Cisco AP342 and AP352 Access Points for use with Home HotSpots AP350 AP340
Setup Cisco AP342s, AP352s and BR352s used as Access Points and Repeaters for Home HotSpots/WISPs
and How to Setup the AP342, AP352 and BR352 for Optional Encryption and as Repeaters (revision 1/27/2004)
I have wanted to
compare the operation of
Dlink/LinkSys/SMC bridges and APs to some Cisco products for quite
I recently got a BR342, two AP352s, two BR352s and& four AP342s to
experiment with. I wish I had tried this gear out sooner!& This
Cisco wireless gear is
GREAT STUFF for Hotspots,& Wide Area LANs, and use where 802.11b
repeaters are needed!&
Note:& These units will only act as REPEATERS when the central
(root) access point is an AP342/352/1100, BR352 or compatible Cisco
think that anyone thinking about a wide area mesh network (with spans
in the range of one mile or less) should CONSIDER the use of the
($300-100mw) and/or AP342s ($100-30mw) (or later versions such as the
AP1100)& models instead of the BR342s or BR352s at
nodes. Reasons: a) BR342s only work with other BR342s and
clients.& b) BR342s cost
about $425 and have fewer features than the AP352s at around $300. And
the AP342/AP352 have the same software feature set. c) AP342s and
AP352s will interwork and repeat with other AP342s, AP352s, AP1100s,
and AP1200s and Cisco says this will continue with the dual
channels units coming out. & &
The potential advantage of BR352s and BR342s is that they can maintain
considerably higher throughput on long range links (greater than a mile or so) than can the AP
models.&& I
can confirm that the BR352s WILL
interoperate with other BR352s plus AP352s ,AP342s, AP1100s and
clients from a variety of vendors. & (Some non-Cisco clients work
better than others, but all seem to be able to work at least in
non-encrypted mode.) & BR352s seem to be essentially AP352s with
enhanced software
which allows the distance between the BR352 to be up to the range of
60+ miles from remote clients,& AP342/AP352s/BR352s with suitable
and/or amplifier gain as may be required.& The AP versions do have
a "range" option but the thruput is down to about 250kbps at 7.5 miles
with good signals.& Thus, a BR version at the root end of the link
will dramatically raise the maximum thruput and range of the link from
the root bridge.
The RFLinx& 2400CX amps can be used with either model to develop 800mw
output (or more with other model amps) if needed for Amateur Radio
applications in the 2400mhz Ham Radio band.& One& fact called to my attention is that that
BR342/352s while operating as REPEATERS can also provide a data feed
out of the ethernet port.& The ethernet port on the AP342/352s
disabled when they are in repeater mode.& Maximum range of the AP
units versus the BR units CAN be an issue.& It is reported that
range (from timing considerations) on Cisco's AP models is in excess of
10 miles.& &&
It has been confirmed
that the range of Cisco's AP products is significantly less than the BR
products.& Maximum range estimates,& based on timing
considerations only, for the BR products is said to be in excess of 60
miles.& We are checking further and gathering more data to try and
discover& the precise
maximum range limitation on the AP342/AP352//BR342/BR352.& PLEASE feel free to email me if you do have definitive
information on maximum range for either product!)
Now for the DOWNSIDE:& The AP342/AP352s have been tested for data
thruput when operating in REPEATER mode over long distances.& If
the range is less than a mile or so and the signals are strong
(SN&25db or so) then you can expect the throughput to drop by half
for each repeater the data must traverse.& For 11bps this means
you have a theoretical maximum data throughput rate something in the
order of 5.5 mbps for one repeat and 2.75mbps if traversing two
repeaters and 1.375mbps if traversing three repeaters.& This is
"as expected" as the units are "store and forward"
repeaters.&&& However,& when I set the units up for
operation over a 7.45 mile range, (optimize for RANGE mode),& the
throughput for two or three repeaters dropped to the range of 250K to
320K bits per second for a wireless file download.& &&
The data rate to the AP when it is used to access the wired ethernet
will be higher as then the central AP is not acting as a REPEATER but
rather as an ACCESS POINT.
The mesh networking stuff the Cisco gear does is FANTASTIC!
Particularly the new software which has improved self organizing
features. (I am running ver 12.04& in six units.)
For Ham Radio experimenters,& the AP352 is a really nice
companion to the RFLinx& 800mw 17db gain amps
located 75 to 100 feet away at the tower top.. AP352s start at 100mw
(+20dbm) - (75ft
LMR400 cable/conn loss=7db) - (pigtail loss=1db) + (amp gain=17db)
gives +29dbm which is your 800mw output. Actually RFLinx engineering
tells me the 800mw amp will go to +30dbm and that seems reasonable
since the amp
has a +12vdc PSU and peak voltage at 1 watt output would be only about
10 volts (7vrms). Also, the AP352 has power over the CAT5 ethernet
cable so putting it up the tower with the amp is a little easier than
with some other models.& (Note:& I personally prefer putting
the AMP at the tower top and the AP gear in a box at ground
level.& Amps have proved very reliable for me.& APs can be
temperature sensitive both on the high and low ends of the
scale.)& The adjustable power output on ALL these Cisco models
is really nice too. And.. If you put the amp right with the access
point up the tower, you need the 12db amp and 50mw out of your AP to
get your 800mw..& In the USA FCC rules for part 15
operation,& transmitters are allowed a maximum ERP (Effective
Radiated Power) of +36dbm or 4 watts.& If you have 800mw transmit
power (+29dbm) then you have a net of +7dbi of net antenna gain you can
add.& "Antenna Gain" includes the net of antenna gain and
cable/connector loss between the amplifier output and the antenna
itself. & Note:& Generally, it is NOT in accord with
FCC rules for UNlicensed individuals to use
amplifiers for 802.11 communications unless the amplifiers are
furnished by an equipment manufacturer specifically to work with a
given AP/Bridge or such. & See FCC rules on part 15 unlicensed
operation for details. & A word to the wise is
sufficient.
