Cisco Meraki Local Status Page: MR Wireless

MR31 and Earlier

• Connection
  Provides information regarding the client's connectivity to the access point, the access point's current network and channels, as well as other cloud connectivity and status information.
  • Speed test
    Provides a tool for conducting a speed test from the wireless client to the access point.
  • Access point details
    Provides utilization information about the hardware and the channels being used by the access point you are connected to.

MR32+

• Connection
  Provides information regarding the client's connectivity to the access point, the access point's current network and channels, as well as other cloud connectivity and status information.
  • Access point details
    Provides utilization information about the hardware and the channels being used by the access point you are connected to.

• Neighbors
  Provides information about any neighboring access points. Includes information like SSID, BSSID, signal (signal-to-noise ratio in DB), channel, mode, and encryption.
  
• Configure 
  Provides options for setting the IP address of the access point, putting the MR access point into site survey mode (see Conducting Site Surveys with MR Access Points), manual channel and power adjustment, and configuring a proxy for Meraki cloud traffic. Also on this page, you can find the Download support data function (see more in Support Data Bundle (SDB) article). This will allow you to download a special file to submit to Meraki support for additional troubleshooting if you are unable to get the unit online. 

Site Survey

Previously, you could configure the survey parameters via the LSP without having the AP connect to dashboard. As of MR32 this has been deprecated. The AP must have done its initial contact with dashboard and retrieved its base configuration to so that you can make changes on the LSP.

Once the AP has joined a network the options to configure the channel and power for a Site Survey will be accessible.

Should your AP have a Flex Radio, you will be able to choose the operating mode of the XOR. If your AP has the option to run as 4 or 3 radios, this can also be selected once you have enabled Survey mode and saved.

Cannot connect to the local status page when connected to an SSID 

Both ap.meraki.com and my.meraki.com are locally-hosted sites useful for configuring an access point (AP) when it cannot reach the Meraki Cloud. This is often seen on a static, non-DHCP network or when there are strict firewall rules. After a Cisco Meraki AP has lost its connection to the Internet but is still receiving power, it will broadcast a default Service Set Identifier (SSID) that can be connected to for administrative tasks.

Connect to the default SSID by completing the following steps:

1. Physically inspect the AP
   1. Check that the AP has power (see the LED codes section of MR installation Guides)
   2. Copy the MAC address (see the Locating the MAC Address of Cisco Meraki Devices article).
2. Check for available wireless networks 
   1. Check if a known default SSID is being broadcast
3. If a default SSID is being broadcast, connect your device to it
4. If no known default SSIDs are present, set up a manual wireless network connection
   1. For the SSID name, use 'meraki-<MAC_Address>', for example 'meraki-xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx'. Replace the x's with the AP's MAC address in lower case

5. After connecting, open a web browser and connect to one of the local status page addresses

6. A list of the administrative tasks which are available to use can be found on the Using the Cisco Meraki Device Local Status Page article.

Default SSIDs

Potential known default SSID names along with potential causes/solutions:

<SSID_name>-bad-gateway

Cause: An AP's configured default gateway has failed to respond to 15 consecutive ARP requests.

Solution: Check the AP's IP address configuration and reachability to its default gateway.

<SSID_name>-connecting

Cause: An AP's SSID that is configured to use a VPN concentrator is unable to connect.

Solution: Verify connectivity to the concentrator using the tools in dashboard. Also, confirm that your local firewall is not blocking the connection.

<SSID_name>-scanning

Cause: Similar to 'bad-gateway', an AP is unable to connect to its default gateway.

Solution: Check the AP's IP address configuration and reachability to its default gateway.

meraki

Cause: The default out-of-the-box SSID will be used to broadcast the APs. 

Solution: Connect the AP to network with internet access.

Meraki Setup

Cause: An AP has never connected to a Meraki network.

Solution: Add the AP to a Meraki network.

Important  Caveats and Considerations

1. By default, APs out of the box will broadcast the SSID 'meraki'. To reach MR devices, the client must be wirelessly connected to the access point (AP) using a configured service set identifier (SSID) or one of the SSIDs mentioned in the Default SSIDs section, such as "meraki-setup" SSID. 

2. An MR does not provide access to the local status page out of the box or after a factory reset via a wired connection (for example, when a client is connected directly to one of the AP's Ethernet ports) for security reasons.

3. The local status page of an MR device can be accessed via its LAN IP only if remote access to the local status page is enabled on the Network-wide > Configure > General page. If it is disabled, access to the local status page of an MR is only possible by connecting to an SSID being broadcasted by that MR device.

4. The speed test on the MR local status page has been removed in firmware MR 32.1.4+ 

5. The channel utilization information on the local status page is sourced from the client-serving radio. The client-serving radio on the Meraki access point has a counter that is updated every 20 seconds. Counters indicate how many times the AP was transmitting, receiving, and saw congestion on the channel, as well as the total cycle count. After every three seconds, the AP reads the counters and computes the difference between the value from three seconds ago and the new value. This difference is used to calculate the channel utilization and is displayed on the local status page.

6. MR 31.1.X provides secure access and communication to the local status page for all MR access points and Meraki products by using Transport Layer Security (TLS) on port TCP 443. 
   
   The local status page has been updated to support TLS and will now redirect from http://ap.meraki.com to https://ap.meraki.com .  The TLS certificate will be valid for "*.[mac-address].devices.meraki.direct".

7. The web proxy (HTTP proxy) option on the local status page allows specific management traffic from an MR to be directed to an HTTP proxy server instead of an AP directly reaching out to the Meraki dashboard. All APs running MR 27.X or older firmware support web proxy.

8. With MR 28.X and MR 29.X firmware, Wi-Fi 6 and newer APs use a Transport Layer Security (TLS) on port TCP 443 to connect to the Meraki dashboard. Therefore, Wi-Fi 6 and newer APs running MR 28.X and MR 29.X firmware do not support the web proxy option.

   MR 30.X added a new HTTP CONNECT proxy option for  Wi-Fi 6 and newer APs. For more information, please refer to HTTP CONNECT Proxy Support on MR Access Points.