what is the lifespan of a wireless access point?
John Faughnan
for over a year. About a month ago I began to have to reset the unit
every week or so because the wireless service went away. I power down
and power up again to restore service.
I've reflashed the SMC, that had no effect.
I'm suspecting it's a new hardware problem. Do wireless access points
have a fixed lifespan? If so, what tends to break?
john
[meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, WAP, access point, longevity, lifespan,
reset, service interruption, wireless access point, Wi-Fi, WiFi,
802.11b, 030527]
Rôgêr
news:5c0dbfb4.03052...@posting.google.com...
> I've been running my SMC Barricade router 802.11b access point nonstop
> for over a year. About a month ago I began to have to reset the unit
> every week or so because the wireless service went away. I power down
> and power up again to restore service.
>
> I've reflashed the SMC, that had no effect.
>
> I'm suspecting it's a new hardware problem. Do wireless access points
> have a fixed lifespan? If so, what tends to break?
>
> john
Everything that works now has a time when it won't work anymore. I'm not
aware of access points having a MTBF like hard drives are rated for, but
they will all inevitably stop working. Try a new AP and see if it works
better. If it does, then it's good news all around.
Bob Willard
Of course, WAPs have a MTBF just as HDs do, even though WAP vendors
don't seem to advertise the numbers. Note that current HDs have
MTBFs in the vicinity of 1,000,000 hours (roughly a century), so if
WAPs do as well as HDs, nobody would ever complain.
There have been anecdotal reports that some WAPs are rather sensitive
to poor-quality A.C. power (also true for HDs). Perhaps a power line
conditioner or UPS would be a good investment.
--
Cheers, Bob
John Faughnan
> Rôgęr wrote:
> > "John Faughnan" <jfau...@spamcop.net> wrote ..
> >>I've been running my SMC Barricade router 802.11b access point nonstop
> >>for over a year. About a month ago I began to have to reset the unit
> >>every week or so because the wireless service went away....
> >>I suspect it's a new hardware problem. Do wireless access points
> >>have a fixed lifespan? If so, what tends to break?
> > Everything that works now has a time when it won't work anymore. I'm not
> > aware of access points having a MTBF like hard drives are rated for, but
> > they will all inevitably stop working....
> Of course, WAPs have a MTBF just as HDs do, even though WAP vendors
> don't seem to advertise the numbers. Note that current HDs have
> MTBFs in the vicinity of 1,000,000 hours (roughly a century), so if
> WAPs do as well as HDs, nobody would ever complain.
> There have been anecdotal reports that some WAPs are rather sensitive
> to poor-quality A.C. power (also true for HDs). Perhaps a power line
> conditioner or UPS would be a good investment.
I'll try plugging it into the UPS, thanks. I also wonder if the unit
is getting too hot. I moved a lot of router/hub equipment into a
ventilated wooden cabinet, but there's less ventilation there than I
once had. I'll try adding a small fan to boost air flow in the
cabinet.
I'm not as familiar with RF equipment as I am with pre-wireless
computer hardware. Of course with systems like these all kinds of
things can cause instability (change in packet properties brings out
some funny bug that causes memory overflow that causes lockups, etc,
etc). I do suspect somethings broken however. The newer devices have a
built-in VPN support, that would be nice ..
[meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, wireless access point, WAP, 802.11b,
WiFi, Wi-Fi, MTBF, failure modes, failure mode, hardware, lifespan,
lifetime, longevity, 030527]
John Faughnan
I'll be buying a replacement device. The router and print server
functions of the 7004AWBR remain functional and I'd like to continue
to use them. I'd like to totally disable the RF emitter in the old
Barricade to reduce interference with the new device at the same
location. I can use a different channel, etc, but I'd just as soon get
rid of the RF emitter altogether.
SMC's software does not support disabling the RF emitter.
I presume I'll have to take the device apart and cut something. Any
suggestions?
john
(old message below)
jfau...@spamcop.net (John Faughnan) wrote in message news:<5c0dbfb4.0305...@posting.google.com>...
lifetime, longevity, 030527, disable, disconnect]
RadioActive
client devices that one of the internal clocks may have drifted in frequency
resulting in the link failing, or exhibiting the tendency to fall out of
lock every few minutes. The use of non-temperature stabilized oscillators
may cause the client to operate at one extreme of the tolerance range, and
the AP the other. Parameters may change as these devices age.
