Site Survey with 1142 AP

The older Airespace APs had a site survey mode which was handy for just that. With IOS for the 1142 not being released yet, I was pondering a workaround
I was thinking of configuring an 1142 for HREAP - Authentication Local / switch local and then disconnect it from the network. I am unsure if the AP would bring the radio up if the Ethernet interface was disconnected? Can anyone comment on this?
Thanks!

You can also configure a fallback role for the access point radio. The access point automatically assumes the fallback role when its Ethernet port is disabled or disconnected from the wired LAN. There are two possible fallback roles:
Repeater-When the Ethernet port is disabled, the access point becomes a repeater and associates to a nearby root access point. You do not have to specify a root access point to which the fallback repeater associates; the repeater automatically associates to the root access point that provides the best radio connectivity.
Shutdown-The access point shuts down its radio and disassociates all client devices.

Similar Messages

Site Survey with 7920 phone

I have a multiple 7920 phone and multiple AP in my environment. Some of the phones are hardware version 2 and others are version 1.
When I do a site survey with 2 phones at the same exact spot I see diffrefnt signal strengths with each phone. both of the phones are set to the same transmit power and both phones are associated with the same AP. If I hold both phones togather and walk arount both phone will show huge diffences in signal strength. I would expect to see some minor diffrences but usualy the diffrence is 10 or more.
any thoughts?

RSSI is a relative # and the 7920 averages the last 5 scans. Depending on the scan times these could be different and will almost never be indentical.
Also ensure these are both running 1.08 firmware.
There are only minor tooling differences in rev2 hardware.

Question about WLAN Site Surveys with 802.11n APs - 1142s

I do site surveys a little differently that everyone else nowadays, I believe. In the past, I used an autonomous 1230 or 1240, but now I use a lightweight 1142. I configure a port in a room to be on the AP VLAN and I connect my 1142 to the port and hang it where I want - it then gets on the controller and start broadcasting just like the finished product will. This works well except for the time it takes me to configure a port on the switch and the bootup time for the AP. I'm one of the Networks Architects on a campus of almost 200 buildings, so I have access to all the routers and switches and can configure anything I need while onsite.
Now I want to have someone else (in-house) to do our surveys - but this person(s) does not have access to switches and routers, and that won't ever change.
I tried configuring a lightweight 1142 in HREAP mode to handoff to this person, but it appears the power and channel settings don't stick on the 5 GHz side.
Scrapping that idea, I now have to build out an autonomous 1142 for site surveying. I missed out on this step because I went from buying 1242s (can jump between lightweight and autonomous) to 1142s (which didn't have an autonomous image at that time, I believe). This is why I started surveying with lightweight 1142s.
I'm curious if anyone has gone through the configuration of an autonomous 1142 and wouldn't mind sharing their "lessons learned". I haven't seen a matrix of features that are supported/not supported on 1142s when configured for lightweight vs. autonomous.
I currently aim for designing around the 5 GHz radios set to 10 dBm, 20% cell overlap. I also turn on 40 MHz channels in 5 GHz range. This usually ends up with an AP in every other or every third classroom, depending on how old the building is and how many times it has been renovated. I can't "just throw APs out there" since each building is different - some are thin concrete block, some are poured cement, and some are block with metal mesh and stucco. Those usually end up with on AP per classroom.
Does anyone have a matrix on what can and cannot be turned on in an autonomous AP? I would like to get my config as close to the lightweight scenario we deploy for all of our production WLANs.

There is no matrix as to what you're asking for. I've done conversions and configurations of AP's from Lightweight to Autonomous and vice-versa. The configuration of the autonomous AP can be identical to the Lightweight AP from a client perspective.
My current setup has 3 SSID's (VoIP, Data, and Guest) on the autonomous AP. Couple things I do:
1. PoE powered AP through a Tessco power pack.
2. VLANs have to be enabled on the AP (1 for each SSID)
3. The SSID's will have to be created and each AP mapped to a VLAN
4. The SSID's will be need to be enabled on both radios if desired.
The easiest way to configure the AP is to power it with either the power cord.
Console into the AP and let it boot. Assign an IP address to the BVI 1 interface.
Assign an IP address on the wired NIC of our laptop and plug an ethernet cable into the AP's ethernet port.
Configure the AP as listed above via the web gui.
This is by no means a complete answer, but your questions were all over the map.
Regards,
Jerry

What will I see when doing site survey with WRT and WRE?

