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Radios, Provisioning, Objects, Groups

abhitsabhits Newbie ✭
edited September 2021 in SonicWave

First time attempting to configure (2) SW231c APs on a TZ370W...pretty sure I'm missing something, so I'm coming here for assistance.

Backstory: Upgrading from a single TZ300W to a single TZ370W + two 231c APs. Cell phone signal is horrible in the building. We're next door to a military facility, so the location and soundproofing to the building means pretty much 0 bars, regardless of cell provider. We used to have those Micro-cell devices, but they were problematic at best. Now with the ability to conduct "wifi calling", this is where I'm hoping these new devices will fill the void.

Troubles:

1) I understand the TZ370W is capable of broadcasting 2.4GHz or 5GHz (not both at the same time), so I'll be using either 2.4GHz or 5GHz (haven't decided which would be "best"). The SW231c's would broadcast both. That said, how do I get all 3 radios to work together and broadcast a single SSID? I've been toying around with this for a few days and still got nothing. Given my deployment strategy, we'll get complete coverage throughout the facility, but I don't want to end up with 3 different SSIDs (WIFI2-231c, WIFI5-231c and WIFI-internal-antenna).

2) On the TZ300W, we utilized 2 WLANs

  • WIFI -- for employees, providing access to the LAN
  • WIFI-G -- for employee mobile devices and all guests, providing access to WAN

We recently discovered employees were:

  • Getting on WIFI with their mobile devices
  • Giving out WIFI passphrase to guests

So, now we're segmenting the WLAN to untrust and requiring SSLVPN from WLAN to LAN (by way of NetExtender on the company-assigned devices).

3) This provisioning/group thing has me all confused. Per the documentation...

Note that changes to profiles do not affect units that have already been provisioned and are in an operational state. Configuration changes to operational access points can occur in two ways:

  • Through manual configuration changes
  • This option is the best choice when a single, or a small set of changes are to be made, particularly when that individual access point requires settings that are different from the profile assigned to its zone.
  • Through un-provisioning
  • Deleting an access point effectively un-provisions the unit. It clears its configuration and places it into a state where it automatically engages the provisioning process anew with its peer SonicOS device. This technique is useful when the profile for a zone is updated or changed, and the change is set for propagation. It can be used to update firmware on access points, or to simply and automatically update multiple access points in a controlled fashion, rather than changing all peered access points at the same time, causing service disruptions.

So, what am I missing? Should I even care about the provisioning profile and just manually build/configure/group these access points? I'm simply not getting where provisioning should end and management/configuration should begin.

Goals:

  • Single SSID for each frequency
  • Utilize the internal radio on the TZ370W (for one of the grouped frequencies)
  • Better understand the purpose of provisioning, grouping and virtual APs

Any advice/direction is greatly appreciated -- please note, unless someone determines a security flaw or an impossibility with #2, changing this is non-negotiable (employees don't follow along, LOL). It's lack of comprehension, training, etc., I get it. We are a small business and I'm a 1-man IT Dept -- simply don't have the time to offer any of that on top of my day, night and weekend job, LOL.

Category: SonicWave
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Answers

  • Provisioning profiles are usually for SonicWaves. Internal wireless like the TZ 370W is configured in a different section of the UI.

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