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I'm rolling out Cisco 1242 APs throughout company campuses. After an install, I need to verify that I can associate with each AP and access company apps. I have to do this using the Odyssey client that the company uses on all laptops. Problem is that the APs are a bit sticky - when I disconnect from one and move near another and recconnect it still asscoiates with the AP I was just associated with. Does anyone know of a way to force the association to a particular AP when multiple APs are available using the Odyssey client?

Thanks,

Doug

What is the typical AP transmit power in your environment?

Drop your client card's transmit power down to 1mW.

Good idea, but the clients power is being set by the AP (to match the AP). I guess I could change the client local power setting on all the APs before testing, but I'd like to test them in thier production configuration. All the APs are set to 25mW.

Use Cisco ACU to specify AP by MAC, and then confirm connectivity to the Odyssey back-end server. Although using ACU by itself and confirming WLAN/LAN connectivity should be enough to confirm operability, provided that you feel comfortable with continuity of config throughout WLAN/LAN.
ACU version 6.3.*

dschaef8,

I didn't want to assume that you're using a Cisco client card... what clients are you using?

If you are using the Cisco client card, setting individual AP MAC can be time consuming, especially if you have a large number of them to validate. The Cisco ADU enables you to set your test-client's power manually, which I believe overrides CCX settings.

Thanks, no I'm not using a Cisco card. There's no standard in the company and I use an IBM thinkpad with whatever card it shipped with (not sure of the card right now). I'm going to try setting the card to a lowwer power level and see how that goes. If you have any other ideas I'm all ears. Each install is about 20-25 APs so its not a terrible amount to have to finagle with.

Thanks

dschaef8

can you change the roaming aggressiveness in the wireless card properties?
Or did you say you did that?
That works the best for me (in changing roaming behavior).

From intel card:
This setting allows you to define how aggressively your wireless client roams to improve connection to an access point.
Default: Balanced setting between not roaming and performance.
Lowest: Your wireless client will not roam. Only significant link quality degradation causes it to roam to another access point.

Rod
http://www.networksetup.com
http://www.op911.net

I have not tried adjusting roaming aggressiveness. That sounds like it might work well along with dropping the card tx power out. I assume you adjust it to the highest level so the card roams more.

Thanks!