Posted by Chad Weaver on Tue, Jun 19, 2012
Configuring a Cisco Wireless access point out of the box seems like a daunting task but if you are implementing a simple setup, a single SSID on your flat network the configuration can be completed much easier than you would believe.
Starting the device
After you have un-boxed the device, and powered it up you should connect to the device via console cable. The default username and password are Cisco and Cisco as well as Cisco for the enable password. I would recommend changing these before putting this in a production environment. Following this from the terminal you need to enter configure mode before entering the configuration commands. I recommend doing this configuration from the command line as the GUI is slow un-responsive at times and requires multiple steps to complete the same tasks.
The configuration
Starting in configure mode create your SSID with the following commands, as well as establish your WPA preshared key.
dot11 ssid NetworkSSID
authentication open
authentication key-management wpa
guest-mode
wpa-psk ascii (Type password here)
The above will establish the SSID but it will still need to be assigned to the correct interface and turn on the wireless radio. Cisco ships their WAPs with the radios off, there are warnings all over the device and packaging regarding this.
interface Dot11Radio0
encryption mode ciphers aes-ccm tkip
ssid NetworkSSID
no shut
that will set the encryption, and get the device up and running with the SSID being broadcast.
Last Steps
The last thing to do is configure the device with a management IP address.
interface BVI 1
ip address x.x.x.x y.y.y.y
There you have it the fast way to get a Cisco Aironet up and running, cheers!
