WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.720 Hello everyone and welcome to our second to last lesson, we can see the light at the end 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:19.480 of the tunnel, we're almost done here, of our Encore Wireless course. 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:23.160 We're going to be talking about the features that you might see on the exam. 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:26.440 These are the things you configure at the AP level or at the wireless LAN controller 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:33.240 level that help control traffic, that give you a little bit of the features that would 00:00:33.240 --> 00:00:38.599 help shape your traffic and make things better in your environment, the special things you're 00:00:38.599 --> 00:00:39.599 looking to do. 00:00:39.599 --> 00:00:45.240 I'm going to take myself off the screen so you can see everything here. 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:46.240 Aggressive load balancing. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:51.840 Now, aggressive load balancing sounds like, this is what it sounds like and it's not. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:57.880 It sounds like it would take clients from an AP, let's, looks like I did it yet again 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:02.240 with the controller, hang on, hang on here. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:08.080 So it looks like what would happen is you take an AP and you've got these clients who 00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:10.440 are connected to the AP. 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:16.239 Aggressive load balancing sounds like you would take these clients and, oh, there's 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:21.400 too many on this AP right now, I'm going to shift them over immediately. 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:24.120 That's what aggressive load balancing sounds like. 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:25.919 And that is not what it is. 00:01:25.919 --> 00:01:30.360 Some people read that for the feature and they assume that's what it is. 00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:32.279 It is not. 00:01:32.279 --> 00:01:37.440 Aggressive load balancing can move across access points and even wireless LAN controllers 00:01:37.440 --> 00:01:46.839 in the association phase of a laptop or whatever you are using to connect to your phone or 00:01:46.839 --> 00:01:47.839 whatever. 00:01:47.839 --> 00:01:52.480 So during that association phase, when you're working with that AP, the AP can send out 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:57.199 a notice that says, hey, I'm too busy, and this is called a code 17. 00:01:57.199 --> 00:01:58.199 I'm too busy. 00:01:58.199 --> 00:02:00.320 I want you to find another AP. 00:02:00.320 --> 00:02:06.040 Now another thing that's important to know is this is OS dependent. 00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:08.240 Some OSs can say, nah, I'm good. 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:10.479 I'm still going to connect to you. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:16.679 A lot of people don't understand that the OS in the equation of connecting to your wireless 00:02:16.679 --> 00:02:20.000 network has a lot of control over what happens. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:25.320 The operating system will actually decide if a signal strength is too low or high. 00:02:25.320 --> 00:02:30.279 If you're in the middle between two cells, let's say I'm in the middle of this cell and 00:02:30.279 --> 00:02:37.160 this cell, and there's an overlap, like I have another user who's here, right? 00:02:37.160 --> 00:02:41.479 Your OS is actually the one that decides am I going to join here or I'm going to join 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:42.520 here. 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:48.960 And sometimes they can even override if the AP sends, say the AP sends that code 17. 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:50.440 I'm too busy. 00:02:50.440 --> 00:02:51.440 Connect to somebody else. 00:02:51.440 --> 00:02:55.720 The OS can go, no, I would like to associate with you. 00:02:55.720 --> 00:02:57.639 So it's very interesting. 