over-zealous wireless optimization (802.1h)
Sun, Sep 10, 2006I’ve just returned from a buisness trip to fix a problem we were experiencing at an install site. At work we use a lot of wireless devices to relay/analyse medical telemetry, and the site we were at was having trouble getting the devices on the network. Our internal testing using Cisco/Netgear and Linksys access points was successful every time, we couldn’t seem to replicate the problem in our lab. We finally went onsite and diffed the config file for their access point versus our working cisco ap. A few lines stuck out, one more than the others:
From cisco:payload-encapsulation dot1h
I’ve bolded the key phrase there. 802.1H isn’t a new standard but apparently some manufacturers still don’t support it, this is something to keep in mind if your stuck troubleshooting a network where some devices will properly associate and others just sit.
- dot1h (802.1H)—This method provides optimum performance for Cisco Aironet wireless products.
- RFC1042—Use this setting to ensure interoperability with non-Cisco Aironet wireless equipment. RFC1042 does not provide the interoperability advantages of 802.1H but is used by other manufacturers of wireless equipment. This is the default setting.