If you have not used WiFi Explorer before, get yourself a copy of the Pro version here. It is absolutely worth it and extremely useful tool if you have anything to do with Wi-Fi.
The Pro version (the Lite doesn’t) supports Filters. They allow you to filter scan results and get exactly the scan results you are interested in.
Find rogue access points
Let’s say you want to find APs that use other SSIDs than yours. This filter does just that. It shows all SSIDs other than CiscoLive or CiscoLive-WPA3. Simply paste this string into the Filters text field in the top right-hand corner.
dot11.net.ssid !~ "CiscoLive" AND dot11.net.ssid !~ "CiscoLive-WPA3"
Find APs using low minimum mandatory data rate
Other times you might want to look for access points that have minimum mandatory data rate configured to low – by mistake or by choice. In this example, I am interested in APs broadcasting these 2 SSIDs and using minimum mandatory rate of 6 or lower.
dot11.net.min_basic_rate <= 6 AND dot11.net.ssid ~~ "CiscoLive" OR dot11.net.ssid ~~ "CiscoLive-WPA3"
Download the cheat sheet
We have only scratched the surface. You can do so much more with filters.
Intuitibits, the makers of WiFi Explorer, published a great one-pager documenting the syntax. Get yourself a copy.
The latest generation of Wi-Fi 6E Catalyst Wireless access points (CW9162, CW9164, CW9166 series) gives you the option to either cloud-manage them using Cisco Meraki Dashboard, or manage the APs by Cisco Catalyst 9800 series Wireless LAN Controller (WLC).
They are the exact same hardware and they ship pre-loaded with the Catalyst/DNA and Meraki software image. Depending on the mode setting, they either boot one image or the other.
What do we need
Catalyst Wireless CW9162I, CW9164I, CW9166I, CW9166D1, CW9163E access point in Meraki mode
Cisco Meraki MR access point license to perform the conversion
Cisco DNA Essentials or DNA Advantage access point license if you want to use join and manage the AP by a Catalyst 9800 controller
Choose AP mode before ordering
You will have the best experience when you order your access points in the right mode.
Order the right mode
Order a DNA persona AP and it will auto-discover your Catalyst 9800 controller using one of the supported methods. In the UK, I can order the “-ROW” AP and manage it by Catalyst 9800, and optionally add Catalyst Center (previously known as DNA Center) to get analytics, assurance and other great features. Find the right access point SKU and regulatory domain based on your coutry using this tool.
If you prefer, order the Meraki mode access point, connect it to the internet, and claim it in the Dashboard. Meraki APs use a single “-MR” SKU globally.
Conversion from MR to Catalyst/DNA mode
If you ordered a Meraki access point and your requirements have changed, you can convert the AP to DNA mode.
1. Make sure you have an active Meraki MR license. Why? We need the license to connect the AP to Dashboard, and to open a conversion request with Meraki technical support team.
2. Provide power and internet connectivity to the access point.
3. Log in to Dashboard. Navigate to Organization > Configure > Inventory and add the access point using its Meraki S/N.
Enter the Meraki S/N from the product label
4. Add your MR license to Dashboard under Organization > Configure > License Info.
5. Wait for the AP to connect to Dashboard and change its LED to solid green or solid blue. Perfect, the AP is now online.
6. Complete this checklist first. Disable Meshing feature and make sure your Catalyst 9800 is ready for the AP to connect after conversion has completed.
Disable Meshing feature
7. Open a new support case by clicking the (?) question mark in the top right hand corner > Cases > New Case.
8. Include all these details to speed up the conversion process. Find your Customer Number by clicking the person icon in the top right hand corner. To get your Daily Support Code, click the same person icon, then open My profile.
Hi,
Please convert my CW*****-MR AP with Meraki SN ****-****-**** to DNA mode. I do have an existing DNA license. I disabled Meshing in the Dashboard.
I have completed this checklist:
https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Other_Topics/916X_Management_Mode_Checklist_and_Troubleshooting
I am aware that the AP will not join Dashboard after the conversion, unless I convert it back to MR mode.
Please go ahead and start the mode change immediately.
My customer number: ****-****
My support passcode for today: ****
Have a great day!
9. If this conversion is urgent, call into Meraki support. No, don’t e-mail the support team, call them. Have the case number by hand. Find the best phone number here.
10. After the support engineer starts the conversion, your AP will reboot. It is now in the Catalyst mode. You can verify that by keeping an eye on the Console port output during its boot. Just to remind you (and myself): The new Console port baud rate is 115200 from 17.12.1 release onwards.