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:04.600 You can enable or disable load balancing on that wireless LAN level. 00:03:04.600 --> 00:03:08.199 And this is very important for voice. 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:11.759 You really want to make sure you know what's going on in voice. 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:16.479 I actually don't recommend using wireless for voice clients. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:21.399 But if this is something you're doing, you're using the latest and greatest technologies, 00:03:21.399 --> 00:03:24.399 it's not as bad as it once was. 00:03:24.399 --> 00:03:26.160 But it's something I still don't recommend. 00:03:26.160 --> 00:03:27.160 There's jitter. 00:03:27.160 --> 00:03:32.160 There's other things that come into play that wireless is just not as good at. 00:03:32.160 --> 00:03:33.759 Here's something I want you to note. 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:35.240 I'm not going to read this to you. 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:36.240 You're not children. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:39.759 I want you to note and read this information right here. 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:41.279 This is important. 00:03:41.279 --> 00:03:44.880 What this is about is voice clients, right? 00:03:44.880 --> 00:03:51.000 When voice clients do not authenticate more than 300 milliseconds, that's a problem. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.759 So you're going to have to do your own configuration. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:04:02.000 You're going to have to go in and change the CCKM and make sure that there's a pageant 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.320 router between the AP and wireless LAN controller. 00:04:05.320 --> 00:04:13.479 So if I have an AP and I've got a router and then the wireless LAN controller, I want 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:18.359 to make sure that's there and want to make sure that there's a configuration delay of 00:04:18.359 --> 00:04:23.160 600 milliseconds, that's 300 milliseconds up and 300 milliseconds down. 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:26.040 Take a second, read that, understand that. 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:31.160 And that's just to avoid that authentication problem. 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:34.339 If it doesn't authenticate, it's going to fail. 00:04:34.359 --> 00:04:37.739 So voice clients really need this additional setup. 00:04:37.739 --> 00:04:43.500 This is just yet another reason why I don't recommend wireless for voice clients. 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:48.420 You have a better option in most cases. 00:04:48.420 --> 00:04:51.380 Let me show you why. 00:04:51.380 --> 00:04:54.480 Remember when I underline something, you need to know it. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:59.779 So read through that one more time, pause the video, read through it one more time, 00:04:59.779 --> 00:05:00.779 understand why. 00:05:00.779 --> 00:05:04.299 We've got too much delay between the wireless infrastructure and the wireless LAN controller. 00:05:05.260 --> 00:05:09.179 You want to build in a little bit of leeway there by adding in that configuration with 00:05:09.179 --> 00:05:10.179 the CCKF. 00:05:10.179 --> 00:05:11.179 Hey, I said it. 00:05:11.179 --> 00:05:15.820 I said it right too, wow. 00:05:15.820 --> 00:05:20.859 Let's talk a little bit about the next feature on our list, which is peer-to-peer blocking. 00:05:20.859 --> 00:05:26.420 Now peer-to-peer blocking allows us to control how the traffic is directed in our environment. 00:05:26.420 --> 00:05:33.739 If I have an AP here and an AP here, I don't know why my APs look like robot martians, 00:05:33.739 --> 00:05:34.739 but they always do. 00:05:34.739 --> 00:05:42.859 So we have an AP there, AP there, and I have a client here, and I have a client here. 00:05:42.859 --> 00:05:44.859 I always do laptops. 00:05:44.859 --> 00:05:45.859 That's what those are, by the way. 00:05:45.859 --> 00:05:49.339 They're very poorly drawn laptops. 00:05:49.339 --> 00:05:52.420 Laptop there, and I have a laptop here. 00:05:52.420 --> 00:05:58.779 I don't want anybody to be able to talk to each other on my wireless network. 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:02.980 Let's say it's a guest VLAN or a guest wireless LAN. 