Note: The AP342s and AP352s can operate with& RF coming out either
antenna port in diversity mode
unless you select just RIGHT or just LEFT. Unfortunately,& this is
not as flexible as it seems at first glance.& While you can get RF
out of either the left and right port of these units,& the
limitation is pretty severe.&
The access point receives and transmits using one antenna at a
time depending on the signal strength readings, so you cannot increase range by installing high-gain antennas on both
connectors and pointing one north and one south. When the access point uses
the north-pointing antenna, it would ignore client devices to the south.
Interoperability and compatibility tests were run with the Cisco
and with various brands of& client cards.& The Cisco units
were compatible with 100% of the 802.11b/g cards I tested with.&
These included Dlink, SMC, LinkSys, Senao, and Orinoco/Proxim. Some problems I
noticed follow.
(Tests were not all that scientific but I report it as I saw it.)
1) I was using a Dlink 900AP+ as a central AP on my 100ft tower
with an 500mw amplifier.
Local links were fine, but three links to stations half a mile away
through trees had
a high error rate in the area of 20%. It had been that way ever since I
put them in and figured this was a result of the dense trees causing
multipath distortion.& First I put in a AP-342 in place of the
the tower. One link going a half mile thru trees to a Senao Card became
completely error free. Things improved on the links with the 900AP+
units, but these links still had errors. Then I noticed that the Dlink
900AP+ units on even some shorter test links had a few errors showing
over time. I replaced the 900AP+ with the worst error rate with a
LinkSys WET11 and immediately, the error rate went to about zero and
has stayed there. I then replaced the other two 900AP+ units with
WET11s and those links became error free as well.
2) I have one AP352
acting as a repeater installed about 3/4 mile from my tower with an 8db
omni antenna& and amplifier. It worked fine from the first
moment. I added the 12db amp to get the power up to about 600mw
(including cable losses) so as to be able to extend coverage to another repeater and it is all doing a good job.
3) Thruput of three Cisco units in series (AP & repeater1 &
repeater2) is still faster than the download speed of a single 1.5mbps ADSL
(When the distance between units is less than a mile and the units are all set to "optimize for throughput".)
4) Features I like in the Cisco AP342/352 include: a) Each unit
records of who is connected and logs traffic, errors, etc. b)
AP342/AP352 has
transmit power available on both antenna R-TNC antenna ports.&
c) AP342 converts
easily to external amp use by inserting a MMCX plug into the internal
PCMCIA card and bringing out the cable to an outside connector.&
AP340 series units have& R-TNC connectors on the rear instead of
captive antennas,& but I have not seen any of these for sale on
eBay.& d) You
can update firmware by radio (and automatically to all units at once if
you want). e) EVERYTHING seems to be adjustable/configurable. (This can
hazard!) For instance, if you check: "Make unit maximum compatible with
standard 802.11 devices", the repeat mode and lots of neat features
quit working!) f) It is possible to configure the units so that you can
SIMULTANEOUSLY serve some clients with encrypted links and others with
UNencrypted links. g) These units work with all of the 802.11b/g
clients I have tested them with including various SMC, LinkSys, Dlink,
Senao, and Orinoco cards and bridge clients. h) The rated temperature
range of SOME models is 0 C to 50 C.& (While the specification is
not quite good
enough for outdoor and attic use,& I find that
some units will operate& considerably beyond this specification.& One unit
has performed
flawlessly down to 22F and up to 130F. & Another quit passing data
at about 30F and did not recover when the temperature came back
up.& On this unit, when failed,& you could communicate with
it via the ethernet connection,& but I had to& unplug/replug
the ethernet cable to bring it back to operation.) && i) You can program all features remotely (and
securely) by
This includes cases where you have multiple signal
repeaters.&& j) If you
have two or more "source" feeds from the internet, the units will self
organize.& Load balancing is apparently manual but any section of
the "mesh" where the primary feed fails can "home" on another mesh
section where AP service is still working.& k) The "associated"
table shows "who is connected
to whom" including clients,& repeaters and access
points.&& (I have noticed that client NICs rather than client
bridges are what show up in the associated table where you have (say) a
WET11 client bridge connected to a NIC card in a client computer.
