You must run the Discovery Wizard for the wireless controller, to discover supported NETGEAR access points on the LAN. The wireless controller can discover both AP's in their factory default state, and those deployed and running. After the access points are discovered, you can add them to the Managed AP List. The controller can then configure, manage, and monitor the managed AP's.
For the discovery process to complete after AP reboots, it needs to receive the IP of the controller via DHCP which is done by configuring Option 43 on the DHCP server.
Configuring DHCP Option 43
It can be configured using one of the following methods:
- Use the DHCP server on the wireless controller if there is no other DHCP on same network segment
The WC7600 DHCP server automatically uses DHCP option 43 with its own IP address. - Configure DHCP option 43 (vendor specific information) on the local DHCP server.
The wireless controller’s IP address must be specified within Option 43 along with standard DHCP options used to assign IP addresses to the access points.
The syntax for the DHCP option 43 is 2 octets for the vendor plus the IP address converted to hexidecimal (hex)
Vendor prefix for NETGEAR in this example is 02 04
Hexadecimal value for controller with IP address of 172.0.10.2 (decimal ) is ac 00 0a 02
The combined value, vendor prefix and IP will be 02 04 ac 00 0a 02
To convert an IP address to hexidecimal format you can use an online calculator. An example of one can be found here (link valid at time of creation)
Please use the following example guides for detailed instructions for some common DHCP servers:
Note: With the WC7520, there is an option to discover APs in the same L2 subnet without using option 43, but for the WC7600, you need to use option 43. The WC7600 was designed for larger AP deployments where the layer 2 broadcast design could cause some networks issues.