Wirelesss Network Broadcasting but not allowing clients to connect

[LeMarchand]

Hi, got a strange problem at one of my sites.

 

As of yesterday, the wireless network won't allow connections. Everything is broadcasting fine, it's just clients can't get an IP address. Everything wired is fine.

 

The setup:

1 server running everything, wireless network runs off Cisco APs (possibly controlled by a Cisco 2100 WLC box).

 

Have tried pinging what appears to be the APs but can't get a reply. Looked at the firewall on the server (off), rebooted various switches and APs. I'm suspecting the Cisco WLC, but can't work out how to check this.

[sted]

out of curisity do the laptops work with a static address?

[LeMarchand]

out of curisity do the laptops work with a static address?

 

Alas not.

 

When I try a "repair" on the connection it announces that Windows could not connect to the ***** network. But this isn't the name of the school network...

[sted]

you arnt being flooded by someones elses network are you?

[LeMarchand]

Don't think so. If I fire up WiFiFoFum it shows 3 APs visible, all of which have the school SSID.

[LeMarchand]

The "other network" was a red herring (I was wondering why it looked like my cat's name). For some reason, it was announcing that it couldn't connect to the "top" network in the list, When I moved it down, the report was the normal "unable to connect" message.

[sted]

my experience with the one school who have sisko wireless (set up by lea isp who and down for 2+ weeks as the person left taking passwords etc with him sigh) is its a pain. It isnt set to need radius certificates is it as the above sisko the only way i can connect clients (and xp only no vista/7 yet but policy can only be edited with vist or above go figure) is a gpo AND a certificate which runs out every year and has to be manually updated

[LeMarchand]

Not had any problems with non-domain machines connecting, nor W7 ones. So (possibly) not GPO. How do I check re the certificate? It is about a year ago the last guy left.

 

Looking at DHCP, reservations have been set for the APs (it's these IP addies I can't ping), but it looks as if a bunch of leases were granted to what appears to be APs this morning, though the MACs don't match. These IP addresses can be pinged.

[sted]

erm hard wire in a laptop assuming xp cant remember how on vista/7 but i believe its the same

start run mmc

add certificates for the COMPUTER account

right click personal go to all tasks request new certificate and follow wizzard

[LeMarchand]

Cheers, I had to leave the site and not in until next week. Have contacted the people who put in the network (apparently under a year old, so should have some sort of cover included) but they're being evasive.

 

I strongly suspect it's a problem with the WLC box, but couldn't work out how to access it (the online documentation was way too complicated for me!).

[sted]

Cheers, I had to leave the site and not in until next week. Have contacted the people who put in the network (apparently under a year old, so should have some sort of cover included) but they're being evasive.

 

I strongly suspect it's a problem with the WLC box, but couldn't work out how to access it (the online documentation was way too complicated for me!).

 

its sisko its not what you know its whos phone number youve got

[LeMarchand]

Still no joy on this. I've managed to connect to the WLC box, but need a password that I don't have. Quite tempted to factory reset it, but setup from there on in looks far too complicated for me.

 

Does anyone know if it's possible to run the APs "non managed"? I'd feel much more confident about doing that. I realise that a lot of the benefits would be lost, but (unless the school has big plans for more laptops that I'm aware of) the current solution does seem a bit of overkill.