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We have currently have approximately 180 Cisco access points in a manufacturing environment. We recently converted from an autonomous environment to a Cisco controller based system. The LWAPPs are either converted Cisco 1231's or Cisco 1242's. We either converted the 1231 in place or installed a 1242 in the exact same location with the same antenna, so from a physical location standpoint, nothing has changed.

We have approx 200 Symbol PDAs (not sure of the model #, but they are older). As we rolled out the LWAPPs we noticed the PDA's started having issues. Once we completed the rollout the PDA's were almost unusable. We solved most of the issues by disabling Auto-RF and setting the LWAPPs to the speed/channel that the old autonomous APs were set to. We still have some problem areas where PDAs consistently have connection issues.

Here's what we know so far. We can replace the PDA with a new model and that solves the problem. That is the long term fix, but unfortunately, that will not happen overnight as they are expensive. In the meantime, we seem to be able to temporarily fix the issues by installing an LWAPP very close to a problem area (5-6 feet) and setting the power very low. That seems to allow the problem PDAs to attach and work.

I can take an AirMagnet to a problem area and I have excellent coverage. What we suspect is happening is the PDAs see a similiar signal from multiple LWAPPs and they tend to hop around. I think this is causing the application to hangup. Installing an LWAPP right beside the problem area makes it's signal the strongest, and the PDAs tend to stay locked on it.

We've engaged Cisco TAC and we've brought in outside help, but we cannot pinpoint why we are experiencing this problem now (with the LWAPPs) when we had no problems with PDAs and the autonomous system. No one has been able to tell us what is different about the LWAPPs. Working with Cisco, we are pretty confident we have the LWAPPs configured as identical to the autonomous system as possible. Anyone seen anything like this and do you have any suggestions as to what we can do to fix it?

Thanks,

Marc

The issue is with the radios which Symbol (now Motorola) use on all of their handheld devices. They use their own proprietary radios, which are non Cisco and not CCX. If you try to run them on Cisco WLAN Access Points they will work but very badly and you will often get signal dropouts. We had a mix of Symbol PPT-8840 and MC-3090 terminals. The dropout problems became unworkable so we replaced them all (Symbol provided no support in this matter) with Datalogic Falcon pistol grip and Datalogic Pegaso rugged PDA terminals. These are fully CCX approved and certified. This solved all of our probelms. We get better RF coverage range too. Also we can implement WPA2 authentication/encryption which is a requirement of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard here in the UK. Datalogic Mobile were fantastic to deal with and extremely helpful throughout (www.mobile.datalogic.com/uk)

yokeping_chin@hotmail.com Escribi?3:

The issue is with the radios which Symbol (now Motorola) use on all of their handheld devices. They use their own proprietary radios, which are non Cisco and not CCX. If you try to run them on Cisco WLAN Access Points they will work but very badly and you will often get signal dropouts. We had a mix of Symbol PPT-8840 and MC-3090 terminals. The dropout problems became unworkable so we replaced them all (Symbol provided no support in this matter) with Datalogic Falcon pistol grip and Datalogic Pegaso rugged PDA terminals. These are fully CCX approved and certified. This solved all of our probelms. We get better RF coverage range too. Also we can implement WPA2 authentication/encryption which is a requirement of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard here in the UK. Datalogic Mobile were fantastic to deal with and extremely helpful throughout (www.mobile.datalogic.com/uk)

Wow, i can't believe symbol wasn't willing to help (not really). My guess is they told you if you have Symbol AP's this problem wouldn't happen X-D (that is what they tried to tell us when we had problems with a different problem all together)

To be honest, that worries me to hear that LWAPP & Symbol 3090's & PDT8146 have issues. We have only been piloting in the lab but we are rolling to 50 of our stores 1st quarter w/ LWAPP & i am not looking forward to issues. We have almost 10,000 Handhelds, we can't replace them w/ a different type, that is not an option for us. Sounds like next year is not going to be too fun for me!