Sanity Check on my Unreliable WiFi: Do I Need More Access Points?

[big_spaceship]

TLDR: ZD1200 with 9 r710 APs covering 21K sq ft macOS-dominant biz, constant connection issues. Would more access points actually fix the problem?

Long form: I took over an existing enterprise network, consisting of an Untangle, 1Gb switches of various makes and models, and Ruckus for the wireless. The Ruckus consists of a ZoneDirector 1200 and 9 r710 Access Points, on a dedicated switch connect to the Untangle by 1Gb ethernet. The office is a rectangular 21,000 square foot space in a dense mixed-use urban area, with over 100 different wifi networks in range (I'm counting 2.4ghz and 5ghz separately here). We are a macOS-only shop with an average 100-150 devices on our primary wifi, and the same on our siloed guest wifi (total wireless device count rarely tops 300 devices). 

I get daily complaints about wireless not working. The most common issues are failing to connect after waking a laptop from sleep, AirPlay not working, and wifi appearing as connected but not transferring data. None of these are reliably fixed by toggling the antenna or restarting devices. 

Here are some of the more significant changes I've made in an attempt to reduce connection issues:

• Reduced channelization from 80MHz to 40MHz
• Reduced channelization from 40MHz to 20MHz
• Capped the maximum devices on any AP to 50
• Physically moved a couple of the APs to improve coverage
• Disabled the 2.4GHz spectrum on all APs except one for specific devices (did it by disabling WLAN service on the 802.11b/g/n radio)
• Modified every Mac's default connection preference to be the AP with the strongest signal, not the last AP accessed (which is the default)
• I added a script to the most afflicted computers, which keeps the antenna turned off for 5 seconds after waking from sleep
• Note: TX Power is configured to Auto, but all radios always run at Full power anyway

There are some other specific tweaks done for increasing compatibility with Apple products, but I've been working on this for over a year and I can't recall every detail. And as it's been over a year, the boss had demanded a permanent fix regardless of cost. That opens up my options in terms of adding access points or even switching to a different vendor. 

BUT: I have enough hardware on paper to completely control my airspace, and I don't think more access points will "solve" anything. If I succeed in fixing my network just by overpowering my neighbors, they'll be forced to do the same. I do not want a wifi arms race. 

Any suggestions?

[victor_cenac]

After having similar issues with MacOS (not Dell/Windows), I fixed them with these settings:
In WLAN Settings (enabled settings):
Enable Proxy ARP
Support for 802.11d (only applies to radios configured to operate in 2.4 GHz band)
Enable Client Fingerprinting
Enable 802.11k Neighbor-list Report

On the AP group:
Channel Settings:
2.4 channels 1 6 11
5 GHz 36 40 44 48 149 153 157 161 (indor)

I hope this helps somebody. I lost lots of hair fighting with the macs and also envied my sysadmin friends with networks with different names on the Aps, that never heard of such issues.

[DarrelRhodes]

Thanks for the detailed description, especially of the remedial measures you've taken to try and solve the issue.

I'm a dedicated Mac OSX user with a MacBook Pro and iMac 27", both running Mojave and previously Sierra and High Sierra. I use both machines almost every day with Ruckus Wi-Fi and often need to wake them from sleep, with no issues.

Knowing the version of code your ZD is running will be important. However this sounds like a system-wide problem and not limited to certain clients, or APs or even a frequency, so my gut-feel is that something else in the network is causing the issue.

Do any of your Mac clients go home with employees and suffer the same problems? Do non-Mac OS devices have issues, such as phones or have you tried a Windows device?

I don't think throwing more APs at the issue will be the cure, especially if clients close to existing APs are having the same problem.  In fact it's likely to make matters worse (probably for a different reason) as well as a waste of money.

Do you know about holding down alt/option and clicking the Wi-Fi icon on the Mac's menu bar? This will give you some good insights in to signal, noise, SNR, MCS data-rate, etc and will help with diagnostics.

My recommndation would be to look at hiring a Wi-Fi survey expert to use Ekahau or Airmagnet to live survey your building and check for RSSI, acute levels of interference and other Wi-Fi anomalies.  A spectrum analysis to check for non-Wi-Fi sources of interference would also be a good idea. Also the expert should be able to run a Wireshark packet trace to see what is happening when the client is experiencing issues.

Hope that helps,
Darrel.

[pasquale_monard]

A few things about macs:
1. they don't like to roam
2. they do not support OKC Caching (if using an 802.1x network - more on that later)

A few things:
1. Is the Ruckus equipment covered under a support contract? If yes, open a TAC case in parallel while you troubleshoot issues. They sometimes can go under the "hood" to help diagnose what is going on and provide feedback.
2. Has a RF site survey been done? You said you inherited this network. I would get an RF site survey done so you have clear picture of the RF airspace. 

• if all APs are running at full power, I would suggest to tune down the radios.
• How is the Airtime utilizing look on the 5Ghz? High Airtime will point usually to too much CCI or high power.

3. What version of MACOS are you running on your clients? Have you opened a case with Apple support?
4. Is the preferred network at the top of the list? 
5. is the MAC allowed to turn off the wireless when it goes to sleep? Should disabled that. 
6. Airplay requires bonjour services to be running on ZD or at least configured (gateway and/or fencing) - this won't travel across L2 domains unless Bonjour services are running. Are you running a flat vlan architecture? 
7. What type of encryption are you using on your wireless network? 802.1x? WPA2? etc..

• if 802.1x, MACs do you not support OKC Caching, only PMK Caching
• is 802.11k enabled?
• is 802.11r enabled?

8. How many clients per AP on average are connected? 
9. Have you looked at the wired network for saturated links? 
10. what is your backhaul like? Internet pipe? 
11. Have you look at potentially doing a spectrum analysis sweep to rule out non-802.11 wi-fi interference? You can convert one of the APs into a spectrum analyzer (won't serve clients) and take a look in a specific area.

[david_black_594]

Sounds like you have more than enough APs. Here’s a few things to check:
- definitely do not enable 11r (ZD default = disabled)
- as previously mentioned, 11d should be enabled (ZD default = enabled)
-11k don’t care, that’s not your issue
- turn off client isolation
- if you’re using auto channel, make sure it’s background scanning (definitely don’t use channelfly)
- reduce 5GHz transmit power by 6dB to 9dB. Start at -6, then test, -7, test some more, etc.
- if you decide to re-enable 2.4, start at -9dB and potentially reduce to -10 or “min”
- verify that the wlan is set for ofdm only
- I’m not sure how many wlans you’ve deployed, but 3 or less would be a good range.
- verify that the wlans are not tunneled
- once things are stable, consider re-enabling all 5GHz channels except 120, 124, 128; and increasing channel width back to 40.
I hope some of this helps. Please let us know.

[david_black_594]

PS - if everything is on the same L2 network, you don’t need to mess with Bonjour services. Airplay will work fine without it provided that isolation is off.