09 Jan

Setting up vWLC controller in 10 minutes

Wireless networks

Those are not my first steps with wireless controllers or wireless networking. I had my first touch of enterprise-class wireless networks like 7-8 years ago when Cisco WLC controllers hit the market and lead the evolving world of wireless networking. Working for Cisco Gold Partner back then gave me the opportunity to configure few both autonomous and centrally managed wireless networks at different scale. I also performed a security audit of one quite big installation. Back then there was no virtual vWLC controller back then.

Why am I getting back to the Cisco wireless solutions now? I got Cisco AIR-CAP3702 access point lately, so it was excellent opportunity to refresh my knowledge and look at the past few years changes. It is a popular enterprise model that can work either as an autonomous access point or managed via a controller. So this model is for tests and PoC labs for me, so I decided to check what has changed in Cisco wireless world.

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03 Jan

Manual firmware upgrade of lightweight access point

Wireless networks

The Cisco lightweight access point managed by the wireless controller is not a new product. It has been on the market for years, evolved from LWAPP to CAPWAP model, is supporting a wide range of access point models. The idea is that access point upgrades its firmware when it registers to WLC. Sounds easy? Yes. Is it working? Yes, usually, but not always. Sometimes you need to perform a manual lightweight access point firmware upgrade procedure which is not well documented. And you need to know a hidden command. I will show you how.

 

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