You can set up the Cisco units to prevent Peer-to-Peer connections on
the local wireless LAN if you want. Couple this to "per client"
bandwidth throttling (and Kazaa, etc throttling or blocking in a
Mikrotik Hotspot) and you can control your gamers and music sharers and
keep them from overloading your network. As you can tell, I really am
impressed with the features of the Cisco gear and the AP342 is really
cost effective at $100 or so on eBay.
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How to Setup the APs for Optional Encryption and as Repeaters
First:& A few "gotchas" to keep you from being confused.
1)& Your AP &must& be in AP mode for you to communicate with
it over the ethernet cable.& This is the default,& but once
you put the unit into "Repeater Access Point" mode you have to
communicate with it via the radio channel.& So:& Do not put
the unit into REPEATER AP mode until you have made sure you can
communicate with it by radio as an AP.&
2) If you plug the unit into your computer's LAN port,& and the
unit is then configured as a Root Access point and programmed to revert
to "Repeater Access Point" mode when it loses contact with its router
over the wirelan,& it WILL disable communications with your
computer over the wirelan cable as soon as you enable the "Revert to
Repeater Access Point when communications is lost" mode.&
3) Pushing the AP342s reset button for 10 seconds loads the default
parameters.& The AP352 has a hole for a reset button,& but
the reset button is missing.& There is no way to reset an AP352
to factory defaults without using &:RESETALL& from the
hyperterminal command line interface if you lose connectivity for some
reason.& I did this a LOT early in my experimentation.
4) Use Hyperterminal and 9600,8,none,1, hardware with a 9 pin serial
cable to connect to the APs to discover their IP address
initially.& Just turn the unit on with Hyperterminal connected and
you will see the IP address (and lots of other stuff) during boot
up.& After you have the unit's IP address,& connect a lan
crossover cable between the computer and the AP.& Then set your
computer's IP address to some other IP address
in the same range but different from the AP.& Then load a browser
and you should be able to
http://&AP unit IP address& and you should be able to connect to
the AP setup initial screen.
5) As soon as you get the system up and running and can get to the
setup screen,& I recommend you go download the latest production
firmware for your units from the Cisco website (above), unzip it
into& suitable folders, then go to Cisco Services in the Setup
Screen and update the firmware.& Use the BROWSER UPDATE method as
it is most straightforward. & Depending on which software comes
in your unit,& some of the features below may not appear if you do
not have the latest software.
6) If you set up your Root AP and Repeater APs as described below
and& with encryption "optional", things work almost exactly as you
would expect.& Individual stations can login and get access if
they are unencrypted or if they are encrypted and are using the correct
encryption codes.& Special Note:& Sometimes when you set an
individual
station to be encrypted,& that station becomes "invisible" to all
other stations on the wireless LAN.& This seems to be related to
brand/type of Client Card used.& This "stealthy"& encrypted
station a) can
no longer be pinged,& b) can no longer be discovered by an IP
address scanner, and c) can no longer be accessed by remote control
programs such as VNC.&& And.. This is independent of if the
remote management station is encrypted or not. & This is quite an
annoyance.&& Please see the
If anyone knows a setup arrangement for
the AP340/350s that will overcome this limitation, please let me
While you are getting setup,& pick an RF channel for your APs and
Repeater APs and do not let them roam the available channels.&
Later you may want to allow your ROOT AP/BRIDGE to roam to another
channel if interference occurs on the channel.& If you do allow
your ROOT AP to "roam",& pick channels not used by others in your
area.& It is necessary to setup roaming on ALL AP340/AP350/BR350
units.& Units locked to a single (default) channel will stay there
if the ROOT unit roams to another channel.& Which channel onto
which roaming can occur should be the same on all units. &
Note:& Most
Clients will also follow,& but many clients will not be able to
change channel without manual selection in the client setup.& Know
what features your clients have before you allow your network to "roam"
amongst channels.& (See more below).
8) No.. It is not possible to use the AP342/352s as repeaters AND get a
wired LAN signal for local use out of the repeater AP at the same
time.& In fact,& these units cannot be used as a standard
wired ethernet client bridge (
receiver) at all excepting for the client feature which is really not
what these devices were designed for.& BR342/BR352 units DO have a
wired LAN output available when they are being operated as Repeater APs.
9) The BRIDGES have a RANGE parameter.& It appears this has to be
set reasonably carefully to match to range to the BRIDGE most distant
from the ROOT BRIDGE.& At one point, I set the root bridge to 40km
range and only had thruput to another BR352 located nearby (500ft
away)& of about 3.5kbps.& Changing the range setting on the
root bridge to zero made the thruput come back up where it should
be.& The nearby APs which were associated with the root bridge
seemed unaffected and appeared to maintain their normal thruput speed
independent of the range paramter.& (But we know making the range
parameter a large number DOES cut down on the total& thruput of
the Bridge.& My future testing should define some values for this
reduction.)& It appears that running nearby APs and Distant BRs
from the same root BR could drop the overall thruput capability of the
root BR significantly.& Can someone with experience comment on
this please?
