System Source Webinar & Happy Hour – “How Wi-Fi

Needs are Changing as Employees Return to Work” July 22nd

Scott RippeySolutions Architect

System Source

srippey@syssrc.com

Erik Sheedy - Inside Territory Manager

Jake Bowers - Mid Atlantic Systems EngineerCisco

Alex Wilson

Wireless Engineer/Project ManagerCollabsion, Inc

• Introductions – Chris Riley

• Scott Rippey

• Welcome to the new world . . .

• Erik Sheedy and Jake Bowers

• Cisco Meraki – Troubleshooting options

• Alex Wilson

• Advance Troubleshooting

• Q&A – Chris Riley

Agenda

If you haven’t received your Old-

Fashioned Cocktail Kit

then contact Mike Jones:

mjones@syssrc.com

Enjoy an Old Fashioned while learning about New Fashioned wireless

technology!

During the Webinar…

Audio – In presentation mode until end

Control Panel

View webinar in full screen mode

In Chat – Tell us what you hope to learn today?

Feel free to submit written questions

Evaluation just after webinar finish

Welcome to the new world

Scott Rippey

Welcome to the new world…

• COVID is changing the way many of us work

• Increased demand for wireless services in office

• Increased use of streaming / video conferencing

• Changing the office layout

Troubleshooting Options

Erik Sheedy

The Only 100% Centralized Cloud-Managed Network● Leader in cloud networking: 1,700,000+ customer networks deployed

○ Founders of Meraki Invented cloud managed wifi in 2006 at MIT○ Over 1300 employees worldwide○ 10,000 new networks deployed per week

● Over time Meraki has evolved into cloud-managed everything IT○ Complete line of wireless APs, switches, UTM, SD-WAN, MDM, cloud application monitoring and security cameras.

● Cisco acquired Meraki for $1.2 Billion to form the Cisco Cloud Networking Group○ Heavily increased investment in Meraki technology to grow team and accelerate R&D○ Meraki is Cisco’s most successful acquisition ever!

Trusted by thousands of customers worldwide:

High Security Financial Security Large Enterprise Retail Franchises

Simplifying IT with cloud management

A complete cloud-managed IT solution

Wireless, switching, security, SD-WAN, application performance management, unified endpoint management (UEM), and security cameras

Integrated hardware, software, and cloud services

Leader in cloud-managed IT

Among Cisco’s fastest growing portfolios

350k+Unique customers

4.5M+Meraki devices

online

5.5M+Active Meraki

dashboard users

Intuitive Web-Based Dashboard

Site-wide search

Client location

L7 application visibility

Real-time control

Client fingerprints

Single pane of glass ITmanagement

Remote tools

Granular control over bandwidth, apps, and client devices

Get up-to-date insights into clients and application usage thanks to cloud-automated classification and device fingerprinting.

Ensure network stability and higher productivity by prioritizing mission critical apps and throttling low-priority ones.

Ensure baseline security and consistency across sites while drastically reducing deployment time with configuration templates.

Powerful heuristics for smarter wireless troubleshooting

Meraki Wireless Health: A powerful heuristics engine that rapidly identifies anomalies impacting end users’ experience across every stage of client

connectivity — association, authentication, IP addressing, and DNS availability — for rapid root cause analysis and response.

Quickly identify worst-performing access points & client devices, problematic latency, and specific failure reasons

Integrated analytics for actionable insights

Leverage out-of-the-box analytics to understand client behavior and foot traffic across sites and venues.

Use location data to make informed decisions about staffing, event or storefront displays, advertising — even AP placement.

Integrate raw, real-time data with business intelligence systems and perform deeper analysis using built-in API.

Meraki Dashboard Demo

Jake Bowers

Advanced TroubleshootingGoing beyond the controller options

Alex Wilson

Goals

Identify and discuss…

• Advanced troubleshooting options

• Changing workplace environment

• Designing a new system

Most common test…• Speed Test

• Done from the client to a known server

• Returns the download and upload throughput plus latency

• Limited value

What causes low throughput?• Low signal strength

• Interference

• Channel width settings

• Spatial stream support

• Band being used

Going Beyond the Controller

• Signal strength checks

• Spectrum analysis

• Comprehensive troubleshooting

Signal Strength Checks

• Can be done with pretty much any network device

• iOS devices have limited options

• Limited usefulness – not the full picture

• Not all devices are created equal

• Hard to isolate selected access point

What defines a “good” signal

• Best signal is -30dBm

• Worst would be -100dBm

• Every application / system has different needs

We have a good signal but…

• The network still isn’t that great

• Signal strength doesn’t tell you about interference

• Could be weak client devices

• Roaming not working

Now what?

• Throughput said there was “some” problem

• Signal strength showed there were some dead spots or was inconclusive

• Now what?

Spectrum Analysis

• Requires specialized tools

• Reads the spectrum and helps find issues

• Requires advanced knowledge to make sense of findings

Tools of the trade• Limited use tools

• Metageek WiSpy, RF Explorer

• Full featured tools• Ekahau with Sidekick, AirMagnet

• iBwave, Acrylic, TamoSoft, VisiWave

What can we learn?

• Identify and potentially locate interference sources

• Analyze channel use

Getting a bit better…

• We know we have throughput issues

• We found our dead and weak spots

• We found we have spectrum use issues

• We fixed the above and still have throughput issues

• Now what?

Detailed professional assessment

• WiFi site survey conducted by wireless engineer

• Uses professional grade tools

• Looks at more than just signal strength

Results from Actual Survey• Client is a winery with six access points

• Slow page loads, dropped connections, dropped or garbled WiFi calls, frequent DHCP issues

• POS terminals dropping transactions causing double charges sometimes

Outcome of an Assessment

• Changing configuration

• Moving, adding, removing access points

• Upgrading certain access points

• System replacement

• Good neighbor policy

Our Findings

• Interference

• Several APs mounted on the wall, not flat

• Wrong APs for situation

• Weak coverage outside

Summarizing troubleshooting

• Start with the controller options

• Signal strength tests

• Spectrum analysis

• Professional troubleshooting survey and report

New WiFi Network Design

• WiFi needs to be designed correctly

• Guessing is not “correctly”

• Neither is 1:1 replacement

Common Things that go Wrong

• Old location was bad, why would it be better now?

• New radiation patterns

• Different standards supported

• Different options altering the entire experience

• New access points will just be better right?

Planning on Moving to WiFi 6?

• You need to design for it if you want to take advantage of it

• Coverage will be different due to new APs and new features

Options to Create a Good Design• Use the right partner to get it done

• AP on a Stick Design

• Predictive Design with Onsite Review / Testing

• Pure Predictive Design

Wrapping up• Use your controller to start the troubleshooting process

• Move to basic tools next to attempt to isolate some issues

• If you can’t resolve it, move to a professional troubleshooting survey

• If designing a new system, do it right to avoid the common pitfalls

Q & A

Kindly complete the survey at the end of this webinar. We will use your feedback to help us

improve.

THANK YOU!