12. Our DHCP server assigned an IP address to the AP, which has automatically discovered and joined the WLC located in the same IP subnet.
Successful WLC discovery and AP joinFollowed by automatic software image upgradeThe AP has joined the WLC and is ready for use
To enable SSH and Console access, create a username, password and enable password in the Catalyst 9800 controller’s AP Join Profile > Management > User section. SSH protocol is disabled by default. You can enable it in the AP Join Profile.
You have full Console access and control over the AP
No, it will not, unless you make some bad choices. But, faster card will make your life easier and significantly speed up the image flashing process.
Tests performed
Flash and verify WLAN Pi 3.1.4 software image to the micro SD card using built-in card reader of MacBook Pro M2 and Balena Etcher app
Software image flashing process
Boot WLAN Pi M4 from the micro SD card. Measure how long it takes to boot from plugging the Ethernet cable in (and PoE power provided) to WLAN Pi home screen shown on the display
WLAN Pi M4 powered via PoE
Results
Sandisk High Endurance 32 GB U3 card is the default provided with WLAN Pi M4 by default. The U3 standard reall y makes a huge difference when it comes to writing to the card and that’s why it is our go to option.
Micro SD cards tested
From practical perspective, different size or even slightly slower card won’t really make your Pi boot any faster. If you make some bad choices and reuse an older class 6 card, you will spend extra 11 seconds of your life waiting for the WLAN Pi to boot every single time.
Flash WLAN Pi image
Effective speed
Boot WLAN Pi M4
Sandisk HE 32 GB U3
1 min 59 seconds
64 MB/s
28 seconds
Sandisk HE 256 GB U3
1 min 53 seconds
68 MB/s
28 seconds
Sandisk Ultra 32 GB U1
3 mins 54 seconds
24 MB/s
28 seconds
Samsung 8 GB Class 6
11 mins 29 seconds
8 MB/s
39 seconds
Compute Module 4 with built-in eMMC storage
Didn’t test
Didn’t test
27 seconds
Recommendation
Invest in a U3 or better card and benefit from fast write speeds. There is very little premium to pay. In future, you can reuse a fast card in other device like a dash cam, Raspberry Pi 5 workstation, or video camera.
Let me give you one more reason why you should explore the Shortcuts framework on your iOS or macOS device.
Remind me to charge my test phone
I mainly use my primary iPhone, but for testing I use an older iPhone running iOS Beta. Up until now, I struggled to keep the test phone charged. Typically I would pull it out of the bag and … you know the rest of this story, right?
I put together this quick but very useful shortcut. Whenever charge level drops below 10 %, the secondary phone will automatically send me an iMessage with a reminder. That’s it. Simple. Useful.
Recharge reminder automatically sent to me via iMessage from the secondary device
How does it work
Simply create a new Shortcut on the secondary iOS device, using the Shortcuts app. Select Send Message action and enter your iMessage details.
Now, in the Automation section, configure the trigger that executes this action. Set it to run whenever battery level drops below 10 %.
I flash Micro SD cards few times a day (hello WLAN Pi team 😉), and I thought it might be a good idea to always have an SD card to Micro SD card adapter on me. The easiest way to do that is to insert one in your MacBook built-in SD card reader slot. But which one do you buy?
Supplied adapter
There is nothing wrong with this SanDisk adapter. But it sticks out of your laptop. You can’t leave it inserted in the Mac while travelling. And also, the Micro SD card might slip out of the adapter.
White OEM Micro SD to SD card adapter
To my surprise, this £2.60 adapter worked great… for a couple of weeks 😅 Until it disintegrated. It was designed for previous generations of MacBooks and it is not flush with the body of M1 MacBook, but it is still smaller than the full-size adapter.
You can shave off the grey plastic part, and make it even smaller. The white part allows you to easily remove and reinsert the adapter. No nails required.
The Micro SD card goes in the adapter from the side, so it won’t eject in your backpack or laptop bag.
It flashes cards at the exact same speed 61.8 MB/s as the premium £30 BaseQi. And it is easy to remove from the MacBook card reader slot.
BaseQi 420A
This adapter is primarily designed for those who want to expand storage capacity of their MacBook. And it does that really well. It fits perfectly inside SD card reader slot of 14″ M1 2021 MacBook. The problem is that it works ‘too well’. Once you insert the Micro SD card to it, it is very hard to remove the Micro SD card. Now, when you insert it into MacBook SD card reader, it is designed to stay there and again it does that ‘really well’.