Now to the Setup itself
How to set up the Cisco AP 342/352s was somewhat mysterious at first.& There is a pretty inclusive
and relatively good manual that is
from the Cisco website.& Note the Help link near the upper left of
the page (below).& This brings up a help file link from the Cisco
website (assuming your AP has internet access).& All this
documentation got me started pretty well.&
The screen photos below were made with an AP342, but the AP352 setup is
almost identical except for the RF power settings.& I
was able to get the unit working as an access point by only going to
the EXPRESS SETUP page and inputing my IP address, SSID and other
information as follows.
Figure 1& (above) shows the EXPRESS SETUP screen for an ACCESS POINT.
There are a couple of things to note about the above:&
1) The System name is arbitrary and should be something meaningful to the system operator.
2) The configuration server protocol options are NONE,& BOOTP, and
DHCP.& You use NONE if you want to use a fixed IP address.&
You use DHCP if you want the LAN router to pick an IP address for
you.& BOOTP I do not know much about.& It makes it a lot
easier to administer the AP if you have a fixed IP address that you can
easily refer to.
3) The SSID can be whatever you want for your particular installation.&
4) "Role in Radio Network" is a little tricky if you intend to use some
units as repeater access points.& Root Access Point
means the unit is going to have a wirelan connection and will operate
(more or less) as a conventional AP.& Repeater Access Point means
the unit is going to NOT have a wirelan connection and will operate as
a repeater for other Cisco APs configured as Root Access Points.&
Site Survey
Client means you can configure the AP for site survey use as a client
but it is pretty clumsy at that task.& The tricky part is that
EVEN IF you want to use a particular AP as a Repeater Access
Point,& you really want to configure it here as a Root Access
Point.& The reason is:& a) it allows you to program the same
AP functionality into all your APs and b) coming soon (below) is an
option that
you can set that will direct the Root Access Point to BECOME a Repeater
Access Point
whenever the wirelan is not present.& By this arrangement,&
any Root AP is interchangeable with any repeater AP without any
adjustments.& Also note:& You MUST (in ver 12.04) be
connected to a wire ethernet link or you will not be allowed to change
the ROLE from Repeater Access Point back to Root Access Point.
5) For the "Optimize Radio Network For" question,& I recommend as
follows:& Maximum desired Range less than 1 mile, use THROUGHPUT.& Range MORE
than one mile, use RANGE.& See information on range tests done
(near end of paper) for more details.
6)Leave the "Ensure Compatibility With" options unchecked.& If
you check these,& many of the neat AP342/352 features (such as
repeating and Optional Encryption) will disappear.& (I found this out the hard way.)
7) If you are using SNMP management features, insert your Administration Community ID here.
BRIDGES (as opposed to ACCESS POINTS) are a little bit different in
that BR342 and BR352 have a few more options.& See the figure (coming soon here.)
Another Setup Screen you need to consider is the Ethernet Hardware Setup Screen below:
Assuming you have multiple APs and/or some Repeater APs,& set the
"Loss of Backbone Connectivity Action" to &Switch to Repeater
This will cause the AP to operate as a standard Access Point
unless/until the AP loses the wirelan connection and then it will
switch to Repeater AP mode automatically and associate with a nearby AP
and continue serving local clients.& IF your main AP(s) cannot operate as
a repeater for a nearby client, you likely will want to select "shut
off the radio" option& in case the wirelan link fails.&
Otherwise,& the strong radio signal from the failed AP may
continue to link to local clients instead of dropping the RF link and
allowing local clients to roam to another AP.
Notes:1) For the best results where you have multiple ROOT
ACCESS POINTS,& DO NOT leave the Loss of Backbone Connectivity
Option set
to "No Action" on your Root Access Points.& If you do so, in case
of Root AP failure, &
repeaters associated with this Root AP will not roam to mesh with the
remaining "still alive" APs and repeater APs on your
network.&& You may select from CHANGE TO REPEATER MODE,&
SHUT OFF RADIO, or RESTRICT TO SSID.&&& NO ACTION will
work fine if you have but one Root Access Point or Bridge.
2) BRIDGES have the same Loss of Backbone Connectivity Options& as APs.& However, with Bridges, I suggest you DO NOT set the Loss
of Backbone Connectivity Option& to CHANGE TO REPEATER MODE.&
If you do set to this option, then your bridge& MAY find another
Root Bridge or Root Access Point to associate with if it loses
connectivity on the Wired LAN connection.& If it DOES associate
with another node and become a repeater node,& the ethernet port
becomes an OUTPUT from the bridge instead of an input TO the bridge and
you cannot regain control when you recover your ethernet connectivity
to the bridge without cycling power on the bridge unit.&&
This can lead to some VERY confusing symptoms when data from some
remote network starts appearing on your local hub or switch through the
Bridge's ethernet port.&&
Below is the "Radio Hardware" setup screen.& There are a few
adjustments you MAY want to make.& but you may be happy with the default settings as well.
will have already set the SSID when you arrive at this page if you do
the Express Setup.& You DO want the Broadcast SSID to associate
and likely you do not want to allow "just any old SSID" to associate
which will occur if you set "world mode" to YES.& Note the
"more..." link to the right of the SSID window above.& If you
want,& you can set up multiple SSIDs for each unit.& This can
be used where you want your OWN SSID transmitted (primary) but want the
unit to respond to one or more alternative SSIDs as well.& Note
that the SSIDs are case sensitive.& In my own area,& I set up
my primary SSID as &atlantafreenet.org-W2JO& for station ID and
&atlantafreenet.org& and &ATLANTAFREENET.ORG& as a second
and third SSID for compatibility with the AtlantaFreeNet.Org
conventions.& This way I can
tell my own hotspot system from the other AtlantaFreeNet.Org systems
but my hotspot system will still respond to the "standard" AFN SSIDs.
