Don't you need a central controller for seamless roaming?
How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
201–210 of 252 posts
Re: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
>And let's not speak of the chronically overheating stuff. Some-time wireless installer here, I bring a snippet of anecdata. A recent client had the full Unifi experience for an outdoor network, including 3x EdgeSwitch XP (formerly known as ToughSwitch) in a single IP65-rated, largely airtight enclosure. The network would go offline on summer afternoons. It was overheating, those models run hot and are not recommende…
> The temperature peaked at 143 Celsius Most electronic devices say operate between x and y degrees and if in full sunlight the temp may have exceeded y, which in a device that generates heat itself led to runaway overheating? Either way plastic could melt at that temp and you'd definitely burn your hands touching it. Pretty crazy.
The housing of the switch is metal with rubberised feet and bumpers. Thankfully I wasn't handling it when it was offline (and hottest), but the rubber was completely destroyed after the fact
I assume the soldered innards failed, though I never did open it up to check properly.
Re: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#203> Multiple access points should share the same SSID. They must have exactly the same security settings (same password, exact same mode, i.e. WPA2-PSK Personal) for clients to be able to automatically roam between APs.
I will also add to this, consider having all the APs on the same channel. My experience is that some OSs (I'm looking at you, Windows) don't roam properly if the following three things are not the same:
1. SSID
2. Authentication/Encryption
3. Channel
It does sound like the author has deployed consumer access points. For a proper office scenario centrally managed is the way to go. Finally, never use WPA2-PSK Personal in a work environment. Use proper back-end authentication such as Radius or MAC filtering, or a 'Register me via a captive portal' system with a central LDAP type user directory.
Re: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#204Shame that security wasn't really addressed, other than the brief mention of WPA2-PSK. I feel like PSK in general is a horrible idea in an office environment. Lots of people + lots of devices ≈ shitty password which never gets changed. But then I still haven't had any luck setting up a WPA2 Enterprise config that works on all devices.
wondered too how they didn't even mention WPA2 Enterprise
I thought that was the defacto-standard in office environments. It certainly is for EDU
Re: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#205> Use fast DNS servers I use GRC's DNS Benchmark tool[1] for this whenever I set up DHCP somewhere, and the results are sometimes surprising. If you're on a *nix or macOS, it runs well under Wine. [1] https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm
Yes, I just used dig's reported timings: dig triplebyte.com @1.1.1.1 | grep 'Query time' ;; Query time: 2 msec dig triplebyte.com @8.8.8.8 | grep 'Query time' ;; Query time: 21 msec but could imagine doing a more thorough benchmark like the one you linked if my results weren't so dramatically different!
wow didn't think it was this much of a deal but can confirm
dig triplebyte.com @1.1.1.1 | grep 'Query time'
;; Query time: 5 msec
dig triplebyte.com @8.8.8.8 | grep 'Query time'
;; Query time: 35 msecRe: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#206>Assign static IPs for infrastructure like access points. This makes them easy to reach when reconfiguration is needed Am I missing something, or did they buy consumer routers to use as access points? Triplebyte, I can save you a ton of management, troubleshooting, and learning time: switch to Ubiquiti Unifi or an equivelant now, youll have one pane of glass to reconfigure every device. The devices will talk to each…
I wish OpenWRT came with easy-to-configure out of the box fast roaming and a centralized configuration solution. It’s otherwise excellent, and my home network based on OpenWRT works quite well.
Just DDGing now, I found this 2 year old thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/515oea/finally_got...
Is this still valid? If so, it seems quite doable if your already comfy SSHing into your router.
Re: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#207> Multiple access points should share the same SSID. They must have exactly the same security settings (same password, exact same mode, i.e. WPA2-PSK Personal) for clients to be able to automatically roam between APs. I will also add to this, consider having all the APs on the same channel. My experience is that some OSs (I'm looking at you, Windows) don't roam properly if the following three things are not the same:…
I had to change my SSID's on my 5Ghz and 2.8Ghz WiFi because Macs used to confuse themselves and constantly disconnect.
Using the same name for both didn't work
Re: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#208>Assign static IPs for infrastructure like access points. This makes them easy to reach when reconfiguration is needed Am I missing something, or did they buy consumer routers to use as access points? Triplebyte, I can save you a ton of management, troubleshooting, and learning time: switch to Ubiquiti Unifi or an equivelant now, youll have one pane of glass to reconfigure every device. The devices will talk to each…
For the cost, I'd agree that Ubnt gear is quite good. I use it at home, and rarely have any problems. That said, I'd like to provide one caveat: In my experience, they tend to not do great in very noisy RF environments. Twice now I've deployed Unifi APs in offices with RF spectra similar to what the OP has going on, and we had nothing but problems. In each case, we ripped out the Ubnt gear, replaced with equivalent R…
We went also from Unifi APs indoor gear to Ruckus gear. The difference is like night and day. I don't understand why, but we never had luck with the Unifis or Ubnt indoor. The Ruckus units we deployed just work brilliantly from the beginning.
Re: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#209> Multiple access points should share the same SSID. They must have exactly the same security settings (same password, exact same mode, i.e. WPA2-PSK Personal) for clients to be able to automatically roam between APs. I will also add to this, consider having all the APs on the same channel. My experience is that some OSs (I'm looking at you, Windows) don't roam properly if the following three things are not the same:…
I had to change my SSID's on my 5Ghz and 2.8Ghz WiFi because Macs used to confuse themselves and constantly disconnect. Using the same name for both didn't work
Your problem is using the same SSID for both frequencies. Have a single SSID for all your 5Ghz APs and another for the 2.4Ghz ones.
Re: How we solved our office Wi-Fi problems
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same as this , except with one change. For the router, use the (cheaper and more powerful) Mikrotik Routerboards. We don't use a Poe switch - we just use cheap Poe adapters and connect directly to the routerboard. For those who have never touched a Ubiquiti, configuring it could be a little iffy . I normally advise setting up DHCP 43 advertisement on the router before trying to setup the access points. But seriously,…
I'm currently using Mikrotik happily for AP and router needs, but considering switching to a Ubnt setup for ease of management that does not depend on Windows/Wine and without having to write my own configuration management tooling. As central management is somewhat lacking. What are your considerations for not choosing Ubnt for routing?
I'm not the OP but I moved from UBNT to Mikrotik for two reasons:
- When it comes to SFP, UBNT's wired gear is unreliable. See https://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeRouter/EdgeRouter-X-SFP-le... for an example.
- My only experience with UBNT's support was exceptionally poor. When I ran into the above issue, I was using a third party SFP module and support stonewalled me, saying I had to buy one of their modules. They wouldn't loan me one or guarantee a refund if the module didn't resolve the issue. Unsurprisingly, buying their module didn't help at all (though they finally let me RMA the equipment).
Mikrotik's gear has been solid for me. Zero problems whatsoever.