RED15w Access Point not showing up as pending access point

Hi Christian

I've got exactly the same Issue/ Problem which you described.

The only difference: If I delete the Red15w, connect it to another UTM (which changes the unlock code), delete it there and connect it to the first UTM again (which again changes the unlock code), it does NOT appear in the pending APs again :-(

The history was the same: It appeared at "Pending Access Points" the very first time I connected it. I authorized it joining an existing AP-Group and after that it changed to be an "Inactive Access Point" with an exclamation mark on the icon. I couldn't make it changing the behavior with changing the configuration -> so I deleted it, waiting for it to appear again.

Is there anything else you probably did except for changing the UTM as described?

Every help is highly appreciated ;-)

Cheers, Janbo

Hi, Janbo, and welcome to the UTM COmmunity!

I know that several people have had similar issues with the RED 15w.  You should get Sophos Support involved.  If they can't fix this immediately, you should lean on them to loan you an AP 15 until they find the bug.

If they do fix it, please find out what they did and share it here with us.

Cheers - Bob

Hi Bob

Thanks for welcoming me!

I involved the Distributor's UTM-Support. Finally they gave up and involved the Sophos Support analyzing my UTM-Logs.

Outcome: The WLAN-Configuration which I pushed to the pending AP of the RED15w at the first (and only) time it appeared under "Pending APs", misconfigured the AP and kept sticky in the device. The config I pushed when I assigned the pending AP to an existing WLAN-Config-Group was not very wise because it only could have functioned in the main office where the UTM and the existing APs are located (different VLANs with a tagged management VLAN to be reached by the APs).

The problem (and the bug) seems to be that this configuration stays sticky in the device - independent of the effort you bring up.
With no wanted result you can:

• Restart the RED15w-device (interrupt power locally)
• Restart the RED15w-device (interrupt connection within the UTM by disabling and enabling it again)
• Delete the RED15w-device from the UTM and redeploy it via Sophos provisioning service on the same UTM
• Delete the RED15w-device from the UTM and redeploy it via Sophos provisioning service on an different UTM (including the need of using the unlock keys -> AP will not be available on the new/ different UTM neither)
• Delete the RED15w-device from the new UTM and redeploy it via Sophos provisioning service on the old UTM (including the need of using the unlock keys)

So how did I solve the Problem:
Following the recommendation of the Sophos Support:

• Configuration of an VLAN-Interface with binding to the virtual RED-Hardware-Interface
• Configuration of an DHCP in the new environment (that might have been not necessary)
• Assignment of the new network to the "allowed interfaces" under "global settings" of the Wireless protection

And uppps: The AP was available and configurable again -> showing up under "Pending APs" :-)
After proper configuration I could delete all the workarounds.
Now I can delete it and it will show up again immediately in "Pending APs" because the sticky configuration is not important if there is no tagged VLAN configured...

I hope that Sophos will catch up and solve this bug. I reported the whole story to the ALSO-Support to forward it to Sophos.This is the first problem I could solve with the RED15 devices (i have some more) and the first time the Sophos Support was of any value during debugging.
But this also might be unfair and based on the support of the distributor that potentially doesn't involve Sophos close enough - I'm not sure...

This forum might be my rescue in the future -> we will see :-)

Cheers from rainy Hamburg, Germany

Janbo

Hi Bob

I finally got an answer from my distributor: Its not a bug, its a f....

Even if it is possible to send the AP of a RED15w into nirvana by one wrong configuration push, Sophos doesn't find its worth to solve that "feature".

So I have to remind:

If I misconfigure an RED15w (the wireless-config) and the AP doesn't show up any more, the only way to get it back to live is to involve sophos support via a support case. They needed two days and two logins in the customers UTM to find the root cause for the problem.
So next time I'll try to find the communication-log they dig into.

I don't have enough experience to say, if that can also happen with a normal Access Point -> or if these are "resetable" if they learned a configuration with a tagged config-interface.

But you might recognize reading my words - I'm kind of annoyed -> maybe too great expectations :-(

Cheers from sunny Hamburg, Germany

Janbo

Yeah, the 15w is too new for me as I've seen many issues with them here.  You're lucky that Support finally found a way to fix one instead of swapping it for an AP 15 and a RED 15.  That it only took a second access indicates that it's almost time for me to accept the 15w as an accessory I don't need to worry about.

Somewhere here you could find a thread I did about a workaround for bridging the SG 115w's wireless with the LAN.  Since it was new at the time, I had it shipped here instead of directly to the customer - I didn't want any surprises that might make me travel 500 miles!

Cheers - Bob