The transmit power is adjustable (max 30mw AP342/100mw AP352).&
This adjustment can be used to adjust power downward if you have an
external amplifier and would be overdriving it with the max power
setting.& Be careful about the calculations of drive power
required when using amplifiers.& If you put too much drive into an
amplifier,& not only will the overdrive create distortion on your
signal and& actually REDUCE your range capability,& it can
cause severe interference with other users of 802.11 equipment and get
you a visit from the FCC!
The Default Radio Channel setting is 6 and with Search for a
less-congested radio channel =yes.& I suggest you pick a fixed
channel setting for all your APs, turn off search for less-congested
channel and stick to it.& I tried allowing the system to "roam"
and some of the repeaters would "get lost" and stay on the "default"
channel where the Access Points were not available.& I saw no
significant thruput degradation from having two Root APs on the same
The RECEIVE and TRANSMIT antenna settings can be set individually for
LEFT, RIGHT or DIVERSITY.& If you are using the unit as a normal
AP with its built in antennas,& you will likely want to use
DIVERSITY for both.& If you are connecting the unit to an external
antenna or amplifier,& you will want to select LEFT or RIGHT&
depending on which port on the unit you choose to connect to your
antenna.& Remember that the access point receives and transmits using one antenna at a
time, so you cannot increase range by installing high-gain antennas on both
connectors and pointing one north and one south. When the access point used
the north-pointing antenna, it would ignore client devices to the south.
Wireless Encryption Setup
There is a really neat feature in the encryption capabilities of
the AP342/AP352 units.& Access Points can be configured to serve
both ENCRYPTED and NON-ENCRYPTED clients simultaneously.& This is
done with the "Encryption Optional" setting on the WEP setup page below.
1) You must put in the WEP key size and then the WEP key before the "Use of Data Encryption by Stations" options will appear.
2) The data encryption options are: a) No Encryption,& b)
Optional, and c) Full Encryption.& Optional means that a station
logging on with no encryption will be allowed and if a station logs on
with the correct key he too will be allowed to associate and the second
station's send/receive data will be encrypted using the selected WEP
3) Keys must be input as HEX DIGITS.& Key 1 is the transmit key and MUST be entered.& The others are optional.4)
The encryption functions above apply when the AP342/352s are
operating in any mode.& When the
units are in Repeater Access Mode, some special considerations apply.
&& If the Repeater AP is set for NO ENCRYPTION,& then
all the traffic it passes will be limited to UnEncrypted traffic.&
If it is set to Full Encrypted the repeater will only be able to pass
encrypted traffic so the associated Root AP must be set to either
Optional or Full Encryption for this repeater to operate.& This
confused me for awhile as I had been told that if the Root AP and
Repeater AP were set to encrypted,& then all "inter-AP traffic
(even unencrypted) was
encrypted between the AP and repeater.& This appears not to be
I am still figuring out the details about how all this mesh networking
gear works.& Helpful Hints,& Corrections,& Suggestions
and pure Criticism all accepted in the spirit of "getting it right"!
See Also our article on how to .
See Also the
And Also our "home base"
TightVNC Remote Control Compatibility tests with various Client and Server radio cards/units
VNC Client is in all cases connecting through one or more AP342s in these tests to a remote VNC Server.
VNC Client& can connect to these Client Units/Cards in systems running VNC Server as shown below. (yes or no)
VNC Client---------------------VNC Server-------------------------VNC Server----------------------------VNC Server
Senao (encrypted)
Senao(not enc) =yes
Linksys Wet11 (not enc)=no
WET11(enc)=yes
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Senao (NotEnc)
Senao(Not enc)=yes
Linksys Wet11(not enc)=yes
WET11(enc)=no
LucentGold(NotEnc)
Senao(Not enc)=yes
LinksysWet11 (enc)=no
WET11(NotEnc)=yes
WET11 (NotEnc)
Senao(Not enc)=yes
LinksysWet11(NotEnc)=yes
Wet11(enc)=no
WET11(enc)
Senao(Not enc)=yes
LinksysWet11(NotEnc)=yes
Wet11(enc)=yes
If the RECEIVING& (VNC Server) Senao card is set to
encrypted in the tests above,& the receiving Senao card "disappears"
from view on the WIRELESS LAN.& It cannot be pinged,& found by an IP
scanner nor by the VNC Client machine from any wireless station.& In
this situation,& the Senao card DOES have normal connectivity to the
internet, to mail servers, and etc.& This "stealthy" behavior was a surprise.
