WifiNigel

Meru access points, like many other controller-based APs, can use DHCP option 43 to acquire the address of the wireless LAN controller that they need to join. In brief, controller-based APs need to find their way back to a controller to obtain their operating code and parameters. Out-of-the-box, they don't know the IP address of the controller they should be talking to. When they are hooked to a wired network, they will request an IP address via DHCP. The DHCP process can also be used to pass them the address of the wireless LAN controller they should be speaking with (in addition to the usual parameters such as IP address, mask, default gateway etc.). DHCP option 43 is used to pass the WLC IP address information to the AP. However,  figuring out the format of the information that should be put in to the option 43 field can be something of a challenge, depending on the DHCP server you are using. I recently had to set up a DHCP server on a Cisco switch to pro...

Just a quick note to myself (as well as sharing for anyone interested)... Aerohive APs can be told where to find Hive Manager using DHCP option 225 (for the HM name) or option 226 (for the HM IP address). - (see here for a much better explanation) I tried to set up the DHCP option 226 for an Aerohive AP today to tell it where to find Hive Manager in my lab. The DHCP server I am using is a Cisco IOS switch. I couldn't get the AP to accept the option for some reason. After lots of playing about, I finally figured out what my issue was: I was using the ' ascii ' keyword for the option type, when it should have been the ' ip ' type (...yes, it's always obvious in retrospect). Here is the correct configuration for a DHCP scope in case you find yourself in the same position: ! *** only assign addresses above .150 *** ! ip dhcp excluded-address 192.168.50.1 192.168.50.150 ip dhcp excluded-address 192.168.50.254 ! ip dhcp pool AP-VLAN    network 192.16...