Help with cnMaestro set up to manage campground WIFI network

Products cnMaestro
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I have a campground WIFI network consisting of several E-500 APs, a couple of 1000 Hotspots and a R-201 router. I am looking for some directions on how to make this all work together.  I have all the SSIDs and passwords named the same. I see a check box under WLAN on the E-500 that says Enable centralized management of roaming for wireless clients through cnMaestro.  I don't see this option on the R-201 or 1000 Hotspot. I have also checked "Enable active disconnection of clients with weak signal" under the radio tab. What I am looking for is some directions on the best practice to set up a multi AP system like this. What do I have to do in cnMaestro to make this work.  Where would I look to learn this information? I also have a not in sync message for the R-201 rounter in this installation that I can't seem to figure out.

Much thanks to anyone who can help me properly configure this system.

Steve

1 Like
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Hi - I have forwarded your question to our cnPilot Wi-Fi team. You should hear from them soon.

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Thanks.  I'm in over my head here.

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Hi,

Help us with the below information to under stand the requirments and recommed solutions,

1. How many E500 APs

2. How many ePMP 1000 Hot-Spot 

3. How many R 201 APs

1. How these APs are connected to network i.e. VLAN ID, IP Details and Gateway (A complete network toplogy with VLAN ID, Subnet, Gateway and DNS Server information)

2. WLAN / SSID mapping on E500, ePMP 1000 and R201 (WLAN to VLAN mapping)

3.  How clients are getting the IP address and who is the default gateway for the clients 

4. What is autehntication and encryption settings  

5. Currently we are managing these APs from cnMaestro

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I have forwarded this to our cnPilot team. They should be posting here soon.

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Thank you.  I have tried to attach a block drawing showing all the hardware elements in this network.  I have all the APs and PTP cambium radios set to static IP address.  Everything else is getting DHCP from the R-201 which is the router for the whole system and the gateway.  I have everything set to VLAN1.  All the units are sending the same SSID and set to use the same password. I have seen over 150 users on this network last year.  We are just starting out the season and I hope to add another Force 180 PTP and a couple of more E-500s.  If I can get this system fine tuned, I have another couple of campgrounds who might want my services.  I hope to learn from you what I can do to improve the performance of this system.  Right now I have rate limited clients to 2.5 MHz down and 1.5 MHz up.

I have a test laptop running at the site that I would be happy to give you access to if you want to have a look.  I also would be very happy to give you access to my cnMaestro account.  Hopefully my drawing will be attached.

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For the most part, what you have drawn out looks very feasible, with one big concern.  The R201 is intended for a residential environment and is, therefore, not designed to handle 150 clients at one time.  I would not use it in an environment where it is required to hand out more than about 40 IP addresses via DHCP.  If you expect to have as many as 150 at one time, you will want to use a router designed for that kind of load.  If you never expect to have more than about 40 devices need an IP address from the R201 at one time, it should be OK.

It is also wise to configure your network so that guests do not have access to the AP management interface, or to each other, limiting them only to the Internet.

I have attached three different documents that should help you out. 

- The first covers my recommendations for base configuration settings, with explanations of why.  

- The second covers Mesh configuration, and is a bit of a primer on mesh and how we implement it as well.

- The third covers setting up a Guest WLAN without having to also configure VLANs or tunneling.  You can use VLANs or Tunneling to separate traffic, but this method simplifies that process somewhat using the ACL capability built into the cnPilot APs.  

Since you are using Mesh, I recommend configuring 3 different AP Groups for the e-series APs.  

- The first AP Group would cover the configuration for the e500 AP that is connected via the Force 180.  It will not have mesh enabled on it.

- The second AP Group would cover the 2 e500 APs that are configured for mesh and will be acting as the base APs.  These are the ones directly connected to the Cisco switch. 

- The third AP Group would cover the 2 e500 APs that are configured for mesh and will be acting as client APs.  These are the 2 that connect via mesh back to the core network.

I suggest configuring everying in the following order, assuming you have already created an account on cnMaestro.

1.  If you choose to use the Guest Portal feature on cnMaestro, configure a Guest Portal first.

2.  Create 3 different WLANs.

    - The first WLAN will be the one that everyone uses to connect to the Internet, just as you have done already.  Typically, you would leave security settings to OPEN with no encryption.  This makes it easy for users to connect.  However,  you could set it to WPA2-PSK and then give people the passphrase so that they can connect.

    - The second WLAN will be set as a Mesh WLAN and be defined for the Base APs.

    - The third WLAN will be set as a Mesh WLAN and be defined for the Client APs.  The SSID name and security settings must match that of the Base Mesh WLAN.

3.  Create the 3 different AP Groups.  Nearly all of the settings will be the same for all three with one difference.  The easy way to do this is to create the first AP Group and then clone it twice, making the changes as listed below to the two new ones. 

    - One will only have the Guest WLAN associated with it.

    - One will have the Guest WLAN and the Mesh Base WLAN associated with it.

    - One will have the Guest WLAN and the Mesh Client WLAN associated with it.

4.  Add the appropriate APs to each AP Group.

Based on the information you provided, it sounds like you don't need to make any changes to the Hotspot APs.  

I hope this helps.

4 Likes
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Thank you very much.  Could you make a recommendation for a router to replace the R-201 in this setting?

I will look this information over and implement your suggestions.  I also plan to add another PTP Force 180 from the Cisco switch to add a couple more E-500 APs

Thanks

Steve

1 Like
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I had over 170 guests on this network over the weekend. Passed about 200 gig one of the days.  I would like to have a recommendation on a router that will handle this.  We don't need a lot of features but something capable of handling the load.  We have a 1 Gig fiber connection to the internet.  I also see a warning from the R-201 router on this network that it is not in sync.  How can I fix this?

Thanks

Steve

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If you are refering to "Out of sync" being displayed in cnMaestro, this refers to the configuration of the device.  It is resynced by pushing the full configuration to the device again.

This can be done by clicking the "Sync Configuration" link in the device level Configuration page or by selecting the device in the Application -> Sync Configuration page and clicking the Sync Now button.  The Sync Configuration page can be accessed by selecting it from the last option on the left-hand menu or by clicking the Sync Configuration button at any non-device level Configuration page (System, Network or Site level).

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Looks like the right folks are helping. You may want to check out this KOA Case Study to see how they configured the network with indoor and outdoor cnPilot connectivity https://www.cambiumnetworks.com/resource/montana-sky-koa/