WiFi connect issues

[tpatch54]

So I am new to the place where I am working now. I have had nothing but issues with these MR18 access points. I have looked over the logs and tried to make changes and still having issues. I am not 100% sold on these at all. I was told that they are great AP, I am having a harder and harder time believing this. The Speeds have been so slow, down load at 1 Mb and 20 upload. We should be getting 400mb x 25 and we never even get close. I have went in and changed them from unlimited to 100 Mb by 100 Mb and that has helped get my download speeds in the 20's give or take.  

Today I walked in and could not get Wi-Fi, so I forgot the network and entered in the right PW and it fails out. Now I don't have Wi-Fi. I have looked all over the internet for help over this issue and can never find an answer. Do I need something else that maybe the guys before me didn't see or didn't know to get. Trust me, I am seeing this issue happen a lot. I can get screen shots or even thing else people need. I really need to get this figured out, not sure if there is more help I can get other than this ? Thank you for any help you can give me. 

[GreenMan]

Could I suggest you log a case with Meraki Support?

[tpatch54]

I think that is my next step, just wanted to check in and make sure there was not a quick easy fix but I don't think its an easy fix.  Thank you for the response.

[GreenMan]

There are so many variables in getting a 'good' wireless connection,  that such issues are particularly hard to troubleshoot in the Community.   And remember;  your Meraki licensing entitles you to use Meraki Support 24x7, 365 days a year.   Be prepared to gather quite a lot of information, to enable the Network Support Engineer to assist you with the troubleshooting.

Worth remembering too - MR18 was announced for End of Sale in 2016 and that 802.11n tech is relatively old, these days.   Meraki will continue to support MR18 til early 2024, but can't fundamentally update its underlying capacity.   With the maturing of WiFi6, perhaps it's time to start thinking about an upgrade?    Anyway - see what Support makes of it first.  Good luck!

[tpatch54]

On the phone with them now. He is looking over stuff right now, Thanks you again. I will keep people updated on the outcome.

[nealgs]

Are they all running the latest firmware?

We've just replaced our MR18 and MR12 devices with some new MR36 as the latter where 4yrs old or more.  No licenses needed as they where replacements for the existing licensed devices 🙂

[tpatch54 · Accepted solution]

So far we are trying a roll back of the firmware. It was on the latest but there appears to be issues with that firmware. Running the roll back firmware tonight and tomorrow to see if it fixes the issues. I will keep all posted. 

ACTIONS TAKEN:
throughput test from AP varrying between 30-60mbps
wireless clients very slow <1mbps
Downgraded firmware first to 25-13 then 25-17 (took about 10 minutes)

[nealgs]

We had 3 MR18 up until last week all running on latest firmware.  Not aware of any issues with them in the time we've had them other than failing and needing an RMA on one of them.

there isn't something as simple as a Traffic shaping rule applied to the SSID(s) is there? 

[tpatch54]

So far we are running good. They rolled back the firmware last night and so far the AP are running a lot better.

APs to the more stable 25.17 version

The only issue I am seeing now is, see below. That is my Android phone and the password wont work or log in. I emailed back support to ask them if there was a fix or what my next steps need to be done.

Client attempted to associate 3 times on the 2.4 GHz band.

type='Association attempts' num='3' radio='0' vap='1'

Thank you for everyone's help, I will keep you up dated on how this goes. 

[tpatch54]

Last night the rest of the MR18 were rolled-back. and I am already seeing major advantages with these access points on the older firmware. The connection log is showing a success rate of 79.9 %. of logging in. I push the Logs back over the last month and that connection rate drops down to success rate of 16.5%. I know the rate will only get better after I get an email together to send it out to the users with the Passwords for each SSID and department. I think that is some of my issues with the fail rate that I am seeing now.

Thank you for all the help and to have me reach out to support. Support has been amazing. I also hope this helps other with this issue, I know people are having it. I see the boards and no one ever has a solution, that is why I wanted to keep everyone up to date on what I found out. Wish everyone luck with this issue.