I have just successfully setup with security, my WRE54G to my WRT54GS. It wasnt easy, lots of resets and disabling of security, but I didnt have to set a statis IP (which I am happy about)
However, now that I am searching for a connection on my laptop (wirelessly) I see to available networks but both are with the same name (the name of my original wireless network).
Is this right? If so, this gets confusing as I am not sure which I am connecting too.
Then if I change from one to another, I have to enter in the passphrase, which gets annoying.
Is there anyway to have a differnent name of my Wireless network vs the Wireless Expander?

The RE, as I understand it, just extends the router signal that it is connected to. That is why it is imperative that the setup be EXACTLY the same. In my case, I stupidly put some capital letters in my SSID but didn't put them in when I setup the RE. Took me the longest time to figure that out....That you see two "networks" on site survey is OK. That you can connect to them differently is weird and that you have to enter the security passphrase suggests that you really haven't been successful in setup. So, Dibbler's advice is correct. Make sure the router and RE settings are the same and the firmware is upgraded.
I can't tell what device I am connected to and I really don't care. I just know that the place I was connecting from prior to the RE was far from the router and I would get the "limited connection" warning and no internet. With the RE and closer to my laptop, I always get "excellent" signal and an internet connection. I assume I'm connecting to the RE but it is seamless.
Also, make sure you the supply the MAC address of the router if the RE is v.1. Got that from the full user guide at the Linksys WRE54g product page.
If you really want different SSIDs I think you need to get a bridged access point.
Message Edited by Luckydog on 06-20-2007 06:11 AM
Message Edited by Luckydog on 06-20-2007 06:15 AM

Site Survey with ap3500i

Hey,
I have a question about sitesurveying with ap3500's
I'm going to deploy a wireless network in a new building, i have a company that normaly does my site surveys.
I normally provide them with some AP's configured with a designated ssid and local power modes set to 50%, however this does not seem possible with the new 3500i's i'm willing to use, for there is no IOS image available for it.
I dont have any network connectivity yet in this new building, so i cannot f.i place them in a separate ap-group and assign a dedicated wlan to them.
Can Anybody think of a viable solution (ASAP) Thanx in advance
Frans verschoor

leolaohoo wrote:We use 1140s for site surveys in our 3502i deployments.Not recommended.
I have the same questions as Thomas. In the thread below I tried to find out any differences between these APs but the consensus was that ClearAir was the only notable difference. The only way the 1140 would be not recommended for a passive survey is if there is differences in the antenna pattern, and active survey if there's a difference in chipset or hardware. So what are the differences?
https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3398804#3398804

Site survey with dual radio AP

Hello
I would like some opinions on how to perform a site survey when surveying for both 2.4 and 5GHz.
Assume that the installation want good coverage on both 2.4 and 5GHz and that they use dual radio ap. Should I map one radio cell using 5GHz and then just assume that 2,4 will cover the same area and then some? Or should I do two walkabouts, one for each freq band and map them separately? I suppose the correct way would be to measure a cell twice, but time is money...
Does anyone have any experience on roaming between interfaces on the same AP? If I optimize both 2.4 and 5 coverage, then, in theory, the client could need to roam from 5GHz to 2.4 GHz.
Perhaps the best solution would be to identify power settings where signal strength on both 2.4 and 5GHz are equal.

I agree that time is money, but saving on money during the pre-installation phase may cause you more money and more headaches than you bargained for down the road.
I have used to AirMagnet product, and their Surveyor is perfect for what you are doing, but it is pricy.
Regardless, I would do seperate surveys for 5 and 2.4. They are different in their distance and interference.
I had a few times that when I did a survey before we got the AirMagnet software, I just went around with a map and marked down my location and put the signal strength and quality in an excel spreadsheet, and put together a decent looking coverage map with Visio. You can do quite a bit without spending a lot of money, but it takes up a lot of time.
For customers that didn't want to spend the money up front, we just would over engineer the equipment and lower the power settings if needed. It seems easier to justify buying extra AccessPoints than spending money on a survey to the bosses. But I think that a good pre-install survey is absolutely necessary.

