MR46e/MR86e in Survey Mode

[KevC]

Hi All,

Some time ago we had a client who wished to deploy the above access points and we asked for AP's to use for AP on a stick survey (on their insistence). 

However unlike an MR 33 which I have happily set up in survey mode in the past and was stable for the time I was testing with it, the MR46 and 86 was not.

Various issues which could be seen on the Ekahau spectrum analyzer such as 2.4Ghz dropping out completely and then returning, 5GHz disappearing altogether etc. Basically the bottom line is we could not trust the devices to survey with.

Unfortunately the client would not give us access to their dashboard to look at this issue ourselves, although from a survey point of view (following Meraki guidelines for setting up a survey AP) we set the AP up with no perceivable issues. The client was in touch with Meraki support but never got a satisfactory solution out of them either. Anyone else had similar issues?.

[alemabrahao]

I installed some MR46's a few weeks ago and so far it's working perfectly, I haven't had any problems. What software version is it running?
The best way would be to have access to the network to take a look at configurations.

[KevC]

Hi, Do bear in mind this is not a final installation. The AP's are to be used as site survey AP's initially.

[alemabrahao]

I got It, but, anyway it would be interesting to be able to analyze the settings on the dashboard such as RF profile for example.

[alemabrahao]

Is It possible to ask him to share configurations like Minimum bitrate, Channel assignment method, Radio transmit power range and Channel width? Is the Air Marshal enabled?

What is the Avg. channel utilization for both frequencies?

[PhilipDAth]

This smells like a firmware issue.  I'm going to guess the AP(s) might be rebooting or crashing from time to time.  I would get them to make sure they are running the latest stable firmware.

[KevC]

It certainly does @PhilipDAth . Although naturally there was no admittance from Meraki TAC that this was the issue 🙂

It would now seem we may be getting a couple of units into our business to put on our own Dashboard, as such I will have full autonomy to carry out some further testing. To be fair the last time the client tried was at least 6 months ago so hopefully we may be into a new firmware by now. I'll keep you posted.

[PhilipDAth]

One thing you can ask support is how long a device has been up.  An easy way to determine if a device has been crashing ...