White_Fi

Channel selection has always been a popular topic for 2.4GHz WiFi networks, Per-channel allocations in the band are 5MHz wide (enough for a cordless phone etc) but transmissions are much wider. The amount of bandwidth varies on the standard being used (b, g or n), the radios transmission power and other factors. Run up a spectrum analyser and start a big transfer...You'll see. The rule of thumb is to keep APs on 1, 6 and 11. The theory is that at typical transmissions Wifi devices will transmit over bandwidths that range up to 22MHz wide. Using the 1, 6, 11 reuse plan give one channel 25MHz of space between channels. The counter to the 1, 6, 11 design is that a lot of channel space is being wasted. If WiFi devices operate O.K. with only a 20 MHz between APs (or even 18 or 15 MHz), then spacing the channels so far apart could be a waste. If this is the case a 1, 5, 9, 13 channel reuse plan could be used. DO NOT put all your APs on the same channel, you will be creating a massive collision domain and will result in HIGH retransmissions thus reduced throughput. Unless you are running a controller that supports SCA like Meru. But if you do have something like that....Bin it..

Please be aware this is BETA 1 of 9.2, bugs will be around, and it is not recommended for live production Did you see this on 9.1.1 or earlier?

When I talk about adaptive RF I talk about adapting the physical beam of the RF patten using a smart array of antennas, not 802.11n beamforming. That will just result in a negative and positive beam of energy, that could miss the client all together. I suppose replacing allot of Meru systems has just taken the confidence of the respectable theory away for me.

Yes they are very good and informative videos, but the fact of the matter is APs on the same channel will increase the collision domain, if care is not taken. Best option - adaptive RF. Not just a system that relies on channel change and Tx power changes to "avoid" interference - That's just running away from the problem, and that doesn't solve anything.

Correct, wifi is CSMA/CA, only one client can transmit/receive at any one time to an AP, if a client hears a transmission from a client on another AP(same channel) it will set it's NAV timer to the duration field value and wait for the medium to become free. You affectively have clients and APs waiting to communicate but are being held up by other clients/AP that don't need to be holding them up. Just hads unnecessary conention overhead, reducing throughput.

SCA(MERU) do not solve co-channel interference, you will be creating one big collision domain. Most MERU deployments will not have SCA enabled thus making the USP pointless. Why do you think no other vendors have gone down the SCA route? It can help greatly with VoWiFi deployments as there are no handoff times howhever you will need a pro in to get the SCA to funtion properly. Then what happens if the channel the APs are using has mass interference on it? Well you will need to change to another channel which may not solve your problem. You only have 3 non overlapping channels on 2.4GHz. Ruckus wil always be my choice of WLAN for schools. Adaptive RF avoids sources of interference providing the client with the most reliable connection, even in very dense environments. It's what Ruckus do. Perfecting WiFi Look at the latest TomsHardware report. Then speak to Net-Ctrl if you want to know more.

Ok, your going to need to go to v8 then v8.2 then v9 I'd do the first upgrade using SSH. Ssh into your ZD and run fw_upgrade

What FW is currently running? There are a few bugs in upgrading on certain browsers, depending on code and browser

Hi jwood, you can achieve this by using a layer3/4 ACL, or change the WLAN isolation to full. By setting the WLAN isolation to full this will apply the L3/4 ACL fromthe guest settings to the WLAN, plus prevent client to client traffic over te AP. This is configurable under guest access. By default the ZD will deny access to the subnet in which the ZD lives and all the other private ranges(192.169.x.x/16 etc). The are however 3 allow rules that you cannot see. These are allow DNS and DHCP on the broadcast and access to te default GW on all ports. So if you have a proxy or a different GW for the clients to hit then you will need to had this to the list, at the top. The other way is to create a L3/4 ACL is by going to access control on the ZD and and creating the ACL that is relevant then back to the WLAN in question and applying it under advance settings. This is subject to the code running on your ZD. You will heed to be on at least 8.2 in order to have both options avaliable to you. If you are on anything below, PM me. Sorry for spelling mistakes, on my phone. Thanks Stuart

