Apple device constantly disassociating with Z1 Access Point

[BVisser]

Hi everyone,

We have a Meraki Z3 serving as an access point (in addition to other roles) for a small shopfront in a larger shopping complex. The WLAN only has 5 - 7 devices associated with it, and while the 2.4 GHz spectrum utilisation is high (40% - 60%) in the area, all but one of the devices experience no significant impact to performance.

Enter the problem device: A 7th Generation iPad (iPad7,11). This device is disassociating and reassociating with the WLAN constantly (4 - 8 times every hour). The device is in use most of the time (it is the primary PoS device), so the device is not going to sleep and waking up. Users are complaining about "slow load times" when processing sales, which is how I discovered that the device is constantly dropping out.

I've investigated all possible user related causes, and have ensured that only the shopfront SSID is being distributed via Jamf MDM. At this point, I think we may just need to replace the Ipad as it seems like an issue with the radio on the device - this forum post is my last-ditch effort in case I'm missing something else.

I'm not familiar with either Apple or Meraki, so my question is this: Are there any Apple technologies that may be running on this device and causing problems (Such as "Fastlane")? And are there any more powerful tools that I can use on the Meraki Z3 to gather further data on the issue? At the moment all I have is event logs and channel utilisation stats - sadly as it's not a discrete Meraki AP, the more advanced tools (such as Air Marshal) I'd like to use are not available on this device.

I apologise for the wall of text and thank you in advance for any suggestions you can provide. Please let me know if you'd like any more info.

[MarcP]

Do you use a splash page on your wifi?

https://community.meraki.com/t5/Wireless-LAN/Problems-on-Apple-devices-using-splash-page-authenticat...

What about to try 5GHz only, on this wifi? Did you try this?

iPad 7,11 means running on iOS 11? O_o

Regarding to no other devices face these problem, may be a problem with the iPad...

Can you share any logs?

[BVisser]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for your reply! I had not considered checking Splash pages (I did not set up the network), but I can confirm they are turned off.

Unfortunately, the Meraki Z3 control panel does not provide much in the way of tools for controlling the band that clients join on. I have turned down the transmit power of the 2.4ghz radio significantly to try and "convince" the 802.11ac capable clients that 5GHz is the way to go, but it does not seem to have helped. You can see from the logs that this device likes to jump between the two, and seems to disassociate fairly soon regardless of the band it joins on.

The ipad is running iOS 15.4.1 - (7,11 is the model identifier) - I am becoming increasingly convinced one of the users just dropped the device at some point and won't admit it to me.

I've attached the most recent page of the event logs below (I will admit I had a mini heart attack when I saw the date listed as "2008" - no idea how that happened). The logs don't make much sense to me, as you can see 5-6 dissociation events before the device reassociates - does this make any sense to you?

Thanks again for the help!

Time(AEST)	Client	Event type	Details
1/04/2008 11:36	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 11:36	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"client has left AP"
1/04/2008 11:31	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 11:30	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 11:30	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 11, band: 2, rssi: 18"
1/04/2008 11:30	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"client has left AP"
1/04/2008 11:30	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 11:30	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 161, band: 5, rssi: 40"
1/04/2008 11:25	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 11:25	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 11:25	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 11, band: 2, rssi: 17"
1/04/2008 11:18	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 11:18	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 11:18	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 161, band: 5, rssi: 42"
1/04/2008 11:13	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 11:12	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 11:12	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 11, band: 2, rssi: 25"
1/04/2008 11:05	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 11:04	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 11:04	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 161, band: 5, rssi: 40"
1/04/2008 10:59	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 10:58	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 10:58	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 11, band: 2, rssi: 9"
1/04/2008 10:49	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 10:49	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 10:49	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 161, band: 5, rssi: 39"
1/04/2008 10:44	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"previous authentication expired"
1/04/2008 10:43	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	WPA authentication	""
1/04/2008 10:43	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 association	"channel: 11, band: 2, rssi: 13"
1/04/2008 10:43	QVB iPad 2 (Main POS)	802.11 disassociation	"client has left AP"

[system177]

Something we ran across that you could try:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254005176?page=1