Anybody Care to explain the
table above?& I cannot explain why SOME devices (SENAO) as receivers
for the VNC servers will operate with the sender encoded or not,
whereas other combinations do not.& In any case,& it seems that the key
is that& CONSISTENT results are achieved when both ends of the VNC
connection have encryption ON or OFF. EXCEPT for the Senao card which
loses connectivity with all but the WIRED LAN when it is set to
encrypted and run through the Cisco AP342/352.&& My guess is that this
is the result of the specialized Cisco protocols used for relaying and
other purposes not being 100% compatible with standard 802.11b gear.
What you SEE in the MAC/IP address Displays of Cisco AP342/352/BR352s
is not always exactly what you expect.
The association display tables of
the Cisco APs does not always display ALL of the connected IPs and MAC
addresses alive on the network.& The main discrepancy appears to
be when an external wireless client bridge (such as the LinkSys WET11
or the Dlink 900AP+)& is used to provide an ethernet-to-radio
bridge for a client computer.& In such an arrangement,& there
are possibly THREE sets of MAC addresses and IP addresses to
consider.& These are:& a) The MAC address and IP address of
the LAN card (NIC) in the client computer,& b) the IP address
and& IP address of the ETHERNET side of the client bride device
and c) the IP and MAC addresses of the WIRELESS side of the client
bridge device.& With this array of addresses to choose from,&
here is a table showing what is actually displayed by various
devices/software on the Hotspot Network.& Note: In this example,
all client bridges (WET11s) and Cisco APs have fixed IP addresses and
all client NICs use DHCP.& DHCP scanning by the Mikrotik Hotspot's
DHCP server does NOT cover the range used by the fixed IP address
devices and this may be the cause of the fixed IP addresses not showing
up in the Cisco AP tables.& Though why they SOMETIMES show up in
the Cisco association table is still mysterious.
&&&&&&&&&&&
IP displayed
MAC displayed
IP/MAC when Mikrotik Auto MAC Login enabled
Client WinIPCfg
Bridge Utility SW
Cisco Association
NIC (sometimes WET11 also)
NIC(sometimes WET11 also)
Mikrotik HotSpot Active
NIC (but not if WET11 in circuit)
NIC(but not if WET11 in circuit.)
IP/MAC of autologin via MAC NIC clients now shown in MT version 2.7.19
Mikrotik Router DHCP server leased
Notes:&& 1) This table data is still being developed.& More details to follow.
&&& &&& &&& & 2) The
older WET11 hardware with& firmware version 1.54 appears to be
fully compatible with Cisco APs tested here.& However, the newer
WET11 hardware with firmware version 2.07 will not link to Cisco
AP342/AP352 units with multiple SSIDs enabled.& Ver 2.07 firmware
was supposed to fix this but it did not.& Other than this, the
WET11 continues to be a quality, inexpensive, and easy to use wireless
client/bridge unit.
& Experiments to Determine the Maximum Range Capability of the AP342/AP352
&&&&&&&&&&&
(Firmware in use is Cisco version 12.04)& Maximum Range confirmed
greater than 7.45 miles
Experimental Data gathered thus far as to the maximum range of the
AP342/AP352 is given below.& These experiments were run with
a two watt amplifier on each end of the circuit with a combined antenna
gain of 17db for the duration of the tests.& This was done so as
to insure to the extent possible that RF signal
level is not the determining factor if data rate slowdowns occur on the
link.&&& There are two
configurations to consider.& These are AP optimization set for
THRUPUT (TP) and AP optimization set for RANGE (RG).&&
Note:& The author is an Amateur Radio Operator and is&
licensed by the FCC& under FCC part 97 to operate at
higher power than that allowed for part 15 equipment for
experimentation on
the section of the Part 15 frequency range which overlaps with and is
shared with the Amateur Radio Service. & Unless you hold an
Radio License you would be operating illegally and outside the Part 15
rules to use power levels not provided by your FCC Part 15 approved
equipment.
Now to the Measurements
1)& Out to at least 1.5
miles,& the APs will work in TP mode but the speed is down to
2mbps at 1.5 miles with good signals.& Changing the setting to RG
mode gets the speed back up to
11mbps at 1.5 miles.& I am sure that there is actually a
compromise of the overall data transfer speed,& but it is nice to
bit rate return to 11mbps when the RG option is selected.& I am
not sure where the optimum crossover occurs,& but if you are over
about 0.75 mile between a base station and repeater or between
repeaters,& you should try the TP and RG options and see which one
works best for you based on sustained data thruput.
2) Out at 3.7 miles from the base
station (with considerable trees in the way on the mountaintop),&
signals were at 42% on the AP342's signal strength display.& On RG
option,& the bit rate was 11mbps and the system operated very well
indeed.& I changed the settings to the TP option and the speed
went to 1mbps and I was (just) barely able to pass enough data to the
base station's AP342 to change the option back to RANGE.& So.. I
think that something in the range of a mile or a bit less is the place
where you should change the AP's option from TP to RG.
