Busy weeks!

  So, it's been a few weeks since I've had a chance to post anything and there's been quite a bit going on! Firstly, I spent a few days in Atlanta coming up to speed on the Mobile Access VE Solution for low-cost indoor cell repeating utilizing your existing CAT5,6,7 cabling. I can't wait to get dug into an install - quite a different mindset from wifi to cellular.
http://www.mobileaccess.com/products-services/p/category/mobileaccessve

  After that, spent a few days in San Jose for the Cisco Partner VT meetings and learned about all sorts of up coming new stuff from Cisco that can't be talked about yet - infact, that's probably the biggest reason that I've been somewhat quiet recently - being wrapped up in NDA style information makes it hard to be social. :)
Contribution to the https://www.myciscocommunity.com/ page netted me a Cisco Cius when they're available. Thanks to Vic Nunes for making that happen!

  Upcoming in March (17th and 18th) is the Wireless Tech Field day in San Jose that I'm quite excited to be a part of! The fine folks over at Gestalt IT that put on the 'regular' Tech Field day have teamed up to host one specifically focused on wireless technologies. I was selected as a delegate and look very forward to my first Field Day. I think the list of presenters is being firmed up but I'm glad to hear about the ones that are lined up! Details on the event are at:
http://gestaltit.com/field-day/2011-wireless/

Looking forward to meeting Stephen Foskett and hanging with wireless powerhouses like @jenniferlucille and @MarcusBurton among all of the other delegates that have confirmed.

3502 surveying

So, rumor has it, if you put your 3502 in H-REAP mode, and statically assign your IP address and your default-gateway as your static host IP address, you can survey. Need to try this when I get back to civilization in January. I expect this will require some sort of loopback slug and a POE pass-through. Gonna have to bust out the crimpers! :)

New H-REAP 'feature' in WLC 7.0 code

This just in from:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/controller/7.0/configuration/guide/c70hreap.html

When a Hybrid REAP access point enters into a standalone mode, the following occurs:

•The access point checks whether it is able to reach the default gateway via ARP. If so, it will continue to try and reach the controller.

If the access point fails to establish the ARP, the following will occur.

•The access point attempts to discover for five times and if it still cannot find the controller, it tries to renew the DHCP on the ethernet interface to get a new DHCP IP.

•The access point will retry for five times, and if that fails, the access point will renew the IP address of the interface again, this will happen for three attempts.

•If the three attemps fail, the access point will fall back to the static IP and will reboot (only if the access point is configured with a static IP).

•Reboot is done to remove the possibility of any unknown error the access point configuration.

Once the access point reestablishes a connection with the controller, it disassociates all clients, applies new configuration information from the controller, and reallows client connectivity.

This means no more site surveys with lightweight Access Points running in H-REAP mode since there is no pingable default gateway. AC UPS to power a POE switch? Too bulky and hard to travel with in my book! Looks like we'll be reverting to a 'best guess' survey till some Autonomous code surfaces…

Cisco WLC Config Analyzer version 2.2.3

Is available at:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-1373

If you use more than one WLC, you need this. Great way to sync configurations, check for common errors, etc. Now displays Persistent Devices from CleanAir Access Points!

Cisco launches a low cost 802.11n Access Point

Details on the 1040 can be found at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11203/index.html

Note the following caveats:

Slower CPU so less overall PPS compared to the 1140

2x2 MIMO

No client link

No media stream

Runs on standard POE and available in controller based or standalone. Should be a great alternative for those of you suffering from Aruba-itis. :)

Cisco announces 4 WLC Vulnerabilities

Including:

IKE DoS Vulnerability

HTTP DoS Vulnerability

Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilities

ACL Bypass Vulnerabilities

Details can be found at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_security_advisory09186a0080b466e9.shtml

Of interesting note is the recommendation that all non-FIPS 5.x customers migrate to 6.0. Something we all knew anyways, but this is certainly compelling enough reason to get moved sooner rather than later. For most of us, 4.2.209.0 and 6.0.199.0 (.4) are the target code versions.

 -Sam

Cisco Rogue Management in a Unified Wireless Network

Great explanation of Rogue Management – especially interesting with the differences in controller models and and Local Mode vs Monitor Mode.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/ps6366/products_tech_note09186a0080b40901.shtml