?

[plexer]

Try the Odessey client from Juniper on them.

 

Ben

[Tony_Mc]

Had a similar problem with when I had managed wireless kit installed (3com) and laptops using the same 3945abg cards. In the end the supplier had to get 3com to look at it, turned out to be a problem with the firmware on the WX4400 server. Have you made sure you have the latest firmware installed on the extricom kit?

 

Thank you for your reply, I will have a look into this, as the kit was put in without IT input from the school, we dont have the login details for the box... Will have to work around that, but that sounds good.

[Tony_Mc]

Try the Odessey client from Juniper on them.

 

Ben

 

Thanks Ben

 

I will try this also, as I can do this straight away without needing access to the box.

 

Tony

[spc-rocket]

Thanks Ben

 

I will try this also, as I can do this straight away without needing access to the box.

 

Tony

 

Hmm the Intel wireless cards are pretty good and follows all the standards with wireless etc so i would not put it down to the driver but some communication issues i.e. the controller is timing out or the card before its ready to process the traffic.

 

The odessey or Cisco Secure Services client would also be ideal to test. You can download a copy and use it for 90 days.

 

Ash.

[chilbs]

Are you using DHCP? Sounds like a stupid questions but the Extricom system has issues with multicast DHCP and your DHCP server may need to be changed to unicast. If you speak to Extricom they know about this and will give you the info. I have contact info for one of their sales people, in the office. Don't entirely know what needs to be done but can find out or give you contact details.

 

Rob

[keeleyp]

Hi Tony,

 

It is worth finding out the logon details to the Extricom kit, the latest firmware has a number of enhancements around client support, but failing that you may want to check a few things:

 

Power save mode, the wireless card may be set to save power, this means it goes to sleep when not in use and can lead to long ping times as the card has to wake up. I would suggest you select maximum performance and minimum power save.

 

Roaming aggression, some client cards allow this to be configured, with the Extricom system there is no roaming involved so you can minimise the time the client spends looking for better options.

 

There are other things you can try, but I would try these first as they are simple enough. If you do not have the password for the Extricom switch you could try the default which is admin and Switch1, you will need to access the box with https://x.x.x.x, if that does not work then re-post and we can try some other ways in.

 

Regards

 

Phil

[Tony_Mc]

Are you using DHCP? Sounds like a stupid questions but the Extricom system has issues with multicast DHCP and your DHCP server may need to be changed to unicast. If you speak to Extricom they know about this and will give you the info. I have contact info for one of their sales people, in the office. Don't entirely know what needs to be done but can find out or give you contact details.

 

Rob

 

Hi Rob

 

I was wondering about the DHCP business but we set them as static for the time being as we were trying to find a workaround. Thank you for the heads up on the multicast though, that is useful to know.

 

 

Tony

[Tony_Mc]

Hi Tony,

 

It is worth finding out the logon details to the Extricom kit, the latest firmware has a number of enhancements around client support, but failing that you may want to check a few things:

 

Power save mode, the wireless card may be set to save power, this means it goes to sleep when not in use and can lead to long ping times as the card has to wake up. I would suggest you select maximum performance and minimum power save.

 

Roaming aggression, some client cards allow this to be configured, with the Extricom system there is no roaming involved so you can minimise the time the client spends looking for better options.

 

There are other things you can try, but I would try these first as they are simple enough. If you do not have the password for the Extricom switch you could try the default which is admin and Switch1, you will need to access the box with https://x.x.x.x, if that does not work then re-post and we can try some other ways in.

 

Regards

 

Phil

 

Thank you very much for this Phil

 

I am trying to find it on the network now...

 

Will be back in contact later today

 

Tony

[sukh]

Tony,

 

Are you basically saying that you have HP wireless Laptops trying to connect to a wireless network?

 

If so, are the laptops able to see the SSID? before they even get an IP they must be able to connect to your router (wireless) assuming you are using this and not as a IP Helper/DHCP Agent.

 

To me it appears as a common issue with HP laptops connecting to wirelss networks, IF you are using wndows XP?

[Tony_Mc]

Tony,

 

Are you basically saying that you have HP wireless Laptops trying to connect to a wireless network?

 

If so, are the laptops able to see the SSID? before they even get an IP they must be able to connect to your router (wireless) assuming you are using this and not as a IP Helper/DHCP Agent.

 

To me it appears as a common issue with HP laptops connecting to wirelss networks, IF you are using wndows XP?

 

Yeah

 

I have some connecting and some not, when they are connected though we have quite a lot of loss of data, as i mentioned ping replies are very sporadic.

 

There is something going on where they laptops are not picking up the signal until after login, and for a user that doesn't have a cached local account this will affect them as well as the logon scripts not running so the student doens't have their my documents mapped etc.

