Nish,
Thanks for at least re-assuring me that you guys are looking into it!
I have a suspicion of what may be happening. I've noticed that those who have this issue are also the same customers who have maybe one or two power strips with every electronic product imaginable plugged into it. I see this alot, but it doesn't seem to occur for everyone. Maybe some of these customers keep the other electronics turned off, and everything is ok until they start turning more things on? I know that if there is a "brown-out" the radios may not associate or may dis-associate. Many of these homes have old electrical wiring -the type without a proper ground receptacle. With our APPOs, we had to have the management re-wire the electricity in the basement office to provide proper ground. This also seemed to help some of our equipment work consistently.
If you guys think this may be the problem (or "a" problem) perhaps SB can provide a software tool that measures input power levels (hopefully without needing to add hardware)? Or have a light on the powerShot to indicate faulty power levels?
Kind regards,
Sevak
On Mon, 2003-09-08 at 11:25, Nish Park wrote:
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
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