Removal of BaseQi from the MacBook card reader takes 2 fingers and 2 nails. Yes, it takes significant effort.
Would I recommend it to someone who wants to use it to flash Micro SD card few times a day? No. It takes a huge effort.
Afterplug Ultra Slim Stick On SD and MicroSD Card Holder with Reusable Adhesive
Problem solved! This stick on card holder did the trick. I can reuse all my SanDisk SD card to micro SD card adapters. And I can carry a handful of them, label them and store the micro SD cards inside the adapters.
Many of us walk into buildings and we immediately start looking for access points 🙃 Often times, the access points are not visibly installed. But how can you tell what vendor is your favourite coffee shop using, or what APs did your customer deploy?
Now, would it be cool if you could use your iPhone or iPad to find out what vendor is your customer, public venue, favourite football club, or train provider using?
Wi-Fi Vendor iOS Shortcut
I created a Shortcut for iOS, which does exactly that.
Simply connect to a Wi-Fi network and open the shortcut. We will automatically populate the input field with the BSSID of the AP you are currently connected to:
Simply connect to a Wi-Fi network and tap on the Wi-Fi Vendor icon
If you don’t want to connect to an AP, use Airport Utility to get the BSSID (aka the “wireless MAC address” of the AP) of the access points around you, and let Wi-Fi Vendor shortcut do its magic:
Scan for BSSIDs around you and detect vendor
Or you can even use the good old Copy & Paste method. Let’s say you saved the OUI to your Notes app. Copy it to clipboard and paste into Wi-Fi Vendor:
Benefits of this solution
iPhone or iPad is all you need. No need to open your laptop or other professional Wi-Fi tool.
All data stays on your iPhone and iPad. No data, not even the BSSID, is sent to a cloud service.
Our OUI <-> Vendor database is Wi-Fi centric, open to additions of the new records by Wi-Fi professionals, it has extra entries from vendor documentation, and BSSIDs captured in the field
It is community-driven and customisable. Contribute new OUIs, or fork our repository and create your own tool.
For Cisco Meraki APs, I use an active detection method – more about this below
Cisco Meraki active vendor detection method
When there is no match based on the access point’s OUI, Wi-Fi Vendor shortcut performs an active check. Make sure you are connected to the AP, then open Wi-Fi Vendor. It will attempt to browse to the Local Status Page of the AP and if it find Cisco Meraki logo in the source code, that’s a match.
Supported iOS releases
I’ve tested Wi-Fi Vendor on these devices. Use iOS 17 or newer for the best results and all features.
iPad Air 2, iOS 15.7.7 – no Cisco Meraki active check, doesn’t detect BSSID you are currently connected to
iPhone SE 2nd gen, iOS 16.6 – no Cisco Meraki active check, doesn’t detect BSSID you are currently connected to
iPhone SE 2nd generation, iOS 17.0 – all features are supported
iPhone SE 3rd generation, iOS 17.0 – all features are supported
This tool is provided as is. If you spot anything that needs to be fixed, let us know, or even better submit a Pull Request including the fix. Blame Jiri for anything that needs to be fixed, not Cisco 😉
Cisco’s Catalyst 9130AXE access point (the external antenna model) doesn’t have any antennas built-in by design. It uses a DART connector with 8 RF lines and 16 digital lines. They carry the RF signals and allow communication between the AP and antenna.
All new C-ANT9101, C-ANT9102 and C-ANT9103 antennas connect natively using their directly-attached DART connector to the Catalyst 9130AXE access point. It significantly simplifies the deployment process, allows the AP to automatically detect the antenna model, type and gain, and it doesn’t allow any room for installation errors like loose RP-TNC connectors or swapped antenna RF ports.
Here is an example of the new bell antenna C-ANT9102 with directly-attached DART connector.
And here is one connected to the C9130AXE-E access point.
Now, if your scenario requires the antenna to be installed further away from the access point (inside of a freezer for example) there is a 3-feet DART extension cable for that sold by Cisco.
The part number is AIR-CAB003-D8-D8=.
It has 90-degree 8-port plug on one side and straight 8-port jack on the other.
Orientation of Wi-Fi access point with external antenna(s) on Cisco DNA Center maps is represented by 2 key attributes.
Azimuth tells us how many degrees we rotated the antenna around its vertical axis. It ranges from 0 to 360.
Elevation represents downtilt of the main lobe relative to horizon. It ranges from -90 to 90. Horizon equals to Elevation 0. If the antenna’s downtilt is 30° down, Elevation is -30. The minus sign tells us that the antenna is pointed downwards.
