WAP54GPE, Axim wireless crashes network.

We have an MS Small Business Server2003 network. About 18 workstations. An
independent vendor set up a system using 3 Linksys WAP54GPEs with POE to
connect 12 Dell Axim PDAs to the network to upload time clock data. When
their system is connected to the wired LAN through the switches (3Com 3300s)
all users on the network are intermittently disconnected from the network.
The time between disconnects varies, the time of the disconnects appears to
be greater than one minute and less than ten. Definitely long enough to
cause unrecoverable data loss if users are in database apps.

I have disconnected their wireless system, but they seem lost as to the
problem. Can anyone give me some ideas on troubleshooting. I don't know a lot
about WAPs and wireless, but I know all 3 have the same SSID.

On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:51:06 GMT, "TimmieJoeBob" <u24051@uwe> wrote in
<6326f18f19644@uwe>:

>We have an MS Small Business Server2003 network. About 18 workstations. An
>independent vendor set up a system using 3 Linksys WAP54GPEs with POE to
>connect 12 Dell Axim PDAs to the network to upload time clock data. When
>their system is connected to the wired LAN through the switches (3Com 3300s)
>all users on the network are intermittently disconnected from the network.
>The time between disconnects varies, the time of the disconnects appears to
>be greater than one minute and less than ten. Definitely long enough to
>cause unrecoverable data loss if users are in database apps.
>
>I have disconnected their wireless system, but they seem lost as to the
>problem. Can anyone give me some ideas on troubleshooting. I don't know a lot
>about WAPs and wireless, but I know all 3 have the same SSID.

Which network? Wireless? Wired? Both?
What exactly do you mean by "disconnected from the network"?
How would there be "unrecoverable data loss" on a TCP/IP connection?

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John Navas wrote:
>Which network? Wireless? Wired? Both?

Wired for sure. Not sure about wireless although I'm assuming it is affected
as well. I believe the idea of the developers is that the wireless portion is
merely an extension of the wired.

>What exactly do you mean by "disconnected from the network"?

I mean they totally lose connection to network shares for long enough to
cause trouble. Shares cannot be seen and data cannot be sent or received.

>How would there be "unrecoverable data loss" on a TCP/IP connection?

My bad description, sorry. If a database app, such as accounting, is in the
middle of processing transactions the disconnection lasts long enough that
the program times out. If this happens mid-processing data is lost. In SQL
apps it is recoverable, but one of our database apps runs on Foxpro and it is
not forgiving. Another app uses a proprietary database that stores CAD data.
It is even less forgiving. We had some corrupted files this past weekend.
Fortunately we were able to rebuilt them.

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 02:15:33 GMT, "TimmieJoeBob" <u24051@uwe> wrote in
<6329c6ebda56d@uwe>:

>John Navas wrote:
>>Which network? Wireless? Wired? Both?
>
>Wired for sure. Not sure about wireless although I'm assuming it is affected
>as well. I believe the idea of the developers is that the wireless portion is
>merely an extension of the wired.

The most obvious place to look for a problem is the wired connection
between WAP54GPE and 3COM 3300, including the PoE setup. What happens
if PoE is taken out of the equation, with all wireless adapters directly
on wall power?

>>What exactly do you mean by "disconnected from the network"?
>
>I mean they totally lose connection to network shares for long enough to
>cause trouble. Shares cannot be seen and data cannot be sent or received.

Does Windows think the cable is being disconnected?

During an outage, can wired clients ping each other? The server? The
Internet? Can the server ping wired clients?

If all wired computers (including the server) are connected to each
other through one or more 3COM 3300 switches, then the switch may be
getting screwed up, possibly by corruption of the Forwarding Database.
Do switch ports see a loss of connection? Do you have some other switch
to try?

--
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John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
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Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>