MVP-8400 gets "Confused" when "N" Networks are present....
Impaqt
Posts: 155
in AMX Hardware
I would assume MVP-7500's as well, but Haven't run into it yet...
Over the past year or so, as "N" networks have gotten more common, I've run into this at least 3 times now. THis past week, I finally confirmed what I thought might the issue.. Or at least confirmed it in my mind....
I have quite a few early MVP-8400 out in the field.. The Call I get is generally "The panel is sluggish, doesnt flip, loses connection often"
an Installer goes out to the house or business, confirms the issue, and brings it in for service.
When I get it, the panel connects right up to my Wireless B/G network and exhibits none of the reported issues..
I give the installer a hard time, and head out to the site myself.... and of course, the panel freaks out just like he said....
One common denominator is that they all had original B Cards in them. One of them I swapped to the latest B/G card and it still acted weird... When I swapped it to my "older" B/G card out of my demo panel, it worked... The new B/G card also worked fine in my demo panel in the showroom..... The Business with this panel had "Recently upgraded the Wireless network to a high power N system....
Left confused by that incident, fast Forward to last week.. Client called about his panel acting up. Again, Installer went out, confirmed, and brought the panel back to me. Worked Fine in the showroom.... Out to the house I go. Now, I know this client has recently had a lot of network work done.... so I go in thinking about it...
Just as I suspected, the panel freaks out when I get back to the bedroom. I scan the room with my MetaGeek Chanalizer and find 8 different wireless networks in range... and one Really really strong "N" network.... The network guy had placed a "N" repeater about 15' from my "B" access point...
I unplug the repeater, and the panel suddenly gets happy. Works as good as it ever has... I plug the "N" repeater back in, and surprisingly, it still works fine.... Thats odd I thought.. but I reboot the panel.... and when it boots up, it freaks out again.... Repeat the scenario.. Unplug repeater, panel get happy. Reboot the panel with the "N" repeater unplugged, and it works great still.... Plug the N back in.. panel works fine.. reboot panel.. Crash....
So it seems that once the 8400 connects to the B network, its happy even if the N is present, but when looking for that initial connection, if it sees the "N" it just doesn't know what to do.
Scientific Proof? Not really, but hopefully my experience here may save someone from pulling all their hair out.
(And for the record, that panel is still on the original "B" card. Early MVP-8400.. First year of production)
Went out to the house
Over the past year or so, as "N" networks have gotten more common, I've run into this at least 3 times now. THis past week, I finally confirmed what I thought might the issue.. Or at least confirmed it in my mind....
I have quite a few early MVP-8400 out in the field.. The Call I get is generally "The panel is sluggish, doesnt flip, loses connection often"
an Installer goes out to the house or business, confirms the issue, and brings it in for service.
When I get it, the panel connects right up to my Wireless B/G network and exhibits none of the reported issues..
I give the installer a hard time, and head out to the site myself.... and of course, the panel freaks out just like he said....
One common denominator is that they all had original B Cards in them. One of them I swapped to the latest B/G card and it still acted weird... When I swapped it to my "older" B/G card out of my demo panel, it worked... The new B/G card also worked fine in my demo panel in the showroom..... The Business with this panel had "Recently upgraded the Wireless network to a high power N system....
Left confused by that incident, fast Forward to last week.. Client called about his panel acting up. Again, Installer went out, confirmed, and brought the panel back to me. Worked Fine in the showroom.... Out to the house I go. Now, I know this client has recently had a lot of network work done.... so I go in thinking about it...
Just as I suspected, the panel freaks out when I get back to the bedroom. I scan the room with my MetaGeek Chanalizer and find 8 different wireless networks in range... and one Really really strong "N" network.... The network guy had placed a "N" repeater about 15' from my "B" access point...
I unplug the repeater, and the panel suddenly gets happy. Works as good as it ever has... I plug the "N" repeater back in, and surprisingly, it still works fine.... Thats odd I thought.. but I reboot the panel.... and when it boots up, it freaks out again.... Repeat the scenario.. Unplug repeater, panel get happy. Reboot the panel with the "N" repeater unplugged, and it works great still.... Plug the N back in.. panel works fine.. reboot panel.. Crash....
So it seems that once the 8400 connects to the B network, its happy even if the N is present, but when looking for that initial connection, if it sees the "N" it just doesn't know what to do.
Scientific Proof? Not really, but hopefully my experience here may save someone from pulling all their hair out.
(And for the record, that panel is still on the original "B" card. Early MVP-8400.. First year of production)
Went out to the house
0
Comments
If you can force it to stay up in the 5 Ghz range for N and not come down to the 2.4Ghz band, an N WAP shouldn't give you any grief. However, I've seen quite a few WAPs that handle the switch on their own or just go ahead and broadcast on both bands. N down in the 2.4Ghz range is going to cause problems. N takes up a good chunk of the channels of a B/G WAP.
If you're in a situation of a WAP that cannot be configured to stay out of N-2.4Ghz, then I'd turn it off altogether.
On another note, if your panels are still using the B only card, I'd highly recommend changing that out too. They had known problems and their range was pretty poor compared to the newer B/G card. Plus the features of the newer card when combined with the appropriate firmware can also help you with some of the problems you're seeing.
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