Wi-Fi Update

Owned by Satish Warrier
Last updated: Mar-10, 2023

Background:

For the past three years, 4CD has contracted with a third party vendor to add capacity to our Wi-Fi network. What we did not realize is that the new Wi-Fi access points were not tuned properly; neither the radio channels, nor the power settings were configured properly for our needs. This was partly because the additions were done during COVID times when the campuses were practically empty. Fine tuning Wi-Fi is an art that requires knowledge of radio frequencies, building layouts, Wi-Fi usage, etc., and just as importantly, it is time consuming since it has to be done one access point at a time. At this time, there are over 900 access points across the District.

We have engaged the highest level of support from our vendor in troubleshooting the issues as well reviewing the logs and following up with staff and students. Concurrently with the troubleshooting we are also moving ahead with finding a 3rd party vendor to continually assess and maintain our Wireless infrastructure.

Although we cannot provide every step we are undertaking, we will attempt to provide summary below of major events as we make progress towards a better Wi-Fi.

Ongoing Updates:

  • 3-8-23: We changed configuration to secure connections between user devices (Client isolation) at the DO, if this all works we will do this change at DVC over the weekend

  • 3-7-23: We had vendor do a complete Wireless survey of CCC-AA and DVC-Math buildings after the changes made on 3-3.

  • 3-3-23: We will lower the antenna power in access points in DVC Bookstore because we found signal from bookstore inside Math building which was causing channel interference and more importantly Bookstore Access point are running on a older controller as a result some users in Math building may be disconnected periodically.

  • 3-3:23: We are make the same change described below what was done with LMC Science building to DVC Math building tonight

  • 3-2-23: We are finding devices that are capable of 5ghz still connecting to the legacy 2.4ghz frequency, we suspect this is the case because the device is ‘seeing’ a stronger 2.4ghz signal. Therefore, we are going to experiment in LMC Science building by creating a new SSID “college Wifi-Legacy” that will only broadcast on 2.4ghz and take 2.4ghz out of the ‘college-wifi’ SSID to force the devices that are capable of 5ghz to connect at 5ghz.

  • 3-1-23: We have switched all the Access Points (AP’s) to fixed channels and not allowing them to auto negotiate, as we have found the last couple of days the auto negotiation is work working correctly.

  • 2-27-23: The configuration changes include upgrades may require users to accept “Terms & Conditions” when connecting to college-wifi which should not be asked again for 10 working days.

  • 2-27-23: There should be some improvement starting today based on the work from the past 48hrs. Please use the online form to report issues.

  • 2-26-23: Added all the changes back that were made in the past few weeks and also did the following to all Access Points (AP’s) district wide based on lessons learnt in DVC & CCC Library building (1) minimized the radios that broadcast the older 2.4ghz frequency (2) tuned the power settings on radios that broadcast 5ghz to minimize channel interference among radio as we have large number of access point in many buildings (almost one in every classroom). With the advise of vendor we have also changed the settings on to let the controller decide which channels to utilize.

  • 2-25-23: The newest firmware introduced unexpected issues so we had to restore the controller from backup then had to do another firmware upgrade to the 2n latest firmware and this process wiped out all of the changes made during the past few weeks.

  • 2-22-23: Inactivity grace period changed to 30 minutes from 12 hrs at DVC and CCC, this should prevent controller from showing stale devices This inactivity timeout is not related to the T&C time out which is still set to 10 calendar days.

  • 2-18-23: We attempted to do the recommended upgrade but it ran into issues so it could not be completed. Firmware updates still pending resolution from vendor.

  • 2-21-23: Not related to troubleshooting but it’s Wi-Fi, ART and PE Complex at DVC are currently without Wi-Fi because of issues related to construction.

  • 2-17-23: Continuing intensive troubleshooting, vendor support noticed that Wi-Fi controllers were showing stale devices (that is devices that have left Wi-Fi range) still as active. They asked us upgrade controller to their latest version of software to see if this would resolve this issue.

  • 2-16-23: at CCC-Library, we also found some printers with Wi-Fi enabled that may have been contributing to ‘noise’ on Wi-Fi frequency which may be a contributing factor.

  • 2-13-23: Devices were being prompted to “agree to terms & conditions” repeatedly, this issue has been corrected and now will ONLY prompt once every 10 Calendar days (that is maximum the system will allow)

  • 2-13-23: Since there was positive feedback from the changes in CCC library we made similar changes to DVC Library building. This seems to have improved connectivity and speeds based on feedback from staff and students.

  • 2-13-23: at CCC-Library, we changed configuration of the access point to specific frequency, changed antenna power settings among other settings. This seems to have improved connectivity and speeds based on feedback from staff and students.

  • 2-6-23: Our initial thought (as described in email from 1/31/23) was to troubleshoot two buildings at each site which turned out to be too ambitious. After discussing with vendor support, we agreed to concentrate on two buildings (CCC and DVC library) and do an intensive troubleshooting of issues that were occurring there would be the best plan of action. Once we determined the cause in these two buildings, we could implement the changes in other buildings districtwide.

  • 1-31-23: Wi-Fi update email was sent Districtwide, in that email we mentioned that we would focus the vendors troubleshooting to the following buildings:

    • CCC – LLRC and Science

    • DVC – Library and FO

    • LMC – SS and Science

Contra Costa Community College District