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:03.980 That makes sense. 00:06:03.980 --> 00:06:06.859 I don't want peer-to-peer communication. 00:06:06.859 --> 00:06:10.299 So I could shut this off. 00:06:10.299 --> 00:06:15.140 This is bridged locally and dropped by the controller and forwarded upstream to the VLAN, 00:06:15.140 --> 00:06:19.059 so it's going to be forwarded up so that there's no peer-to-peer. 00:06:19.059 --> 00:06:21.459 This is applied directly to our wireless LANs. 00:06:21.459 --> 00:06:26.660 This is a setting there, and this does not apply to that multicast traffic. 00:06:26.660 --> 00:06:29.179 Multicast traffic is still going to go out. 00:06:29.179 --> 00:06:33.899 This is locally and centrally switched wireless LANs. 00:06:33.899 --> 00:06:35.700 Disabled is the default value. 00:06:35.700 --> 00:06:38.779 That means we bridge locally within the controller. 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:41.940 This is the part I'd like you to remember here. 00:06:41.940 --> 00:06:44.059 This is the important part. 00:06:44.059 --> 00:06:48.100 Drop means the controller, the wireless LAN controller, is going to discard that peer-to-peer 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:51.700 traffic and forward upstream. 00:06:51.700 --> 00:06:56.739 Packets are forwarded to the VLAN and upstream devices, and then they may come back down. 00:06:56.739 --> 00:06:59.540 So those are the different configurations you have. 00:06:59.540 --> 00:07:02.540 This is a very important one at the bottom. 00:07:02.540 --> 00:07:08.059 For FlexConnect local switching, select drop from the P2P blocking drop-down list, and 00:07:08.059 --> 00:07:13.019 then select FlexConnect local switching checkbox. 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:18.019 This is the configuration you have to use if you have FlexConnect local switching enabled 00:07:18.019 --> 00:07:20.260 and you want peer-to-peer blocking. 00:07:20.260 --> 00:07:25.540 So make sure this is the setting you understand, okay? 00:07:25.540 --> 00:07:27.100 Peer-to-peer blocking has its use cases. 00:07:27.100 --> 00:07:33.179 Like I said, I guess wireless LANs, more secure wireless LANs, or maybe you just want to keep 00:07:33.179 --> 00:07:38.100 people from doing certain things, sharing different things over the wireless network. 00:07:38.100 --> 00:07:41.299 Maybe file sharing is not something you want to do. 00:07:41.299 --> 00:07:42.459 Printers are kind of cool for this. 00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:46.940 You don't want peer-to-peer sharing on printers a lot of the time. 00:07:46.940 --> 00:07:49.500 So this is the kind of thing I would do there. 00:07:49.500 --> 00:07:54.059 All right, next feature, dynamic channel assignment. 00:07:54.059 --> 00:07:57.500 Now this is good and bad, and we'll dive into it. 00:07:57.500 --> 00:08:01.059 Now this is part of Cisco's radio resource management. 00:08:01.059 --> 00:08:05.140 So when we're talking about dynamic channels, we're really talking about frequencies, right? 00:08:05.140 --> 00:08:10.220 We talked about frequencies very early on, and we talked about the different channels, 00:08:10.220 --> 00:08:11.420 if you remember that. 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:13.500 Every frequency has a number of channels. 00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:17.660 I might have one, six, eleven, three channels. 00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:19.940 Maybe I'm using the 2.4 gigahertz range. 00:08:19.940 --> 00:08:23.220 Maybe I'm using the 5 gigahertz range, and I have much more channels. 00:08:23.380 --> 00:08:28.980 But this dynamic channel assignment means that we're going to change those channels 00:08:28.980 --> 00:08:30.420 based on a cost metric. 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:35.299 We're going to evaluate how our channels are performing. 00:08:35.299 --> 00:08:42.700 And this is evaluated based on AP load, interference, adjacent channel interference, and non-Wi-Fi 00:08:42.700 --> 00:08:43.900 sourced interference. 00:08:43.900 --> 00:08:48.700 This is an important one, non-Wi-Fi. 00:08:48.700 --> 00:08:50.820 What is non-Wi-Fi sourced interference? 00:08:51.020 --> 00:08:56.900 Well, did you know that a microwave can put out frequencies that can mess with your wireless? 00:08:56.900 --> 00:08:58.979 That is non-Wi-Fi sourced interference. 