Downtilt of 30° equals to Elevation -30
Antenna shooting above the horizon, which is not very common, would have positive (larger than 0) Elevation value.
We are going to focus exclusively on access points with external antennas in this post. If you are deploying internal antenna AP or AP with dipole antennas, here are the correct settings for you.
Everything in this post applies to all Cisco’s directional antennas. To name a few, C-ANT9103, C-ANT9104, AIR-ANT2566D4M-R, AIR-ANT2566P4W-R, AIR-ANT2513P4M-N.
Enough theory. Pictures are worth a thousand of words.
We are going to use use Cisco’s AIR-ANT2566P4W-R, which has a nicely squished pattern and changes to its orientation are very visual.
Wall-mounted external antenna
By default DNA Center sets APs with external antennas to Azimuth 0 and Elevation 0. Elevation 0 means that the antenna is wall-mounted (downtilt 0°) and its main lobe shoots parallel to horizon.
Let’s assume perfectly wall-mounted antennas with no downtilt at all in the examples below. That way we don’t need to touch the Elevation setting at all. All we need to do is to adjust the Azimuth angle depending on which wall the antenna is mounted on.
Wall-mounted antenna shooting towards the right
Azimuth 0 and Elevation 0 is the default setting for external antennas. It represents a perfectly wall-mounted antenna (that’s what Elevation 0 means) shooting in the right hand direction (that’s what Azimuth 0 does). The main lobe travels parallel to the floor.
Azimuth 0 and Elevation 0
On the floor plan, it is mounted on the ‘left wall’ of the room, shooting towards the right.
Wall-mounted antenna shooting towards the bottom of the map
Now, what if you installed the antenna on a wall, but it points towards the bottom of the map (I avoid the south as it is not true south) this time?
Azimuth 90 and Elevation 0
We rotated the antenna clockwise around it vertical axis by 90 degrees. There is Azimuth for that, so we will increase Azimuth by 90. The final setting is Azimuth 90 and Elevation 0.
The antenna appears as mounted on the ‘top wall’ of the room shooting towards the bottom of our floor plan.
Wall-mounted antenna shooting towards the left
We have now rotated the antenna by another 90 degrees clockwise. That results in Azimuth 180 and Elevation 0.
Azimuth 180 and Elevation 0
It is installed on the right wall pointed towards the left of our floor plan.
Wall-mounted antenna shooting towards the top of the map
Finally, if the antenna is mounted on the ‘bottom wall’ and it points towards the top of our floor plan, that is another 90-degree increment, and results in Azimuth 270 and Elevation 0.
Azimuth 270, Elevation 0
Hopefully, there are no surprises there?
If your antenna uses a different orientation, simply drag the blue Azimuth arrow and point it wherever the antenna’s main lobe is shooting towards.
Ceiling-mounted antenna
Ceiling-mounted antenna shooting towards the floor
Antenna mounted to the ceiling shooting towards the floor has downtilt of 90°. We simply set Elevation to -90. Don’t miss the minus sign.
This is how Azimuth 0 (antenna cables on the left, top side of the antenna on the right) and Elevation -90 looks like.
Azimuth 0, Elevation -90
The irregular ‘oval-ish’ pattern of this patch antenna is very obvious on the map. It kisses the top and the bottom of the floor plan.
My antenna is ceiling-mounted but it is rotated?!
To rotate the antenna on the ceiling by 90° clockwise, we just need to increment Azimuth.
Azimuth 90, Elevation -90
Azimuth 90, Elevation -90
This time the coverage area stretches from left to right, because we rotated the antenna by 90 degrees.
Azimuth 180, Elevation -90
Azimuth 180, Elevation -90
Azimuth 270, Elevation -90
Antenna cables point towards the bottom of the map, which is yet another 90-degree increment. It is still perfectly ceiling-mounted (that’s Elevation -90).
Azimuth 270, Elevation -90
Let’s practise
Now, let’s apply the theory.
What Azimuth and Elevation would you configure on C-ANT9103 antenna connected to Catalyst 9130 AP mounted using AP-BRACKET-9 bracket on the ‘top wall’ (don’t let the perspective of the photo confuse you) of the floor plan with 30-degree downtilt?
Azimuth 90, Elevation -30
The antenna is mounted on the top wall shooting to the bottom of the map. That translates to Azimuth 90. It is wall-mounted, which normally means Elevation 0, but it is tilted 30° down. So, we subtract 30 from Elevation. And here we go, that’s Elevation -30.