Site Survey with an LWAP?

I need to survey a new building for wireless. Actually it's an old nursing home.
In the old days I would setup an IOS AP as a DHCP server on a telescoping pole mounted to a cart.
Can I convert an AIR-LAP to IOS and do something similar?
How do you all do surveys for LWAPs?
Thanks!

Yes you can convert the AP to lightweight and vice versa:
Using a TFTP Server to Return to a Previous Release
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/access_point/conversion/lwapp/upgrade/guide/lwapnote.html#wp160918
https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-18268
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/access_point/conversion/lwapp/upgrade/guide/lwapnote.html#wp160918
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ_NuxdRhQ4
https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-14960
Thanks,
Scott
*****Help out other by using the rating system and marking answered questions as "Answered"*****

Configuring 1142 to use for site survey.

Just got in a bunch of the 1142 N-A-K9 APs. I need to set them up to do a site survey with.
Don't seem to be able to find anything on the site.
Has anyone used yet for site surveys? The radios are off by default.

You can survey with 1142. You can do two ways in lightweight mode. One would be to use it with 2106. This could be cumbersome as you have to carry around UPS so you can power the 2106 and use PoE on 2106 to power 1142. This way you can adjust channels and power levels on the AP as you see fit from cell to cell. Second method would be to configure the AP for HREAP mode on the controller and assign your custom power levels and channels. Then you can just use that AP without the controller to survey and power it up thru a PoE battery pack. The custom power levels stay on both 2.4 and 5 GHZ radios but channel only stays on 2.4GHz. Due to FCC and DFSS the 5GHz channel will most likely change each time you boot the AP. If you keep the AP on the battery pack for the duration of the survey it will stay on the same channels. So the negative to the HREAP mode survey is that you can't adjust channels and power levels as you move from cell to cell easily as you would have to connect it back up to the controller. Surveying with 1142 is helpful as from my experience they have a better footprint than 1131s. Hope this helps.

Wireless site survey doubts with cisco aironet site survey utility tool

Hi,
I have 1131 autonomous AP and we have project where we need to implement WLC 5500 with 1140 LAP.
Before that , we need to do site survey . we are going to use cisco aironet adapter and with the help of site survey utility tool we are planning to do site survey .
I have below doubt before starting the site survey :
1) do we need to configure the AP 1131 with existing LAN set-up of client to get connected ?
If yes , how can i shift this 1131 ap always from one location to another location and connect to respective vlan in switch ? It would be tedious job ....
because , We need to connect ( get associated ) our laptop always to 1131 ap and then roam around to get the RSSI , signal strength , SNR and throughput .... ...
to configure the AP to existing lan set-up of client , it would not be flexible to do site survey ?
without that , how can I just plug-in power to 1131 AP with standalone configuration .... and without connecting to switch ( any lan-port ) , do the site survey ?
Please suggest me .............
In short , without connecting to LAN set-up of client , how can i do the site survey ?
2) will it be worth to do site survey with cisco aironet card ( site survey utility ) ? or we should i have different site survey software for the same ?
Please share the knowledge ....

Site Surveys are important and should be done by a professional. A poor site survey can lead to a lot of problems. It would be hard to put all aspects of conducting a proper site survey in a single post. Lets cover a few of the basics.
1) If you plan to deploy 1140 model access points. Then you should use that AP in autonomous mode so you dont have to be plugged into your network
2) The AP gets powered by an exteral power source like this battery for exmaple:
http://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=345625&WT.mc_id=google_base&sp=true
3) As far as moving the AP around you can purchase a site survey pole like this:
http://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=392506&eventPage=1
4) As for software, I like AirMagnet Surveyor
http://www.airmagnet.com/products/survey/
But again. There is a lot to know about doing surveys...

Site Survey Adapters - USB options?

Hello,
We are in need to perform a site survey with the Aironet 1041N Access Point.
Upon reviewing the site survey software, it seems you need to use an Aironet adapter.
However from what i can tell, all the Aironet adapters are PCMICA cards, which most modern laptops do not have, and the PCMICA cards that do exist don't have drivers for windows 7.
Are there USB adapters w/ Windows 7 drivers that can be used to perform a site survey?
Thank You.

