Best interop firmware for UBNT and Cambium before an elevate

Just like it sounds.

What is the best firmware to have on a UBNT radio prior to upgrading?

We just put up a 1000 2.4hz AP. getting ready to elevate directly.

So the AP is in wifi mode for today.

As soon as I put that AP up, my customers started dropping and having intermitant service etc. This AP didn't have airmax on prior. So it's not an issue with hidden noise being the "only" problem. We have a lot of gear at this site, and there is plenty of noise. But, as soon as I put this new AP up all hell broke loose.

Is there a preferred AP and CPE firmware that works better than others so we can elevate? Because as it stands right now, that AP is soooo poor, I can't even elevate the client radios. And yes, same channel, and I boosted the TX power on the AP to match the old exc...

I'll add, this was not the case while using UBNT to UBNT on 5.6.5. It was an immediate change to wifi mode on the Cambium gear. Which I seem to have a very hard time with. I wonder if Cambium will ever try to make it better so things will work long enough to elevate?? As it stands I have to replace the AP. Elevate, and then put the new Cambium AP back up.

I'm so glad this isn't a cell tower with a guy getting paid large money per hour to be onsite. It's bad enough I had to pay for an AP, and licenses to do this. Now it doesn't really even work. Aircontrol can prove it with graphing stability, and disconnects pretty easily.

Hi,

Unfortunately it was never been a priority to optimise WiFi mode of operation. It was always intended to be a transition option, but not a full featured solution.

For now the most popular ways to elevate are the following:

1. Deploy additional ePMP AP and once elevation is finished remove Airmax AP from the tower.

2. Elevate all subscribers and then switch an AP. The downtime will be during the time you are swithcing an AP.

Dmitry

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In this case, we ended up having some kind of pigtail issue. I'm not sure if it's shorted or what as we didn't loose a lot of DB. But, that was causing some radio issues for sure. A pigtail swap helped tremendously.

In either case. the wifi driver has issues as from before in another post that was confirmed by others that your AP will stop working over time with it.

How about you just fix the driver, so it's not an issue? Maybe, you could do what your customers need instead of telling me I am runing my company wrong every.time.. Or how we aren't able to do as you require all of the time due to costs involved. You guys think everything is so easy out in the "field" why don't you come down to Central IL and do it for me.... I'm always willing to show you why your ideas are poor when it comes to implementation.

It's been awhile since I've done anything with ePMP's wifi mode, but the problem I ran into was that some UBNT radios would only work properly with transparent bridge/WDS mode enabled, and some would only work with it disabled (if I remember correctly, it was an XW vs XM thing). I think that behaviour changed after Cambium added settings for WDS into ePMP's wifi mode, but it's probably a good idea to make sure that setting matches on everything.

We've done a few APs were we just replaced an AP with an ePMP in WiFi mode, and then elevated all the clients, and wifi mode did the job fine... I wouldn't want to leave an AP running that way too long, but it has worked well for us as a transition tool.

I had another thread that I won't detail again. But when your AP drops connections and a reboot is the only way to restore it.....

But, not everyone can do what you did. It's not always as easy as replace the ap and use wifi mode long enough to elevate everyone. Not everyone can put up secondary ap's and sectors to do this either.

The idea that "do it this way" is the only way with Cambium is such a jerk statement. And it's tiring. Fix the gear and it's not an issue.


@Tristanwrote:

I had another thread that I won't detail again. But when your AP drops connections and a reboot is the only way to restore it.....

But, not everyone can do what you did. It's not always as easy as replace the ap and use wifi mode long enough to elevate everyone. Not everyone can put up secondary ap's and sectors to do this either.

The idea that "do it this way" is the only way with Cambium is such a jerk statement. And it's tiring. Fix the gear and it's not an issue.


