Cisco 1832 - Testing

Dieselboy · February 25, 2016, 09:18:18 AM

So I done the training today and they gave me a new 1832I

Basically each AP comes with an onboard "express" WLC. A single AP boots up and then boots up it's WLC and joins it. Then you manage the AP from the extremely basic WLC.
I would like to know if a different URL gives you access to a more functional WLC. The CLI is a WLC and gives you access to loads of commands. I've tried a handful but my WLC CLI game is not strong.

One of the questions I asked in the presentation was if the AP was a bit like an 880 series router with the AP module. Answer was no. But looking through the show run-config you can see that the WLC module has a separate AP associated. So I managed to google the CLI command to set the LAP username / password. Then I SSH straight to the AP and logged in.

I've probably only had an hour to play with it so far.
One thing to note is that on the console before the WLC boots up and on the AP that I SSH'd to, the CLI is linux not IOS.

The AP weighs about double that of a 1602. It actually looks like an outdoor paving slab but not as big. I don't have scales but guess it weighs about just over a kg just for the AP alone.

I currently have it powered off my old 3560-8pc POE switch and so the LAN port is only at 100M. So all I can get is 802.11abgn from what I can see.

I may take it apart tomorrow, looks like only 4 Phillips screws hold the top on.
I have POE+ at work so I may power it up there and see what else I can do with it.

I have fibre internet to my home so eventually I want to set up a guest type network with captive portal and re-sell my internet to other apartments.
Was good fun

Dieselboy · March 01, 2016, 09:05:09 PM

So I've not really played much with the Autonomous code the AP has come with, but I now have Lightweight code and I'm in the process of transferring it over.

Current code is 8.2.100.0 which is the latest and I believe I've already found a few code bugs, which has caused me difficulty in getting the Lightweight image onto the effing thing

First issue is that the AP would not download the code. I used the web gui which gives you these options in the screenshot "code1"

So after setting those options, my TFTP server stated "could not open requested file". As you can see, it's just an image in the root of the TFTP directory so as I don't like TFTP anyway, I went to the CLI and set the FTP variables.
These didn't work whatsoever. The mini WLC inside the AP, which is what you SSH to did accept all of the WLC commands to set the FTP, username / password etc but none of them showed up when I issued "transfer download start".
At this point, I couldn't get the AP to attempt any more downloads and so I needed to do a factory reset.

Once I was back where I started I loaded up wireshark and went to the web gui again and set the variables like in the screen shot. Wireshark showed that TFTP was attempting this path: "/ap1g4-k9w8-tar.153-3.JC.tar/ap1g4"

God knows why, but I havent read the documentation yet so this could be my fault.

So I created the file structure as above and now the file is being downloaded from the TFTP server.

SimonV · March 02, 2016, 02:14:59 AM

So first impression is not that good? They are quite expensive still... Otherwise I would consider these for an SMB I'm working on but it's probably too expensive still.

Dieselboy · March 02, 2016, 10:00:23 PM

I've just got the AP associated to my 2504 this morning. I had to upgrade our WLC software to 8.1, and with the WLC controlling AP's here and in Sri Lanka I couldn't do this yesterday. I'm just a bit weary as I've seen instability on later WLC code although quite some time ago. Hopefully that is not the case now.

First impressions are difficult. I would say I am very pleased with this AP, but I'm finding that it's rare not to find some niggly teething problems especially being so new. There's only three autonomous code images out for this AP at the moment. I will be putting the AP back to autonomous and setting it up in my home lab to do some more testing. I'm testing it here with our 2504 WLC as I have one free AP license on the 2504 which will be taken up by another AP in Sri Lanka when it is shipped there soon.

One of the selling points of the 1800 series is that you can be up and running with working wifi networks in a few minutes (they state 2 minutes, not including AP boot up time which is about 10 minutes, but just enough time to make a hot drink). In previous AP's the web gui was absolutely shocking. It was slow to respond and didn't contain much functionality. The 1800 series improves this a lot. Although remember it's an "Express" AP. Remember the previous "Express" stuff? Restricted to the web gui and can not really do much from the CLI or cannot access the CLI normally. This doesn't seem to be the case with the 1800 - the web gui is preferred but if you want to SSH then you can.

In the training, the guy did say that the CLI parser might accept the commands, but may not actually do anything with them. So this may be the reason why FTP code transfer does not work. Remember that In autonomous mode though, you're really managing the AP or AP's from the onboard WLC inside the AP which will manage up to 25 APs. So upgrading code wouldn't be that much of a task as you would do the WLC AP and then predownload the new code to the others before rebooting.

So now the 1832 is in lightweight mode and it has joined the controller. Initially it came up in the default AP group which has all SSIDs attached. Some users roamed to the AP before I had a chance to get in and disable the radios. Initially the AP came up in flexconnect mode. When this happened, I just assumed that was what it was capable of by default and I went and configured the switch port to suite the flexconnect and VLANs for the SSIDs. However since then, the AP is now in local CAPWAP / local mode and there doesn't seem to be an option to change it back to flexconnect that I can see. Underneath the AP config where it says "AP mode" the options are "local" and "sniffer". The datasheet says it does support flexconnect though so I'm unsure why this is.

