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Cisco NCS 1.0/1.1 - Internet Explorer Chrome Plugin Gotcha

If you're like me, then when it's time to use or install a new release of software, you quickly scan through the release notes trying to make sense of the reams and reams of 'new features', 'caveats', 'bugs fixed' etc. without falling to sleep and smashing your nose on the desk in front of you. (Why can't technical writers give those things a plot, a love interest and a gripping ending..?) The main purpose of this exercise is often to pick up the 'headlines' so that you can fairly comfortably install or implement the new software, armed with a reasonable amount of knowledge to allow you to not fall down any particularly large holes during the process. One area I'm particularly guilty of 'glossing over' in this release-note-scanning activity is the section that describes the versions of browser support that are provided for web-GUI based products (e.g. network management software). Sure, I give the browser support section a

Creating Per-site Guest VLANs on a Guest WLC (Cisco Guest Solution)

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Overview Before the advent of WLC code version 7.0.116.0, it was difficult to scale a Cisco guest wireless solution (in terms of IP address space) due to the fact that all foreign controllers (i.e. non-guest controllers) could only map to a single layer 3 interface on the guest (anchor) controller. This often meant that a very large subnet had to be allocated to guest users to allow for multiple sites which shared a guest controller. The guest controller is usually located on a firewall DMZ interface (perhaps in a data center). The only way around this was to have multiple guest SSIDs (e.g. one per building), with a separate VLAN for each SSID. This is not a very popular option with customers as there is no consistency of SSIDs between sites/buildings. Another drawback of the single guest-VLAN restriction is that all guest traffic originates from a single subnet range. From an administrative point of view, it is often desirable for guest traffic from different buildings or sites