Frankly Tristan, you're making this a lot harder on yourself. elevating is pretty straightforward.  cambium has said a number of times the WiFi mode is meant to be used for a very short time.  IE minutes.    the simplest way to bulk elevate is off of ubnt radio.   reboot all of your ubnt CPEs. (so they don't lockup when you update the firmware )  when they relock to the UBNT AP, send the elevate firmware, wait until they all have fallen off of the UBNT AP.  swap to a cambium AP.   that's it, you're done. everyone is elevated. 

as a just incase, screen shot your CPE list on the UBNT AP so you have mac address with mac address associated with them.    

to make life even easier, don't bother with the pre-config script.   the CPEs will lock to the default SSID and password on ANY channel size.   set your new cambium AP to the same channel and width of your old one.  and just put your cambium AP on the same sector your UBNT was on.  no change in RSSI, path, issues, noise etc.  just a simple transition without fuss and problems. 

cambium has a lot to get finished moving forward to a faster future, no need to waste resources on developing a feature so limitedly used and doesn't move speed or dependability forward. 

It's funny you say that. Over at UBNT, the fanboys can't get UBNT to do enough stuff. And over here, it's they don't have to do anything.

I'm using the elevator tool. I don't want to try and reassign every customer all of their information or "staic" IP's, yes STATIC. Again, not everyone does things the way Cambium wants. I prefer to get my techs to install the AP in wifi mode and then update the radios at night. Mainly because it is a process, and takes time.

we don't use statics, found that got horribly problematic with growth.    (actually in UBNT days we got away from it) 

all of our CPEs get a DHCP address for management, and another for WAN, Voip is again buried on its own, and one more time for multicast in the TV system.     all done from a centeral DHCP cluster so our DNS is tied in with it. 

we get to equipment by  fqdn to save a ton of time and having to track IPs are a day long gone. 

doe-john.cpe.comanyname.net                 south-2ghz.smalltownusa.companyname.net  etc. etc.    everything has a fall back IP (ubnt gear too) so we always have a fall back list of equipment and local access as needed.   makes management life a dream and easy for us.   tracking 5k plus statics just got way to cumbersome for us.  

with the bulk push of elevate firmware,   takes use about 5 minutes to push 30 cpes, and 10 more minutes to label everything.    just let our customers know when and what we are doing and all of them were happy to hear upgrade and we didn't get any complaints.  we elevated 300 ish radio this way in 2 days. 

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Tristan,

I also have to agree that you're making a fuss out of something that isn't really that bad. We use the Elevator tool and can elevate an entire sector in 20-30 minutes with the tool. We then go back and finish the settings in each CPE that the tool can't handle but all of this is WAY less time than a rip and replace of all CPE so it's not bad at all.

I have to say you seem to complain a lot and are very hostile and I wish you the best in running a WISP with the attitude that "Everyone is wrong except for me."

Cambium works really well and there's no point in spending time making WiFi interop mode work great when it works well enough to migrate people over in 20-30 minutes. 

The most downtime customers see when we elevate all the CPE, then swap the AP is about 10-15 minutes. It's not that bad at all. 

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It would have been a lot easier and less frunstrating if, IF the elevator tool actually transfered all the settings instead of messing up a least 5 radios every time I use it (and I did use the latest Elevator tool).

And also, not having an issue with the flexible licensing server locking up 15 licenses for a half an hour in the process as well. (see seperate thread)

I'm not new to Wifi, or this field. I'm just tired of gear not working like it should when I pay for it.

I'm quite happy others have good luck with it. And I'm also quite sure we aren't doing much different than others as well. Every environment is different. And yes, every time I have an issue, it's my fault according to Cambium. It's not hard to use any of their tools. And when they don't work right, it's a problem to myself and my customers. This whole, our wifi isn't supposed to work well is crap. Total crap.

I'll just move on and make sure I have more techs lined up locally for messed up radios. And more time given to my subs when it does mess up so they don't come at me with pitch forks when it doesn't work properly.

FYI, this is all 2.4Ghz gear. And I'd bet it's more troublesome than 5Ghz elevates (which we have done also) just from an interference perspective during the whole process. If you look up my other elevate thread, this process was a totall pain in the arse due to our elevating and converting to a seperate tower site. So we couldn't do what Cambium, or you "others" are doing or wanting us to do. It was a mess. And it was painfully slow. It's not dificult to look at the wifi code and make it better. Like, cough, maybe their other products that are for wifi.. HUM... It's, to me, just like UBNT who would not add multiple SSID to their M series, but came out with a whole other line called unifi that could do it from the get go.

