I didn’t mean problems on the 6th floor. Back in the MSMail days a customer was having async problems on a system that had been stable for three years. Long story short: the building they were in had a new neighbor move in. On the other side of the wall where his server and modem were was a Lincoln arc welder. I’m thinking interference.
From: David Lum Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 12:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] Troubleshooting wireless - advice - multiple answers I’ve received no reports of problems from the 6th floor, but then again since those are impromptu conference rooms there’s no guarantee there’s anyone in there often enough to see an issue. Last night we rebooted all the AP’s and the controller after reverting a change made yesterday afternoon. So far today there have been no reports of any problems. Frustrating… Dave From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Daniel Chenault Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 10:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Troubleshooting wireless - advice - multiple answers What's happening on the 6th floor in the vicinity of those rooms? And all this science I don't understand It's just my job five days a week Elton John "Rocket Man" On Sep 13, 2013, at 11:50, "David Lum" <[email protected]> wrote: Answers to multiple e-mails Laptop hardware info: Multiple Dell laptops and Macbooks Multiple NIC vendors Windows and MAC OS’s Unsure if a reboot clears the issue Location information: Same area of the building (north side) Different times of the day Rooms are toward the edge of the building Building is 7 floors high, problem reports have come from 5th and 7th floor Infrastructure information: 50 dual-band AP’s Signal strength as measured by iNSSIDer never weaker than 60dB and typically there are multiple AP’s stronger than 65dB Walking the floor, by the time one AP’s signal strength has dropped below 60dB you are then closer to another AP with a signal stronger than 60dB Per Meru, all AP’s are on the same channels, all AP’s are set to full broadcast power Usage information: User activity at the time varies from looking at a web page Different times of the day * unknown the duration the users have this issue Dave Can you swap APs to see if the problem follows the AP? Different hardware might rule out drivers. Are these two rooms next to each other on the same AP or different areas and different Aps? How long does it usually last? Does it clear itself or is a reboot needed? Same time or completely varies? When it’s happening, if someone else comes in does it happen to them? Are they always in the same spot? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Micheal Espinola Jr Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 5:28 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Troubleshooting wireless - advice I'm assuming this is a roaming issue between multiple APs with the same SSID. If not, please correct me. 1.. Which brand are the mobile devices that are experiencing issues with these APs? 2.. Who makes the NIC chipsets on these devices? 3.. If a problematic device is hard-reset while in close-range of the AP its having connectivity issues with, does the problem continue? 4.. What is the radio channel of the AP with problematic clients - and what are the radio channels of its nearest (3) neighbors? -- Espi On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 1:00 PM, David Lum <[email protected]> wrote: Scenario: Five floors, 50 AP’s managed by a single controller (Meru). A few (less than ten, more than two) users report connectivity issues in two different small conference/meeting rooms. · Throughput/capacity limits are not being approached · These rooms are used largely ad-hoc, so rarely are the people who report problems in the same room consecutive days. · Users with reporting issues do not report problems in any other areas/floors of the building · Users reporting issues are not streaming video, and in some cases are sitting idle reading a document · Other users have no problems in the areas/room that these few users report problems · Two of the users reporting problems in the same room are on completely different hardware/software (Dell+Win7, Mac+MacOS) Our suspicion is a malfunctioning AP in the area, the confusing part is not everyone is reporting an issue in the areas that a few people are having problems from. I am working with our vendor (Meru), but it’s a laborious process of looking at logs, making a change, and then “let us know if the users still report a problem”. This method can result in three/four days between making a change and the user going back into the affected area. Today Meru had us disable the AP closest to that room, but I’d love some advice on a better way to systematically get at this in case the bum AP is not the issue. Swapping machines is the least desirable option here (doable, but these are busy folks in transit a lot). It doesn’t help that two of the users are director-level and one of THOSE is my boss’ boss…. David Lum Sr. Systems Engineer // NWEATM Office 503.548.5229 // Cell (voice/text) 503.267.9764