There is minimal config done on the WLC to support this AP, apart from the WLC code upgrade earlier. Once the AP joined the controller, I added it to the correct AP group for this office.
I have DCA and TPC enabled already and the AP automatically has 80MHz channel selected for the 5GHz band. 802.11ac is 5G only.
TPC adjusted the 2.4GHz power down of this AP as well as the other ap at the end of the hall which is using the same channel. This is the 4th AP added to the area, hence we must use a channel already in use on the 2.4 band.

Associating to the AP from my Samsung Galaxy S5, my phone reports connection speed of over 800MB with 2 spatial streams as that is what my Samsung is capable of.

Now I've updated our WLC I am getting the same dashboard as the autonomous 1832 AP (screenshots attached). There's a best practice tab on both set ups which shows you if you've missed anything or not running their recommended set up.

I checked Ingram Micro and they are listing these APs for around the same price as the 1602i lightweight AP. If we needed to buy more APs I would like to buy the 1832 instead, but it does not support cleanair express like the 1602 does. I believe the 1852 version supports the cleanair but I was not able to find this information on cisco's site yet. The 1852 is a beefier AP compared to the 1832. Both AP's support MIMO but the 1832 supports 3x3 like the 1602, but the 1852 supports 4x4. Bear in mind that the 1832 has one Gigabit LAN port and the 1852 has two Gigabit LAN ports as you can easily exceed the 1Gb. LAG would be used on the 1852 and this is another consideration as you would need 2 network ports per AP. The 1800 series supports beamforming - I'm yet to test this.

1830 Links
1830 product page: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/aironet-1830-series-access-points/index.html
1830 datasheet: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-1830-series-access-points/datasheet-c78-735582.pdf

1850 Links
1850 product page: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/aironet-1850-series-access-points/index.html
1850 datasheet: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-1850-series-access-points/datasheet-c78-734256.pdf

Dieselboy · March 03, 2016, 12:56:50 AM

So after my last update I went and done other work. I came back to check on this set up and noticed that the 1832 is only using one 5GHz channel. It is now locked at 20MHz channel width. It seems that the WLC has pushed or the 1832 has pulled the global DCA config from the WLC which is at the moment 20MHz. I don't know why this has happened by itself but it is now as expected, although nothing was done to enforce this ie no changes made since earlier.

Dieselboy · March 03, 2016, 08:25:12 PM

Late last night I rebooted our WLC and set a RF Profile policy on the 802.11a which set the RRM options, DCA channel width to "Best". Now all channels are separate and the 1832 is using 4 channels (80MHz) and my older 1602 APs are using 2 channels - 40 MHz. Looking good at the moment.

rush33 · July 04, 2016, 11:32:00 AM

Can anyone please share Lightweight Software for Air 1832i: ap1g4-k9w8-tar.153-3.JC2.tar Need to convert it to LWAPP.
https://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=286288035&flowid=76322&softwareid=286288051&release=15.3.3-JC2&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=ED&reltype=latest

Thanks!

wintermute000 · July 04, 2016, 04:12:09 PM

Sorry, get a support contract

deanwebb · July 04, 2016, 04:27:45 PM

Quote from: rush33 on July 04, 2016, 11:32:00 AM
Can anyone please share Lightweight Software for Air 1832i: ap1g4-k9w8-tar.153-3.JC2.tar Need to convert it to LWAPP.
https://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=286288035&flowid=76322&softwareid=286288051&release=15.3.3-JC2&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=ED&reltype=latest

Thanks!

We do not trade code images here. As Wintermute said, you will need a proper support contract to get that software.

Dieselboy · July 05, 2016, 03:37:09 AM

Rush - if you received an AP like me (for testing / to present to your customers) then liaise with your Cisco account manager or your reseller who will obtain the firmware for you, legally.

finbarr · September 29, 2016, 10:25:05 AM

I just set up one of these access points, but I noticed that when I associated to the AP from my iPhone 7, it connects over 802.11n at 2.4Ghz, when right beside the AP.

The SSID is set to use 2.4 & 5Gz, so I am wondering why the iPhone is not connecting over 5Ghz AC?

deanwebb · September 29, 2016, 10:26:48 AM

That may be due to the algorithm for frequency / method selection in the iPhone.

SimonV · September 29, 2016, 10:29:51 AM

How are you liking them so far, Dieselboy? Are they worth considering for micro-sites with one or two access points?

finbarr · September 29, 2016, 10:30:14 AM

Good point. Just wonder if anyone else is seeing similar? I will test on some other devices when I get a chance also.

finbarr · September 29, 2016, 10:42:00 AM

Quote from: Dieselboy on February 25, 2016, 09:18:18 AM

I currently have it powered off my old 3560-8pc POE switch and so the LAN port is only at 100M. So all I can get is 802.11abgn from what I can see.

Dieselboy, I have mine powered from a similar switch so maybe that is why 802.11AC is not working. Perhaps if there is insufficient power, it only goes as far as N? Would I be right in that assumption?