Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller on Catalyst Access Points

Published on December 7, 2019January 29, 2023 by Dave Benham

Overview You may have noticed when the Catalyst 9100 Access Points were initially released, they didn’t support Mobility Express (AP as a controller) functionality. That’s because Cisco has been cooking up something much better. The Catalyst 9100 Access Points now support what Cisco is calling “Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller on Catalyst Access Points.” The name […]

Introducing the Cisco Catalyst 9130 Access Point

Published on November 5, 2019January 29, 2023 by Dave Benham

Cisco’s latest addition to the Catalyst 9100 Series Access Point Platform is one of their most flexible APs in the last few years. The Catalyst 9130 Wi-Fi 6 Access Point features a Tri-Radio setup, which allows you to run dual-5GHz radios while also having 2.4GHz enabled. I see this as being very helpful in environments […]

Building a Catalyst 9800-CL Lab with an Intel NUC

Published on November 1, 2019November 1, 2019 by Dave Benham

This guide is intended to walk you through the process of installing VMware ESXi on an Intel NUC, so that you can install multiple Cisco Catalyst 9800-CL Virtual Machines for Lab/Training/Testing use. The Intel NUC is a fantastic platform to install the Catalyst 9800-CL because of the very small form factor, silent operation, multiple connectivity […]

MFD4 – Metageek Tools Update

Published on September 13, 2019September 13, 2019 by Dave Benham

I’ll start by saying that I haven’t had the pleasure of using a new Metageek tool in a very long time. I bought the original WiSpy (2.4GHz only) when it was first introduced, and I later bought a WiSpy dBx (dual-band). I’ve used both, with various versions of Chanalyzer, on both MacOS and Windows over […]

Deploying and Configuring the Cisco Catalyst 9800-CL in VMware – a Detailed Guide

Published on August 24, 2019May 28, 2022 by Dave Benham

The intent of this post is to get your Catalyst 9800-CL online with a trunked network interface. I will be writing another post to cover configuring WLANs, go over the new configuration model, and best practices. First off, don’t let the length of this post scare you. I promise it really is simple if you […]

Cisco Catalyst 9100 Series: 802.11ax APs to be excited about

Published on April 29, 2019May 28, 2022 by Dave Benham

The Catalyst 9100 platform is Cisco’s entry into the 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6 Access Point realm. The platform currently includes 3 Access Point models of varying capabilities, which I will discuss below. The Elephant in the Room Catalyst? Why Catalyst? What happened to Aironet? In a word, marketing. However, the more I hear the reasoning behind the […]