"John Faughnan" <jfau...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:5c0dbfb4.03052...@posting.google.com...
John Faughnan
After posting the following in mid-May I sent an email to SMC and
received advice from their overseas tech support. They advised doing a
complete device reset (I think the sequence is power off, press reset
button in and hold, power on and continue to press for 10 seconds or
so -- but see manual). A simple power cycle is not sufficient.
I did that and re-entered all my settings. The reset did not seem to
change the ROM version; it remained at the most recent setting.
It's been over two weeks without a failure. Previously it was failing
every few days.
If I start having failures again I'll export my settings, do a full
reset and reimport and see if that works. A bit faster than reentering
all the data.
I wonder if the problem is some kind of slow memory leak.
john
jfau...@spamcop.net (John Faughnan) wrote in message news:<5c0dbfb4.03052...@posting.google.com>...
Bob Moriarty
years old. I went through the same cycle of power downs and resets. They
worked for a couple of weeks and then the wireless part died altogether. In
the end, it wouldn't let me change the channel and a bunch of other
settings. I was only using it as an access point (No WAN connection). I had
to replace it with a D-Link 900AP, which works great!
Bob
--
NJ Networks
Specializing in Wired and Wireless Networks
http://www.nj-networks.com
"John Faughnan" <jfau...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:5c0dbfb4.03061...@posting.google.com...
John Faughnan
> I just "lost" an old SMC 7004WBR wireless barricade. It was about 2 1/2
> years old. I went through the same cycle of power downs and resets. They
> worked for a couple of weeks and then the wireless part died altogether. In
> the end, it wouldn't let me change the channel and a bunch of other
> settings. I was only using it as an access point (No WAN connection). I had
> to replace it with a D-Link 900AP, which works great!
> Bob
Well, after I posted the "success" note below the Barricade died
again. I power cycled the unit and got another hour of life. So it
does seem to be in a death spiral.
I'll look at replacing it with the D-Link 900AP. I'm also considering
an AirPort, since I have an OS X machine. The AirPort is costly but my
Apple gear has held up relatively well.
Do you have any idea how to stop the radio output from this device
permanently? I suppose I could wait for it to fail and then not reset
it. I like the parallel port print server. The AirPort only works with
USB or ethernet printers.
Bob Moriarty
I don't know how). You could set the SSID to something you don't use and
just leave it.
Good luck,
Bob
--
NJ Networks
Specializing in Wired and Wireless Networks
http://www.nj-networks.com
John Faughnan
> I'm not certain that you could manually disable the transmitter (or at least
> I don't know how). You could set the SSID to something you don't use and
> just leave it.
I have a NetGear 802.11b on hand to replace the SMC. Cheap, since
NetGear is going to 802.11g.
The plastic cover of the SMC Barricade comes off easily; just pry the
sides out gently with a screwdriver to release the latches.
Inside the wireless is simply an 802.11b Taiwanese wireless LAN card,
part number MXF-WL211F. A web site says "This is actually made by
GemTek, and is the same as the D-Link DWL-650". The PCI LAN card was
partly sealed in, but it was easy to pull out. I removed it and the
two antenna.
The SMC Barricade now acts like a print server router firewall without
any wireless.
john
John Faughnan
Purpose: help others with a WAP-less Barricade.
In google usenet thread
http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=5c0dbfb4.0306212002.147e8c28%40posting.google.com
I mentioned that my SMC Networks SMC7004AWBR Wireless 4-Port Broadband
Router with Print Server had become unreliable. In particular I would
lose 802.11b service every 2 hours to 14 days, requiring a power reset
or wired reboot.
Subsequently I bought a NetGear MR814 Router/Firewall/Switch/802.11b
WAP. Out of the box it didn't work at all, but after a firmware
upgrade it seems to be working.
More interesting is my effort to get some value out of the SMC. I
popped the case, pulled the flaky PC wireless card, and set it up so
it acts as switch (unused) and print server (used).
Details at: http://www.faughnan.com/wirelesshome.html (personal web
page, no ads, etc).
john
[meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, WAP, access point, longevity, lifespan,
reset, service interruption, wireless access point, Wi-Fi, WiFi,
802.11b, 030630, Barricade, SMC, Netgear]
jfau...@spamcop.net (John Faughnan) wrote in message news:<5c0dbfb4.03062...@posting.google.com>...