I was going to use the Cisco Aironet site survey application.
the client doesn't have $1000+ to spend on site survey software.
this doesn't need to be overly complex but we're trying to get an estimate on AP placement and the # they'll need to get adequate coverage.
our plan was to go around with one access point to use as a baseline then determine how far away you can get before signal drops off too much, mark a building diagram with where access point should be placed, move the AP to that location to see how far away you can get before you should place another AP, etc.
thank you.

Site survey by Airmaget

Dear All,
I know site survey using Airmagent survey pro tool .Is it possible to do site survey with Aitmagnet wifi analyzer?
Regards,
TS

Nope because you won't be able to record, for example, at this location what are the wireless channel interferrence, the signal strength, SNR, etc.

Does anyone have a site survey config for autonomous 1142 AP?

We're going to start using the 1142s as our survey access points. We use autonomous 1242s now and I'm wondering if anyone has any canned 1142 configs they're willing to share.
Thanks in advance!

Scott,
I've always surveyed with power local = 14, which should be 25mw. I use channels 1,6 & 11, of course for 2.4 GHz.
Also use 11.0 6.0 9.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0 as my data rates.
My goal is to take two surveys of the same building - a small building, that is. One survey with the 1242s, and the second survey with the 1142s. I want to compare the coverage to see if the 1142s do better, etc.
I've heard you just don't "swap out" the 1242s for 1142s or 3502s, but that may be just what we end up doing for simplicity. And I agree, if we were going to forklift to the 802.11n APs and forklift the clients, we could survey to 802.11n since we would not have any 802.11g clients to worry about. But that's just not the case since we do not control what clients come on our network. So we almost have to design to the "least common denominator".
Thanks!

Help with first time "controller based" Site Survey

We are moving from autonomous 1242AG to "2500 LAP with 2600 WLC"
I am used to bringing 1 autonomous AP to do my Site Surveys, but now that that I have a LAP, does it mean I need to bring a Wireless Controller with me so that the LAP could join it?
What do you guys do? Bring WLC, LAP and small UPS?
Any ideas would be helpful
Thanks!

Hi,
If you only have a LAP now then also you can convert to autonomous AP and do the site survey and then convert back to Lightweight.
You just need the 2 images.
One autonomous image:k9W7
http://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=284362264&flowid=34154&softwareid=284180979&release=15.2.4-JB4&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=ED&reltype=latest
One lightweight image: k9W8
http://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=284362264&flowid=34154&softwareid=280775090&release=15.2.4-JB4&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=ED&reltype=latest
Site survey is nothing to do with WLC(You can go ahead with Autonomous AP for site survey).
On the same place put the LAP and connect to nearest switch.
WLC push the config to LAP and also manages the RRM feature(Power, Channel....).
Regards
Dont forget to rate helpful posts

Cisco Aironet Site Survey Utility with Windows Vista

Where can I download the Cisco Site Survey utility that is supported by Vista?

I to do wonder about this. It would be grand to get an answer from someone at Cisco about this..

Looking for a beginners guide ot site survey

Good evening,
Getting ready to do a site survey of a rather large facility... About to switch to an entirely different wireless nic (intel 3945ABG) which isnt performing as well as its cousin, 2200BG. Reviewing the stats of the cards it doesnt make sense as intel claims (from my understanding) the 3945 is more sensitive.
Given the sheer size (220,000+ sq feet) of my facility i want to ensure i do this correctly the first time around. I have the given equipment which will be deploying this card.
What i have done in the past for resolving some issues is going every 5 feet and recording by hand the SNR using something along lines of netstumbler. Is this correct?
any suggestions will be great.

Hi Robert,
Here is some info that may help;
Wireless Site Survey FAQ
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk722/tk809/technologies_q_and_a_item09186a00805e9a96.shtml
This Excel macro tool is designed to work with NetStumbler to help you complete a wireless site survey. While running NetStumbler, the macro allows you to timestamp your live access points, collect signal levels of each access point, and export the raw NetStumbler data to create a handy report.
http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/download.aspx?docid=177121&promo=100400
Hope this helps!
Rob

Site Survey with 1142 AP

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