Great shout Andy, Yes they are a killer for Wi-Fi, especially Chubb, they operate between channels 7 and 11 and kill wifi 2.5 channels away from their centre frequency. Wi-Spy is a great tool for quick and dirty spectrum analasys. Also be cautious of protection mode being enabled in a mixed 802.11b/g network. Even if you don't have any b devices in your work force a visitor or a near-by AP beacon transmitting at 802.11b will enable protection mode on the AP that hears the beacon. In turn the AP enables protection mode and any other nearby APs(I.e your WLAN) will also enable this function. It's a ripple effect throughout your WLAN. All that unessary contention overhead will drop your data rates. Best practises - enable OFDM only and set a min tx rate of 5.5Mbps on you WLAN, of course not if you have 802.11b only devices

And this works if the same client were to connect to a WLAN that is of standard usage and not guest usage? V9.2 Is able to allow unauthenticated users, i.e on guest networks, to get the proxy pac file prior to any authentication. Due for release Q2 2011

Hi i attended a webinar last year and still haven't recieved my AP yet? I am very interested in testing the AP

Hi Sheridan, You can pass the proxy settings on to a client using your DNS and the best approach is to look into WPAD. If the clients are connecting to a Guest type WLAN then v9.2 due for release the end of Q1 will allow for unauthenticated clients to get the proxy file. As for the other one are there no connection attempts found on the IAS logs? Thanks Stuart

Build 77 is currently in QA due for release next week

Hi Peter the sudden spike drop you see from inssider when logging in a bunch of laptops is the AP just under some load and is normal. The was inssider works is by measuring the RSSI and each vendor WNIC will measure this differently. When you see the dip you can be sure the AP is busy working on getting data to clients and not so worried about the beacon strength that inssider uses to measure. I would suggest having only Ruckus AP's on in the location as the more wi-fi will create more interference. What is the typical roaming profile size? and what radio band are the clients using? Thanks Stuart Net-Ctrl

It means it cannot find its way back to the ZD via an Ethernet cable, the cable from to the AP may be fine! I can't see it being a fault with the AP's Ethernet port. Please checked the entire topology from AP to ZD and you will find the disconnect somewhere if not physical then an routing issue may be in place. Thanks Stuart

Hi Ricky the DHCP server will give an IP address to any clients wireless or wired that send a DHCP request on the subnet. Thanks Stuart

What do the client stats look like for the client on the ZoneDirector.

Simon can i see screenshot of the requested please. I recommend you update to V9 for quite a few fixes and new features

Simon, the logs will not update themselves from MAC address to Device name. Any New logs however will use the descriptive name of the AP if available. Restart an AP and you should see the name instead of its MAC

Cold you take a screenshot of the dashboard and of one of the AP's when in edit mode.

The client will be unable to authenticate as no further setup as taken place

For webportal authentication you will need to check "Web Authentication" on the WLAN under Configure - WLANS , then select an Authentication Server. If you use local you will need to create local users on the ZD under "Configure - Users" or tie it in with AD. To add AD as an Authentication Server go to "Configure - AAA" Servers and click create new. Web portal authentication: - The user will be redirected to a web portal page for authorization once they have authenticated to the AP. There is a 30minute grace period. After this grace period if the client disconnects from the AP and reconnects they will be asked for authorization again. RADIUS is much easier to integrate into AD but can be tricky if you do not have a RADIUS server to work with at hand. I recommend getting IAS on one of your windows server along with windows certificate authority. Integration into Ruckus is as simple as changing the authentication method under "Configure - WLANs" to 802.1X and changing the authentication server to the RADIUS server. (again to add the RADIUS server into the ZoneDirector - "Configure - AAA Servers" Thanks Stuart

Simon you will need to enable Web Portal authentication on the SSID or change the authentication type to 802.1X

You can see that unauthenticated users will be displayed with a MAC, the client has not gone through an authorization process.