Introduction

One amongst the most overlooked configuration in Wireless LAN is the Wireless Access Point hostnames. Few network administrators leave the

Hostnames to their factory shippped defaults, while few will use all the characters that are permissible (for instance 32 characters in Cisco) to make the name self-illustrative.

Both approaches have their own disadvantages and the rather recommended limit is of only 15 characters as will be illustrated in preceding section.

Disadvantages of Leaving the Wireless Access Point Hostnames to their defaults

By default the Wireless Access Points comes with their hostnames as their mac address typically appended by character “AP”. This approach is rather considered a most careless approach since once we see Wireless Access Point(s) going down on the Wireless LAN Controller / Network Management Solution, it would be difficult to determine which specific location of an Access Point has gone down.

On the contrary having a meaningful AP host name which depicts the location of an Access Point makes it lot more easier to determine the area of compromise and also the to take an appropriate action. These actions could include verifying the PoE status on the AP’s switchport, rectify the patch cord related issues or identify similar issues and accordingly address them for the specific AP identified through its descriptive Hostname.

Disadvantages of Using the Wireless Access Point Hostnames with its full permissible limits.

Vendors like Cisco does allow the AP hostnames to be of up to 32 characters. This has a major drawback during troubleshooting when we are require to take Over the Air Packet captures and the information element would be restricted with only 15 characters in length.

The snippets below reflects the configured AP Hostname characters and those reflected in the IE Element of Wireshark Packet capture.

Configured AP Hostname

Reflected AP Hostname

Recommended Wireless Access Point Hostnames

Its thus recommended to use the Wireless Access Point Hostnames which are self descriptive and also at the same time well within the character limit of 15 else any hostname that is beyond 15 character will not get reflected in the OTA packet captures.

In order to meet this requirement, its recommended to develop a naming convention document for your project/ site wherein shorter length codes are used to signify the campus, building & Floor name or number. Based on your site (indoor/ outdoor) you will have to innovate accordingly so as to have it well within 15 characters. Below table is one such example.