WAP issues with 3Comm 2426 Pwr Plus

[d-taylor]

Hi there,

 

We are having an issue attaching extra WAPs to our 3Comm 2426 Pwr Plus:3C16491 edge switches.

We are running a HP Procurve 8212zl core switch with integrated wireless, and we have a mixture of HP Procurve wireless edge switches, and 3 of these 3Comm PoE switches which were installed before I started working here. One of them has 10 WAP's connected, one has 8 and another has 4. If I try to add additional WAP's to any of these switches they don't work, they just pulsate orange, which is usually what they do if they are not in the correct VLAN. I tried to connect to the switch to manage them, but there is no management port on them, and I am unable to get an IP address to telnet to them.

 

I thought the VLAN config on the core switch port is unlikely to be at fault as some WAPs are working but it's all I had left to try. The port is currently Untagged in the Default VLAN and tagged in the wireless VLAN, which I thought was incorrect, so I tried setting it to 'No' in the default VLAN and 'Untagged' in the wireless VLAN (it is my understanding that Untagged is when there is only one VLAN on a port, tagged is where a port is shared with another VLAN.) This then brought all the WAPs on the switch down! Resetting it back to how it was, the old WAPs came back up but I still couldn't add any new WAPs.

 

Is there something I'm missing here as I can't understand why if I can't get in to manage the ports on a switch it would act differently on some ports to others? Also, are the VLAN assignments for the ports on the core switch correct?

 

Thanks,

 

Daniel

[featured_spectre]

firstly, have you considered a managed wireless solution?

 

Also your 3com switches are prone to not allowing full POE capability. We did the same and it failed spectacularly on us. Would only allow 6, even had a HP engineer out (HP Bought out 3COM) and he couldnt work it out. In the end we ripped out the POE switches went with a managed wireless system (Ruckus) and used physical plugs that are near the AP's, and havent looked back since. Perhaps that is something for you to look into?

[d-taylor]

Hi,

 

I would class what we have as a managed system, the wireless module on the core switch is managed via a web GUI, the WAPs are dumb terminals and relay everything back to the wireless controller, and the system supports load balancing etc. However, the WAPs need to be on their own VLAN, which I've managed to do easily on our HP Procurve PoE switches, it's just these 3Comm switches which don't seem to be manageable, and I don't know what to do with them (other then replace them with HP ones!)

[featured_spectre]

If you can, see if you can do a deal with HP. They recent bought back some of our 3COM switches and we got a heavy discount on some HP switches. Which WAPs are you attaching to the switches? Are they HP?

[d-taylor]

Cheers, I'd forgotten HP do buyback, I'll bear that in mind. Yes, they are HP WAPs

[featured_spectre]

Which model HP WAPs? Might there be an issue with the WAPs POE point?

[Wes]

Thread ressurection - and possibly way too late! With most PoE switches it's only safe to assume that you can use half of the ports giving full PoE power. Your switch is 802.3af compliant PoE so that's max 15.4Watts per port. The PoE power budget on a 2426 PWR Plus from 3com is 180Watts maximum. Check the power draw of your HP WAPs as they may not need the maximum 15.4Watts each port can provide, however if they do you will only be able to run 11, probably less in reality from any one switch. A new equivalent HP switch would be the 1910 series. There are 180w and 370w PoE versions so you won't be any better off unless you go for the 370w model. 3com also do a 2900 series High Power switch, also 370w. These higher powered switches supprt 802.3af and the newer 802.3at standard which provides up to 30w per port.

 

The 2426 does support VLANs, I don't see that you would need to change anything much that you have hardware wise. Perhaps plug a few o the existing APs in locally where you can to reduce power draw on the switch or just get some PoE injectors.

[d-taylor]

We've had to swap in an under utilitzed HP PoE switch from elsewhere in the building. The 3Com wasn't playing ball with more than 3 WAP's, I've set it up in the coms room to give us wireless around the IT office and now it won't support more than 2! I've come to the conclusion it's on it's way out. Also, with no console port and the IP address stuck onto it not telneting, can't figure out for the life of me how I'm supposed to manage it.

[Wes]

sounds like it's on it's way for sure!

[justingoldberg]

Sorry if I'm resurrecting an old thread, I'm new here.

 

I can't speak for those specific switches, but with most PoE switches you can disable PoE except for the ports you'll use, and up the max power draw on those ports (sometimes called a poe profile)

 

Edit: After logging into a customers switches, I found the option:

 

Port, POE, Setup, and from there selectively enable or disable the power per port.

 

From that point, under "PoE Mode for selected & enabled ports", select "Guarantee", which does the following: "This will allocate 25 Watts to the selected port(s)

from the overall power budget available. This setting will override the "Auto" port PoE

priority based on port numbers."

 

Also this is on that page, to the right:

 

"Guarantee Power Summary

Total PoE Available = 180W

Guaranteed PoE = 0W

Remaining (Available - Guaranteed) = 180W "

 

So you're guaranteed full wattage up to 25 watts for 7 ports, (7 * 25.5 = 178).

 

There's a 2.00.01 firmware update from HP, but it merely says "first hp release" in the release notes, with no changes mentioned, so it may merely rebrand the admin interface as HP.

Edited August 5, 2012 by justingoldberg
added poe settings

[d-taylor]

My colleauge has spent a good few hours with this switch and with the manual. The switch assigns itself a 169.x.x.x address by default, you then can connect to the web GUI with this, and you have to run through a setup wizard. There doesn't appear to be a way to change most of the settings indivdually. Don't want to make the switch any worse at it is at least supporting some WAPs.