3) Out at 7.45 miles from the base
station (in the car on local Sawnee Mountain, this time with drizzle
and "moderate" tree blockage in the direction of the base station)
signals were at 43% to 53% (varying) with the AP342 operating in
repeater AP mode& in the back seat of my car.& The signaling
rate shown in the car and in the AP342 in the base station stayed at 11
Mbps. & This was very encouraging.& I tried downloading files
and everything went along at the max ADSL rate of about 150Kbytes per
sec.& Performance looks good now out to at least 7.45 miles with
the AP342/AP352 equipment.& I also tested a Senao client card back
to the base station direct (without use of the AP342 repeater in the
car) and it performed perfectly as expected as well.& These tests
were run in the "optimize for RANGE" option both in the base AP and in
the repeater AP.& No special selection was made in the Senao
PCMCIA card setup.& Transmit power on both ends was set to 2 watts
for this test.& Combined antenna gain was about 17db.
4) More distance tests are coming.. Keep tuned.
Data Throughput Tests: Direct and Repeater Modes
Of interest to experimenters is the manner in which data
throughput is affected by range and the various operating modes of
Wireless Data Repeaters such as those of the Cisco AP352/AP342
line.& (Note:& The performance of OTHER brands and models of
wireless equipment will differ and no generalized conclusions should be
drawn from this limited data.)
The Setups Used:
&&& &at Sawnee Mountain&---------&at Silver City/Ham Tower&--------&inside House&------------------&inside house&
& A) Computer #1+amp----7.45 miles----Cisco AP342+amp----300ft----Cisco AP342 (no amp)----20ft----Computer #2
& B) Computer #1--5ft--Cisco AP342+amp--7.45miles--Cisco AP342+amp--300ft---Cisco AP342--20ft--Computer #2
Note that the A setup includes Computer #1& Senao PCMCIA card
coupled to a 2 watt amplifier communicating directly to the Cisco AP342
equipped with an amplifier and operating as an Access Point.& Then
the Access Point is communicating to a REPEATER Access Point located 300
feet away and then& the Repeater AP is communicating to Computer #2
located 20ft from the Repeater AP. & The Access Point unit is
located 7.45 miles from Computer #1.&&
Test Setup A is operation through TWO repeaters (Ham Tower unit
operates as repeater and so does the one inside the house) and Test
Setup B is operation through THREE repeaters (Sawnee Mtn,& Ham
Tower and Inside House).& In the B setup,& an additional
REPEATER Access Point is inserted in the link between Computer #1 and
the distant Access Point.& The rest of the physical link is not
To be able to communicate (at all) with the central Ham Tower
site,& it was necessary to select "optimize for RANGE" in the
express setup screen of the AP342 located at the tower.&
However,& the other two AP342s would operate fine with the
"optimize for" selection set to either THROUGHPUT or RANGE.& We
made tests with multiple combinations of settings to see what
differences were apparent.& In addition to the setup with the two
repeaters,& we tested setup B (above) which included a direct
connection on the 7.5 mile link to the Ham Tower Access Point.&
The data is as follows:
Data transferred consisted of a 2.188 megabyte file.& The same
file was transmitted multiple times at each setting as we noticed a lot
of random (and frequent) speed changes on the 7.45 mile link.&
Likely this was a result of our location on the mountain where we did
not have a clear and direct line of sight path but rather we were
looking across the brow of a knoll between the car and the distant Ham
Tower site.& I suspect the path had a good bit of multipath.&
We plan to install a fixed repeater site on this mountain site in the
future and we will run the same tests again to see if thing improve
when we have a better quality radio link.
The Data:& Note: TP=Throughput optimized AP setting,& RG=RANGE optimized AP setting
Note:& Setup (A) operates through TWO repeater APs and Setup (B) operates through THREE repeater APs.
Setup A)&& Senao/AP &&&&&&
Tower AP setting& Repeater Setting& Time(s) to Transmit
File&& Average Thruput
&&& Test 1)& Senao
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
AP=RG &&&&&&&&&&
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
89,& 56,& 90,& 58,& 86sec &&&&
288654bits per second
&&& Test 1)&& AP=RG
&&&&&&&& & & AP=RG
& && & &&&&& AP=TP &
& & & & & & && 80,&
118,& 94, 67, 72 & & & && & 253820
bits per second
& & Test 2) & AP=RG& &&
AP=RG&&&&&&&&&&&&&
AP=TP&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
65, 74, 82,
78&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
292709 bits per second
&&& Test 3)&&
AP=TP&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
AP=RG&&&&&&&&&&&&&
AP=TP&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
55, 68, 53, 100,
63&&&&&&&&&&&&&
322714 bits per second
The above data is NOT& as high as I had expected.& The following are my conclusions at present:
1) The Cisco AP342/AP352 do in fact OPERATE at ranges out to at least
7.45 miles but the data throughput rate is not all that good in the
"optimize for range" position.&& (It may improve when I am
able to get a better test position with less multipath.)
2) The throughput does not change greatly if just one AP or multiple
APs are placed in RANGE mode and put into operation as repeaters.
3) There HAS to be a better way to get high speed data transport using Wireless over a wide area using repeaters.
4) The throughput just using the Ham Tower unit as an AP and accessing
the internet with the AP in RANGE mode was close to full DSL
speed.& While I do not at present know what the "to be expected"
maximum throughput rate for the AP342 used "just as a wide area Access
Point" it appears to be much greater than the speed to be obtained when
the AP342/AP352s are used as REPEATERS in the link.
