[smartBridges] APPO issues in Bridging and Repeater Modes

[Todd Barber]

I have been playing with a couple of APPO units that we have ordered for replacement and expansion.  I am experiencing the following symptoms:   Set up one APPO as AP Set up second APPO as Client Bridge   If I power the first APPO before powering the client bridge unit I am unable to log into the client bridge from either the wireless or the LAN side with the administrator password.   I receive the following error – Can not read the airPoint Pro configuration.  Please check the community password.   I can log into the unit with the user password “public” but it does not display any tabs I am interested in, like Link quality.  The unit shows as associated on the AP and it passes traffic fine.  I just can’t manage it.   I can even log into the unit in AP mode and manage it though the client bridge unit.   If I power down the unit in AP mode then I can log into the client bridge unit without issue.  If I then power up the AP while I am logged in and then try and associate from the site survey tab it errors with Cannot find Know ESSID.   If I shut down the SB AP and log into the client bridge unit and do site survey I can see my D-Link access router just fine.  I have shut down the D-Link to insure it was not creating interference with no luck.    I have configured the units manually and with simpleDeploy.  I have the latest versions of firmware and simpleMonitor and simpleNMS.  I am unable to get into the units from simpleNMS also.  I am running WinXP on all of the systems I have tried to log in from.    We have a couple of units deployed on a water tank that behave exactly the same so I am convinced it is not a hardware issue.  When we first started we were going to do a 2.4G backhaul and these same units worked fine in both wireless bridge and client bridge mode with older firmware.  After a couple of months and at least one FW upgrade we had our backhaul go down and we were trying to set up a temporary backhaul with one when we first discovered this issue.  That’s why I’m playing with the new units on the ground before deploying them.   I have also been experimenting with the second APPO in repeater mode.  It is having the same issues.  I am unable to log into it when the APPO acting as an AP is powered but I have no problem when it is off.  Unfortunately in this mode it doesn’t associate at all.  I can never see it from the AP side.  I can’t pass traffic and no other unit sees the repeater.  Because I can’t log in as Administrator I am unable to associate it or see if there is any link.    Any thoughts or similar experiences that might give me a clue on which direction to proceed would be greatly appreciated.  I spent about 5 hours messing with these units and am extremely frustrated at this point.  I am convinced my network settings and which side I try and manage from are correct because I have tried all possible combinations.  The damn things just won’t let me log in as administrator when the AP is powered.    Todd Barber Skylink Broadband Internet [EMAIL PROTECTED] 970-346-1834