00:08:58.979 --> 00:09:03.179 We have too much energy in the air that's just messing with our frequencies. 00:09:03.179 --> 00:09:09.780 So this is all taken into account and given a cost metric that the dynamic channel assignment 00:09:09.780 --> 00:09:12.059 then evaluates. 00:09:12.059 --> 00:09:17.979 This is configured under A, N, A, C, B, G, and these are the ones that are supported. 00:09:18.059 --> 00:09:21.059 We can set this to run automatically. 00:09:21.059 --> 00:09:23.059 So that's cool, right? 00:09:23.059 --> 00:09:26.299 So I'm automatically going to check every 10 minutes. 00:09:26.299 --> 00:09:28.460 That's the default, every 10 minutes. 00:09:28.460 --> 00:09:32.739 And there's an anchor point, which is the time of day that the algorithm will start, 00:09:32.739 --> 00:09:34.380 and then it's 10 minutes from there. 00:09:34.380 --> 00:09:40.020 So if I set it up to start at 11 p.m., 11.10 p.m. it's going to run, 11.20 p.m. it's going 00:09:40.020 --> 00:09:41.580 to run, and so on. 00:09:41.580 --> 00:09:45.299 And it's going to go through this cost metric, and it's going to evaluate the channel I'm 00:09:45.299 --> 00:09:46.380 on. 00:09:46.380 --> 00:09:54.299 If that channel's being interfered with, or there's another Wi-Fi channel very close, 00:09:54.299 --> 00:09:59.700 somebody's using an off channel, somebody's using five, and I'm using six, oh my goodness, 00:09:59.700 --> 00:10:04.900 that's going to be a problem because there's lots of overlap there, right? 00:10:04.900 --> 00:10:11.179 What's going to happen is we're going to change channels, and that's great, except for one 00:10:11.179 --> 00:10:12.179 thing. 00:10:12.580 --> 00:10:18.099 During a channel change, you are going to be disconnected briefly. 00:10:18.099 --> 00:10:23.979 So if you have a client who's constantly disconnecting every 10 minutes, this is something I would 00:10:23.979 --> 00:10:24.979 look at. 00:10:24.979 --> 00:10:29.979 I would look at the dynamic channel assignment and see just how bad this cost metric is. 00:10:29.979 --> 00:10:32.059 How bad is the interference? 00:10:32.059 --> 00:10:35.859 And if it is worth switching channels every 10 minutes. 00:10:35.859 --> 00:10:42.140 You guys might see this, somewhere you might see this is at the airport, or a Doppler radar. 00:10:42.140 --> 00:10:43.859 We kind of talked about that. 00:10:43.859 --> 00:10:48.179 They have some interference there at the five gigahertz range, and if you have dynamic channel 00:10:48.179 --> 00:10:52.419 assignment, when they turn on that radar, if you're near a news station, you're going 00:10:52.419 --> 00:10:56.299 to see this, and then you're going to see your channel start changing at 10 minutes, 00:10:56.299 --> 00:10:58.500 at 10 minute intervals. 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:04.179 And it might even change multiple times as they have the radar enabled. 00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:08.539 Freeze does not run the DSA algorithm unless triggered. 00:11:08.539 --> 00:11:11.219 So you would have to, that's a more manual process. 00:11:11.219 --> 00:11:19.099 You're going to have to say, hey, I want you to evaluate this, and off disables it altogether. 00:11:19.099 --> 00:11:20.900 So this is still running, by the way. 00:11:20.900 --> 00:11:23.580 This is still running, but not every 10 minutes. 00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:26.580 You're kind of in a pause state until you turn it back on. 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:29.619 So kind of a cool feature, but can be a problem, right? 00:11:29.619 --> 00:11:31.820 It can be more trouble than it's worth. 00:11:31.820 --> 00:11:37.140 If you're constantly switching every 10 minutes, because when you switch a channel, everybody 00:11:37.140 --> 00:11:39.700 drops because the frequency's changed. 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:41.659 Everybody's got to move to the new frequency. 00:11:41.659 --> 00:11:42.659 Think of it this way. 00:11:42.659 --> 00:11:47.940 If I was using a two-way radio, and I was changing the channel on the two-way radio, 00:11:47.940 --> 00:11:51.539 I have to tell you, hey, we're moving to channel seven. 00:11:51.539 --> 00:11:57.419 You would respond, understood, moving to channel seven, over, move to channel seven. 00:11:57.419 --> 00:12:02.659 So during that movement period, we are down, and that's exactly, well, not exactly. 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:05.260 That's kind of the situation we run into. 00:12:05.260 --> 00:12:06.739 All right. 