I will update this data from time to time as more tests are run.&
One test will be to setup a computer direct to the Ham Tower AP on the
ethernet side and measure the throughput rate of this "Access Point
Mode" to the remote mountain site.& I expect this throughput to be
considerably higher.& I also will try and locate a better test
site with less multipath..& But.. The wind and temperature on the
mountain keeps me mostly in the car!
-----------------------------
Here is a quotation from an engineer at Cisco about the AP342/AP352 (specifically)& used for longer range work.
'optimize for range' or 'optimize for throughput' setting changes the
data rates settings for both basic and data rates as well as 'slot
times'. What 'range' actually does is to allow a drop down in data rate
(if necessary all the way to 1Mbps) for both data packets as well as
overhead packets. For the ACK timing this will change the hold off
'slot times' to compensate for the longer time it takes for lower data
rate packets to get through.& This will permit the beacons and
other packets, required for maintaining association, to get through
easier on the long distance paths.
You got throughput out to 7.45 miles?& That's great.& But how
many clients were being used at any one time, and what type of traffic
load did you have on the AP at the time?& We have tested to over
5 miles,& but when we started loading up the AP with traffic, we
noticed packet retries (on the RF link) starting to rise rapidly.
So we have still classified the units as 1 mile capability, based on
11Mb and 25 users,& pushing 5Mb of traffic (aggregate) through the
AP. Keep in mind Cisco is targeting
the enterprise and carpeted office, as well as verticals such as
Healthcare, Education and retail for the majority of our products and
focus.& For public access we target hospitality (like hotels) and
hotspots (Starbucks, McDonalds, Airports) so we have not put any large
efforts into longer range public access applications.& Hence the
lack of features required for the longer ranges."
Operational Observations of a Cisco based network with a BR352 as the
central node and five AP342/352s operating as Repeater APs
1) LinkSys WET11 model 1 units appeared fully compatible with the Cisco
gear in all modes.& WET11 version 2 units are compatible with the
Cisco AP/BR 352/342 units BUT ONLY if you just use a single SSID.&
If you use multiple SSIDs in the Cisco gear,& WET11 model 2s (with
firmware 2.07 and lower) will not associate with the secondary
SSIDs.& (I am told that version 2.07 supposedly does associate
with the primary SSID.)
2) The option to "search for a less congested radio channel" is a nice
feature in the Wireless Setup.& I originally fixed my network on
channel 5.& Six months after installation,& I had
interference to my system on channel 5 that virtually made thruput from
the Central Bridge go near zero at times.& After identifying the
problem,& I set the Central Bridge to allow roaming to channels 3,
4, and 5 if necessary to find a better channel.& The system
immediately moved to channel 3.&& Within 10 seconds or
so,& all of the Repeater APs had automatically reassociated and
quickly thereafter all of the WET11s had reassociated and were
working.& Some client cards (Cisco,& and Orinoco)
automatically reassociated while others required exiting the browser
and other programs and/or rebooting the computer.& The system has
stayed on channel 3& and worked fine ever since.&
3) To read the signal strength from a particular "downstream" remote
client radio to
AP/BR or from a "downstream" Repeater AP to an "upstream AP/Bridge or
from one Repeater AP to the next
proceed as follows.& (Note: Upstream refers to devices closer to
the Root AP or Bridge device which is connected to the wirelan [usually
internet] interface.) & Go to the ASSOCIATION TABLE of the&
AP or Repeater AP that is the
PARENT for the particular radio in question.& Click on the MAC
address for the desired
client or other station which claims this AP/Repeater AP as "parent"
(SELF in the table).& Observe "Latest Signal Strength" in percent
in the entry in the right column.& This reads the signal strength
AT the "self" or "parent" of the distant repeater's signal.
4)& To read the signal strength of an "upstream" Root AP/Bridge or
Repeater at a "downstream" repeater,& proceed as follows.& Go
the the SETUP table of the downstream repeater.&& Look for
the NETWORK& PORTS line near the bottom of the table.& Look
to the right for the diagnostics
link and click on this link.& Click on the RADIO DIAGNOSTICS
LINK.& Then click on the START button of the Antenna Alignment
Test.& Wait about a minute and a table of moment-to-moment signal
strengths will be displayed.
5)& I have not been able to get the CARRIER TEST to work on AP342s
with firmware version 12.04.& When I try and run a carrier
test,& the unit is "locked up" for several hours or more and never
comes back to life or delivers the channel usage chart.& I will
try this on a AP352 and BR352 when I get to it.
6) APs have the ability to show traffic to/from the AP in either Bytes
or Packets or both in the association table. (Click on "additional
display filters" and set options.)& Bridges can only show traffic
in Packets.& I don't know if this is a bug in ver 12.04 firmware
or a limitation of the Bridge perhaps running out of memory or CPU
Table of Cisco AP352/AP342/BR352 signal strength readings in Percent converted to dbm
Does anyone know how the significance of the "signal quality" percentage?& If so, please email
materials in this paper copyrighted
by Joe Mehaffey,& all
rights reserved.& Cisco trademarks belong to Cisco Systems.,}