 

Tony

[sukh]

1. How far are the access points from the laptops?

2. Are you using Cisco LEAP or another 3rd party Wireless solution?

3. Are they all Windows XP SP2?

4. Is the wireless solution been in place for some time or is it new deployment?

[Tony_Mc]

1. How far are the access points from the laptops? - 10ft/3m

2. Are you using Cisco LEAP or another 3rd party Wireless solution? - nope

3. Are they all Windows XP SP2? - yes

4. Is the wireless solution been in place for some time or is it new deployment? - It is a new deployment, It was installed before the summer and only recently was the equipment starting to get used.

 

Thank you for your help

[sukh]

before you logon, on a working wirelss laptop, are you being presented with any authentication program?

[Tony_Mc]

before you logon, on a working wirelss laptop, are you being presented with any authentication program?

 

nope, it is generally ok for Admin accounts as they can then join the network.

 

The problem is coming from students not being on the network so they can't log in... if you get what I mean.

[sukh]

i understand what you mean. Can any student logon via gthe wireless laptop if they have NEVER logged on before?

 

Also, if they do have a local profile, was this created because students had logged on before when the laptop was connected to a wired network?

[Tony_Mc]

i understand what you mean. Can any student logon via gthe wireless laptop if they have NEVER logged on before?

 

Also, if they do have a local profile, was this created because students had logged on before when the laptop was connected to a wired network?

 

Hi

 

Sometimes the students can log on when they haven't before depending on whether they wireless has been picked up.

 

We set a GPO that has helped with logging on "always wait for the network at computer start and logon" we still have a few saving issues.

 

the laptops have not been used on a wired network other than when they were built.

 

I am going to have to factory reset the box at some point soon as I need to know the settings and perhaps change the channel it is on.

[Kenneth1967]

Hi Tony,

 

I suspect you may have an issue with a server, can I enquire? Do you have windows server 2003?

 

regards

Ken

[Tony_Mc]

yes, yes we do..

 

I am intrigued to see where you are going with this, please continue :)

[plexer]

A lot of wireless problems are caused by the fact that the windows supplicant just sucks at creating a machine connection thus allowing seamless domain login.

 

We have just installed the odessey access client on 50 laptops and they now work perfectly.

 

Ben

[spc-rocket]

A lot of wireless problems are caused by the fact that the windows supplicant just sucks at creating a machine connection thus allowing seamless domain login.

 

We have just installed the odessey access client on 50 laptops and they now work perfectly.

 

Ben

 

Hmm, not a free solution, i could say the same thing with cisco secure services client as well as odessey. The license costs a lot in my opinion, and even if its £15-20 a seat its still too much.

 

Ash.

[plexer]

Yes there is a cost involved but compared to the amount of work we've spent in the last few years running around the laptops trying to get the to play nicely it's money well spent.

 

Ben

[HC_Netman]

Hey, Just add my two cents - firstly the default for the Extricom switches is username - admin password - Switch1 so might be worth trying that. Its definately worth getting the firmware up dated. Also one of the previous posts about multicasts is correct your server needs to accept unicast requests see below:

 

In order for your Windows clients to receive DHCP responses by unicast rather than broadcast, you need to configure the DHCP server accordingly to allow clients to request a unicast response. To do so, you must modify the registry on the DHCP server (assuming a Windows-based DHCP server).

 

1. On the server, open the Registry Editor and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCPServer\Parameters.

 

2. If the IgnoreBroadcastFlag value does not exist in this key, create it as a DWORD value.

 

3. Set the value of IgnoreBroadcastFlag to 0 to allow the clients to request unicast.

 

4. Close the Registry Editor and restart the DHCP server service.

This may solve your problem it worked for us at least - if not then you should contact Extricom there guys really know what their doing!

[Tony_Mc]

Many thanks for this..

 

we going to look into this and also reset the switch as we don't have the access.

 

Thanks again, will let you know where we get with it..

 

Hey, Just add my two cents - firstly the default for the Extricom switches is username - admin password - Switch1 so might be worth trying that. Its definately worth getting the firmware up dated. Also one of the previous posts about multicasts is correct your server needs to accept unicast requests see below:

 

In order for your Windows clients to receive DHCP responses by unicast rather than broadcast, you need to configure the DHCP server accordingly to allow clients to request a unicast response. To do so, you must modify the registry on the DHCP server (assuming a Windows-based DHCP server).

 

1. On the server, open the Registry Editor and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCPServer\Parameters.

 

2. If the IgnoreBroadcastFlag value does not exist in this key, create it as a DWORD value.

 

3. Set the value of IgnoreBroadcastFlag to 0 to allow the clients to request unicast.

 

4. Close the Registry Editor and restart the DHCP server service.

This may solve your problem it worked for us at least - if not then you should contact Extricom there guys really know what their doing!