I have a lot more sites to elevate, and I just wish they would make it easier is all. Is it that much to ask? Does it have to be like pulling teeth? Do I really need your input? Or need to be told that yours are easier? I don't come on here to ask too many questions, nor give praise. So, all you are probably going to see is me complain. I don't really do back patting. I just ask companies that I pay, to do their job, so I can do mine.


@Tristanwrote:

It would have been a lot easier and less frunstrating if, IF the elevator tool actually transfered all the settings instead of messing up a least 5 radios every time I use it (and I did use the latest Elevator tool).

And also, not having an issue with the flexible licensing server locking up 15 licenses for a half an hour in the process as well. (see seperate thread)

I'm not new to Wifi, or this field. I'm just tired of gear not working like it should when I pay for it.

I'm quite happy others have good luck with it. And I'm also quite sure we aren't doing much different than others as well. Every environment is different. And yes, every time I have an issue, it's my fault according to Cambium. It's not hard to use any of their tools. And when they don't work right, it's a problem to myself and my customers. This whole, our wifi isn't supposed to work well is crap. Total crap.

I'll just move on and make sure I have more techs lined up locally for messed up radios. And more time given to my subs when it does mess up so they don't come at me with pitch forks when it doesn't work properly.

FYI, this is all 2.4Ghz gear. And I'd bet it's more troublesome than 5Ghz elevates (which we have done also) just from an interference perspective during the whole process. If you look up my other elevate thread, this process was a totall pain in the arse due to our elevating and converting to a seperate tower site. So we couldn't do what Cambium, or you "others" are doing or wanting us to do. It was a mess. And it was painfully slow. It's not dificult to look at the wifi code and make it better. Like, cough, maybe their other products that are for wifi.. HUM... It's, to me, just like UBNT who would not add multiple SSID to their M series, but came out with a whole other line called unifi that could do it from the get go.

I have a lot more sites to elevate, and I just wish they would make it easier is all. Is it that much to ask? Does it have to be like pulling teeth? Do I really need your input? Or need to be told that yours are easier? I don't come on here to ask too many questions, nor give praise. So, all you are probably going to see is me complain. I don't really do back patting. I just ask companies that I pay, to do their job, so I can do mine.


we're trying to help you make it easier...  

I did 300 ish (all 2.4) in 2 days.  I did it with zero problems at all.   I did not use the cambium WIFI mode.  I did not use the pre-configure tool.  

the way you currently did it, didn't work. I'm offering you a different method that was not a headache and very simple to do.  I do understand you don't want to use DHCP. thats perfectly fine.  but for this change over, can you configure a simple pool in your nearest router?   if your willing setup a quick pool, even if it won't let you out to the internet.   DHCP alone will make the out of box method very easy to use.

skip the elevate tool.   you're having problems with it.  

skip wifi mode, you're having problems with it. 

reboot all of your CPES before sending elevate firmware  (i've seen UBNT radios lockup during firmware, a lot.   don't let this bug get you) 

after they have all rebooted and relocked to your AP. take a screenshot so you have a name to a mac address.  make sure your IP takes are accurate.   send the elevate firmware.  once all of the cpes have dropped off of the ubnt AP take if off of the sector

now swap the UBNT AP for a cambium AP sitting on the same channel size and center.  all of your radios will relock with the default config.    config your radios as you see fit. 

you're finished.    

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I'm using the (used to be called) PPPoE elevator tool. Where it grabs the config from each radio and makes the file, uploads it, elevates. 

We use a combination of PPPoE and statics, so It's kind of needed, or at least it's faster when it works than having to update each customer and getting them set up again. I now it could be half way ok to do it your way. It's still more downtime than I like during the day. But, it seems I'm just stuck with downtime. So be it.