RE: [smartBridges] dis-association again?!

[Nish Park]

Title: Message

I think you are right. It can not be just the “interference”. Our offices are probably the most dense Wi-Fi installation in the world, with so many devices operating on each desk.   May be we all are walking around with fried brains J   Nish     -----Original Message----- From: Peter Cartwright [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 11:41 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [smartBridges] dis-association again?!   Nish,   Many thanks for the open and frank response.  I can imagine that the situation for you is almost as frustrating as it is for us "at the coal face" (to use an English _expression_!).  I too have noticed the problem of not being able to re-create the issue in a "lab" environment.  I set up a test link in our office this weekend and left it running for 48 hours using an Airbridge Indoor unit that had been regularly (once a day or more) been suffering from the issue.  Guess what?  It held firm for the whole 48 hours!   My personal feeling is that there are probably a number of different "causes" that result in the issue occuring and the unit effectively "locking up" (whatever that means in practice!).  Hopefully, the firmware can be upgraded to do the reset automatically, though I suppose it will depend on whether that part of the coding will still be "running" when the association is lost.   regards   Peter   Loop Scorpio Ltd providers of Ledbury Broadband and Highnam Broadband www.ledburybroadband.co.uk www.highnambroadband.co.uk -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Nish Park Sent: 08 September 2003 16:25 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [smartBridges] dis-association again?! Sevak,   We have been trying to understand this “Occasional Dis-association issue” for quite some time but it has been an illusive problem. We have been unable to reproduce the problem, even after we brought units back from the field that exhibited the problem. Below is what we know about it so far and what we are trying to do. Hopefully this info may help in your situation.   The symptoms are - at random intervals the airBridge will loose association and will not regain. A simple power cycle, software reset or just doing rescan will establish the connection. In a large majority of cases we find that reverting to the setting of Long Pre-Amble (factory default) will clear the problem. Many other times we find the combination of over powering the RF side with Amp tends to create problem. And other extreme is that installations with low RSSI and LQ values and not enough fade margins have this problem too. We even had people report that just exchanging units from subscriber A to subscriber B took care of the problem.   All this points to the instability due to RF and interference related issues. In many cases it is possible to clear the problem. Yet there are a few cases when these steps do not help. It appears that in these instances, the re-associate will not happen till it is rebooted. And due to the sporadic nature we have been unable to track down the root cause of it.   In order to provide some interim solution, we have developed a software utility “simpleStatus” that acts as a watchdog timer and reset the unit under certain conditions. This software is helping many users and you can get a copy by writing into the support desk. This software is a slimmed down version of the simpleMonitor without any configuration buttons and enough dancing lights so you can give it to the subscribers without loosing control. Our next step is to try to put the same code in the firmware.   As we have been doing the research to find the root cause, interestingly we have learned that virtually EVERY manufacturer’s equipment suffers from this symptom. We found similar user complaints, similar manufacturer’s answers. Users coming up with their home brew solutions like periodic pinging the devices, some even going as far as hardware gizmos that would periodically power cycle the devices etc. I am sure all of these things help in different cases and make the issue smaller and smaller. We are also incorporating some of these items in our newer products to increase the robustness. Some measures we understand and some measures are incorporated for motherhood sake.   Hopefully someday we all will get to the bottom of this unexplainable industry phenomenon.   Nish            -----Original Message----- From: Sevak Avakians [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 9:07 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [smartBridges] dis-association again?!   I posted this problem earlier hoping that someone from sB would respond to my question, but they didn't yet. Would someone from sB tech support please tell me what is going on here?  Now, I have 3 customers who are having issues with the airBridges.  One day everything is ok, but a day or two later and they cannot get onto the Internet at normal speeds.  The speed is EXTREMELY slow and usually just times out.  2 of these customers are within a few meters of the access point and the 3rd is a block away.  I've noticed that if I unplug the airBridge and replug it back in, everything is ok again. Since I don't want to keep going to customers' homes to unplug and replug airBridges, will sB please help me out with this issue?  My customers are very vocal in their community and will spread bad news about our service if this issue isn't resolved. Thank you, Sevak