00:12:06.739 --> 00:12:13.619 Another thing we need to cover for our Encore exam is manually adding a wireless SSD to 00:12:13.619 --> 00:12:14.619 a client. 00:12:14.619 --> 00:12:19.340 Now, some of you just kind of tilted your head, manually adding. 00:12:19.340 --> 00:12:24.179 I just click on the button, and I see that my SSID is there, and I click on that. 00:12:24.179 --> 00:12:31.260 Well, some of those people out there like to hide their SSID through a, it's kind of 00:12:31.260 --> 00:12:33.460 a security setting. 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:37.659 Now, I have problems with this. 00:12:37.659 --> 00:12:39.539 It's kind of a security setting. 00:12:39.539 --> 00:12:42.179 It's not really a security setting in my book. 00:12:42.179 --> 00:12:44.340 I am a, I love security. 00:12:44.340 --> 00:12:48.500 I do a lot of security stuff. 00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:54.539 Security through obscurity is not necessarily a good practice. 00:12:54.539 --> 00:13:00.859 Security through obscurity is a slowdown tactic for security. 00:13:00.859 --> 00:13:05.979 You know, in security, you have, I'm not going to dive too deep into this, but this is not 00:13:05.979 --> 00:13:10.099 to be considered a security setting in my book. 00:13:10.099 --> 00:13:16.539 Some people disagree with me, and I understand their rationale. 00:13:16.580 --> 00:13:26.340 Security through obscurity, or trying to make it harder to find something, is not true security 00:13:26.340 --> 00:13:32.979 in the sense that if I have the right tools, this is, you're done immediately, and you 00:13:32.979 --> 00:13:39.500 can say that for a lot of security vulnerabilities, for sure, but I don't like this type of security 00:13:39.500 --> 00:13:42.900 feature, right? 00:13:42.900 --> 00:13:45.659 But I digress. 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:47.900 Lots of people hide their SSID. 00:13:47.900 --> 00:13:49.099 It's not a bad idea. 00:13:49.099 --> 00:13:50.979 I don't have anything against those. 00:13:50.979 --> 00:13:54.020 Just don't call it security in my book. 00:13:54.020 --> 00:13:59.500 SSIDs, hiding an SSID means I'm not going to broadcast it out to the world. 00:13:59.500 --> 00:14:05.059 Nothing's changed, but I don't have that beacon that says, my network's right here. 00:14:05.059 --> 00:14:06.940 My wireless LAN network's right here. 00:14:06.940 --> 00:14:11.260 This SSID is being broadcast from this AP. 00:14:11.260 --> 00:14:17.900 So in order to configure your clients to use that AP, you have to manually add the 00:14:17.900 --> 00:14:27.140 wireless SSID, and you do that in Windows Client by manually adding it. 00:14:27.140 --> 00:14:33.539 In Windows 11, you go to Network Wi-Fi, it's right here, Manage Known Networks, and then 00:14:33.539 --> 00:14:36.820 right here, you have to click Add a New Network. 00:14:36.820 --> 00:14:41.780 The Add a New Network comes up with this window in which you have to put in the network 00:14:41.780 --> 00:14:42.780 name. 00:14:42.780 --> 00:14:47.539 So you have to remember the network name and put it in. 00:14:47.539 --> 00:14:50.739 Security type will be filled out there. 00:14:50.739 --> 00:14:51.739 Connect automatically. 00:14:51.739 --> 00:14:57.020 You would want to click that if it's an environment you visit often. 00:14:57.020 --> 00:15:02.099 If you're on a business trip or something, do not connect even if the network is not 00:15:02.099 --> 00:15:03.099 broadcasting. 00:15:03.419 --> 00:15:08.380 This has to be checked, okay? 00:15:08.380 --> 00:15:10.340 So that's how you do that. 00:15:10.340 --> 00:15:14.940 Again, I don't consider this a security setting, but I know lots of security experts who would 00:15:14.940 --> 00:15:17.979 both agree and disagree with me there. 00:15:17.979 --> 00:15:22.700 I'm just not a fan of security through obscurity. 00:15:22.700 --> 00:15:26.840 And that wraps up our different features you might see on the Encore exam. 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.140 We have one more lesson after this. 00:15:29.140 --> 00:15:34.619 It's about web authentication and basically setting up your guest premises and using that 00:15:34.619 --> 00:15:38.940 browser as kind of your portal into the wireless network. 00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:40.539 But that's it for this lesson. 00:15:40.539 --> 00:15:41.539 I'll see you in the next one.