We support managed wireless networks for MDUs and condos. We’re having a time these days with guests looking for WPS buttons on our e410s and after not finding one that reads WPS they commence to pushing the reset button. On other brands we have the ability to disable the reset button, can we add this as a feature in cnmaestro?
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Whether AP is losing configuration when reset button is pressed … is there any service ?
Regards
Anand
How are these things mounted?
I have seen customers put stickers over reset buttons to deter people from using the reset buttons. With that said, the ability to disable the reset button would be a good feature if the reset button can be controlled by software.
@networxpc , all our APs have RESET labeled on the reset button. For our wallplate, it is a pinhole also, which is hard to reset accidentally. And as @Springs asked, is the e410 AP mounted on the wall?
Let me be clear…nobody is resetting the APs by accident. Nobody is “NOT” seeing the clear print that reads “Reset”. It doesn’t matter where they’re mounted, wall ceiling, floor, attic, inside a locked metal box. Condo guests and owners will climb ladders, crawl under tables, pull out TV consoles and basically defeat any attempt you make to hide or make it hard to find. All to push a button, any button. Don’t ask me why they do it, what they’re trying to accomplish, or how much of my time they waste. They push the reset buttons. Some do it because their printer setup instructions tell them to push the WPS button on the front of the router, others want to just drive me crazy.
I’ve tried labels, they peel them off. I’ve put hot glue over the button, they pry it off. Other brands of AP’s allow you to turn off the reset button so we can deal with all of these scenarios. Could we add this as a feature request???
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very good feedback here from " [networxpc]" and something that we are looking into now.
Thanks Jim…it would really help us lock down the nearly 2000 e410s we have running.
I was thinking… If the e410 was mounted to the ceiling… How would they reach the button.
Then I realized the e410 could also have the same case as the XV2-2.
The e410 I have is that rounded case, that gets pretty flush to a surface.
But yeah… People press buttons.
Since cambium is cloud managed… HOPEFULLY… The unit reacquired it’s program from the cloud.
But the learning lesson here… Make sure the reset button requires removing the unit from it’s mount to even see it.
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It does acquire its programing from the cloud, but. Unless we’re provisioning new hardware, we don’t have DHCP running on the wire. Also, when the AP comes back after a factory default, it reconnects to the cloud, but we have to manually hit the sync button. Can you believe that?
In an MDU environment we can’t leave anything running on the wire except tagged VLAN traffic.
I use a DHCP reservation for my management network. Reset the AP and it gets its info back. Plug something else in and it gets ignored.
@networxpc The new CAOS 6.4.2 release has the feature you requested for the ability to disable / enable the Reset Button on the Wi-Fi access point.
Below screenshot shows the setting on the AP’s Web UI. The feature has not yet been integrated into cnMaestro UI or XMS-C UI but you can add the command “no system hw-reset” as a User-Defined Override in a Wi-Fi AP Group configuration in cnMaestro. Also, you can add that same CLI command as a XMS-Cloud Profile CLI Snippet. Please keep in mind that the Reset Button can be a bit of a life safer in situations when an AP gets misconfigured and you are not able to connect to it so by disabling the Reset Button you lose the ability recover the AP in such a scenario.
AP’s Web UI for disabling the Reset Button:
Have you considered running DHCP on the native VLAN specifically for provisioning? Allowing that network to call out to cnMaestro (or on-prem with DHCP option15 or a CNAME for cloud.cambiumnetworks.com), then set up your AP profile in cnMaestro with a separate VLAN interface for connectivity
Also, if you check the box next to “Auto-Sync” in the AP profile it should reconfigure itself after connecting back and seeing it’s out of sync.
I really hope Cambium has some sort of additional recovery method in place giving this option to the masses. A secondary confirmation screen at the very least?The power cycle reset feature the ePMP platform uses would be cool too.
Can you RMA a unit because you shut off the button instead of setting up your network correctly for a call-home on factory reset? Or does this void the warranty?
Thank you Gary. I’ve been very busy and haven’t looked at the Community page for a bit. I appreciate the update.
Gervais…sure we have. Our environment is condominiums where a single AP might have a hundred different people having access to it over the course of a few weeks. A small number of these guests will inevitably have some level of skill and will make you pay dearly for having any access to DHCP on the CAT6 cable. We only allow 1 tagged VLAN to be on the cable in each unit.
Many brands allow the reset button to be disabled; it’s nothing unusual. You can always log into the AP via HTTPS or SSH and default it. Of course, if you forget your password, it’s curtains.