Re: Wireless problem with WPA

If you are getting the client PCs to function properly at any time, I still
can't see configuration as the issue.

There's a lot more than other 802.11 devices that can interfere with
wireless. I've got a conference room that's within 20 feet of the access
point. I get an excellent signal in there, but if my boss walks in with his
2.4 ghz cordless phone, it drops like somebody pulled the power on the
access point - the laptop won't even see wireless at all until he leaves the
room. There are public and private access points in the same closet, and it
won't see either one when it's getting interference from that phone.

Technically, there's WPA with TKIP encryption, and WPA2 with AES. A large
amount of wireless hardware allows WPA with AES. However, I had a problem
where WPA with AES would not work with certain devices. Still, it didn't
work intermittently - with WPA/AES, it never worked. With no real hope that
it'll make a difference, you could try switching to either WPA/TKIP or
WPA2/AES. (Since all your devices seem to support WPA with AES, they should
all support WPA with TKIP, but they might not all support WPA2).

You mean you are setting a static IP for the access point, not the wireless
clients, right? What happens if you stop using reservations, and just let
the DHCP server give the client PC whatever IP it wants? I don't really
think this will matter - I think the wireless client is just losing its
connection to the access point, and therefore losing its IP. Were you using
the same DHCP configuration when you had WEP?


"DHorn" <DHorn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6EAAE96D-90FB-4BD8-824A-8DF32D194DC1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks for the reply.

I've already switched channels till I'm blue in the face. They are
currently
on 1,6,11 all using the same SSID and WPA/AES. We do have an upstairs
neighbor broadcasting 802.11G but I checked with them and they are using
channel 8.

The hyperlink is great! I read the Microsoft TechNet page that outlines
the
same steps but without the graphics and play by play. Thanks again! If I
decide to go down the Radius server route this will be helpful. I don't
really think we need a Radius server, this can't be that hard. I did
install
IAS thinking that may be the problem (however unlikely) but really didn't
want to setup radius or certificates, honestly we are small and WPA/AES is
ample security. I just don't want to leave the front door open with a hack
me
sign on it as WEP does.

We never had this problem with WEP (for 2 ½ years) on the same server,
multiple AP's pretty much the same everything other than the new AP's
(which
I've also tried two different types first buffalo and now 3Com).

I've setup dozens of wireless networks although this is the first I've
done
with both multiple AP's and WPA\AES. Still, I just can't believe this
isn't
as simple as hanging the AP's about 50 feet apart for coverage, update the
firmware, set a static IP, Reserve the same IP's in DHCP and then set the
SSID, channel and encryption.

Well thanks again, if you can think of anything else please advise.


"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" wrote:

My first thought is interference. If the connection ever works properly,
you don't have a configuration problem. This sounds more like
interference
from something electronic - look at cordless phones first if you have
them.
At the time you lose the connection, if you hover over the wireless icon
in
the system tray, what does it say about signal strength?

The first thing I'd do is to make sure all your access points use the
same
SSID but different channels. Depending on how many you have, use 1, 6,
and
11. If you seem to be getting good performance out of one or two but not
another, you could try a different channel on that one.

You could also try updating drivers and firmware on everything, but
again,
if it works sometimes, you're probably going to get limited or no
improvement from that.

The ultimate way to configure the wireless is in this article. However,
if
you're having interference or something like that, this won't help. It's
still a good configuration to be aiming for, as it gives you "wired
equivalent" wireless connections, including that login scripts run, WSUS
will run without a user logged in, etc. (And thanks to Owen Williams,
the
author of this doc, for teaching me everything I know about this topic).

Configuring Secure Wireless Network Access with Microsoft® Windows® Small
Business Server 2003
http://home.comcast.net/~clearviewtc/


"DHorn" <DHorn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:821EB308-1D3B-4360-B230-08F4E3C3BFE3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am having a ton of problems on our network since deploying a new
wireless
network in our office.

Some background,
Small Business Server 2003 premium running service pack 2 and ISA 2004.

We successfully ran a wireless network for several years using WEP
encryption. With the limitations of WEP, I wanted to add the additional
security of WPA encryption.

I purchased a new set of Buffalo access points (two of them) and
configured
our users with WPA encryption. Everyone connected but I immediately
noticed
problems where users would drop from the wireless network. Correcting
this
was fairly simple as at the command line you could run a release and
renew
(curiously repairing the connection didn't work). I chalked this up to
cheap
home user equipment and so purchased three 3com AP7760 access points to
supply connectivity for our office. I immediately simular issues. I
can
connect all of our users to the wireless network using WPA encryption.
For
the most part, they stay connected and remain connected even when
roaming
through the office and reassociate with the closest access point.
However,
sometimes they will lose their connection. If you try to repair the
connection it won't work. If you try to run a release and renew at the
command prompt it gives you a message indicating

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Sometimes the connection just happens again a couple of hours later
with
no
prompting. Other times nothing we can do will allow us to create the
connection to the wireless network. We can try it again the next day
and
all
of a sudden it works again.

I'm not really seeing anything in the event logs for the local PC or at
the
server.

This smells like a DHCP issue to me or perhaps a firewall problem. I
never
had any of these types of problems when we were using WEP encryption
and
I'm
hesitant to go back.

Any help would be most appreciated.





.

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