Trapeze 1

[jdeisenm]

Any trapeze experts out there? I just inherited a system with 5 MX's spread over 2 sites. ~30 MP's and a dozen or so DAP's.

 

[JeroeNortel]

I wouldn't call myself expert but i'm pretty familiar with the trapeze wlan equipment.
Let us know your question(s) for further assistence.

 

[jdeisenm]

what mx version are you running? have you upgraded recently? any problems with upgrades? do you have multiple sites? do you have each site in it's own mobility domain?

 

[JeroeNortel]

We are using multiple mx400's. I did 2 upgrades from 4.0.16 to 4.0.18 and recently to 4.1. Their was no problem during the upgrades, only a big change in WMS has been introduced upgrading to release 4.1. But in my opinion it really improved and now is much more clarifying.
Also improvemnts has been made in the rogue detection/containment and voip. You will also experience much more traps you can send and messages into your system log.
We do have 2 sites in which the mx's are running, both in the same mobility domain.

If you have more questions let me know.

 

[jdeisenm]

Has anyone had any problems with the Intel 2200, Intel 3945 nics and the Trapeze ap's? Did you make any specific changes to the mx config or the nic driver to fix it?

 

[JeroeNortel]

hi again

we are using several thousands of intel 2200's with the trapeze wireless system. we don't have major problems with the trapeze systems, it's more the client behaviour we have been experiencing some problems with. we did some changes in settings on both sides for fine-tuning, however this depends on the networkdesign, building, security level, interference, amount of users, etc.

 

[jdeisenm]

I upgraded to Trapeze MSS versoin 5.0.10 and that solved problems with the Intel power management settting.

 

[aclaybaugh]

Can you explain in more detail the issues you were seeing with the 3945abg NICs and Trapeze APs. We are testing Trapeze equipment (actually from Nortel) and are seeing issues with Lenovo T60s with these NICs. Older T40s and T42s which have different b/g NICs are fine. We are using WPA-PSK. The laptops associate just fine, but performance is very spotty. Sometimes fine, sometimes no packets are being sent. We are running Nortel WSS version 5.0.9.4.0. Thanks!

 

[jdeisenm]

On the Intel 2200, 2915 and 3945 drivers, there is a Power Management setting.
Set it to "highest" or max performance. This burns the laptop battery faster as the wireless card stays on. But, it also stays connected to the trapeze/nortel access points.

Beware of the windows xp feature "repair". It may reset changes you make to the driver to default.

If your T42's have Intel 2200's wireless nics and drivers dated 2004, I would update the driver. I've seen roaming issues with those drivers.

 

[aclaybaugh]

Thanks! It works great now.

 

[cmghoughton]

I have a Vista Problem and trapeze. I recently bought a new HP laptop with the Intel 3945WLAN and it worked great on a trapeze network. I then received my non-express upgrade to Vista, I have no activity, I can connect but I can't access any websites or my printers. I tried several different drivers but none worked. I then tried installing the XP drivers and I sparked some life but it was short lived and felt like it was a dial up connection when it worked. Anyone have any ideas, right now I am looking at buying the minipci broadcom card and downgrading because I don't have access to the AP to fix this.

Thanks in advance

 

[jdeisenm]

Did you change and driver settings? Especially the power management setting.

 

[cmghoughton]

Sorry for the long wait in the reply. That was one of the first things I tried. I replaced the 3945ABG card with the broadcom brand one and it now works perfectlly with Vista. This was upsetting because when I bought the laptop I upgraded from the Broadcom to the intel chip thinking that it was a better choise, not only did it cost me around 20 to upgrade, but then I spent another 70 for the Broadcom card. So much for Vista, but the intel chip worked great under XP.

 

[jdeisenm]

What firmware version do you have on the Trapeze MX? The new one's should word much better.

 

[cmghoughton]

That was one of the problems, the MX is at my university and I do not have access to it. I spoke with two of the administrators and I am so far the only one that has actually complained about it. They just blame it on Vista then recommend that I go back to XP. I was trying to encourage others to complain and let them know about the Intel problems but most don’t care. I switched to the Broadcom Card to avoid the hassle. If you could recommend the current version so I could inform them of the fix, they might be inclined to upgrade sometime this year.
Thanks for the help
Doug

 

[jdeisenm]

The current version is 5.0.11.4 (May 2006).

 

[jdeisenm]

Apparently Vista won't connect to "hidden" ssids.
This may have been the issue with the Intel Card.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929661

 

[cmghoughton]

No, the SSID was broadcasting, and it would connect to the AP but there would be no activity. When I forced in XP drivers it would connect for a few minutes at a dial up pace then die. It sucked but I switched to the broadcom card and all the problems dissapeared.

 

[jdeisenm]

Intel released new drivers just a few weeks ago (may 25). They don't admit to much in their release notes.