hi kids, this is your dad, huahuanjayy wkwkwk, Nuenomaru the handsome is back in action.
Okay, this time your dad is going to write a tutorial Voice VLAN Configuration on Ruijie Cloud. Ever plugged in an IP phone and suddenly felt like the network was speaking a completely different language? Don’t worry your switches are not haunted, and your VoIP phones are not being dramatic.
In this tutorial, we’ll walk through how to configure Voice VLAN on Ruijie Cloud, so your voice traffic can travel smoothly, clearly, and without fighting your regular data traffic for attention. Think of it as giving your phone calls their own VIP lane on the network highway.
So grab your coffee, open your dashboard, and let’s make your VoIP setup sound as professional as it should.
Voice Vlan introduction:
- In enterprise office networks, VoIP services have high requirements for communication quality. By configuring a Voice VLAN, the delay of VoIP services can be reduced and the quality of voice calls can be improved.
- This course primarily covers the use cases and functions of Voice VLAN, key configuration methods, and important considerations.
- IP phones are widely used in scenarios such as offices and medical institutions. They can facilitate internal communication within enterprises and enhance the security of internal information transmission.
- VoIP has high requirements for network bandwidth, latency, and stability. To ensure the quality of VoIP services, it is often necessary to use QoS (Quality of Service) related technologies to elevate the priority of VoIP traffic and guarantee voice quality.
- Voice VLAN function for switch has 2 mode, Automatic Mode and Manual Mode.
- Automatic Mode is suitable for the scenario where IP phones are connected to PCs through ports. In this situation, IP phones need to transmit both Voice data and Network data.
- The precondition of using the automatic mode is that IP phones must support the LLDP protocol.
- Voice VLAN function for switch has 2 mode, Automatic Mode and Manual Mode.
- Manual Mode is suitable for the scenario where IP phones are connected to the switch only and transmit only voice packets. In such networking, the port only transmits voice data, avoiding the influence of service data on the voice data.
- In the current version, Ruijie Cloud only supports Voice VLAN configuration for Reyee devices.
Step 1: Voice VLAN settings
- Switch: Voice VLAN Function Switch
- VLAN: Designate a specific VLAN as the Voice VLAN
- COS Priority: The QoS priority for the Voice VLAN has a default value of 6, with higher numbers indicating higher priority.
Step 2: Switch Interface Configuration
- Select the interface for which you want to enable the Voice VLAN function, and click 'Edit' to configure it.
- Click 'Batch Edit' to configure the Voice VLAN for multiple interfaces simultaneously.
- Enabled：Enable the Voice VLAN function for this interface.
- Voice VLAN Mode: Set the mode for this interface. Auto Mode is suitable for switch interfaces where multiple types of traffic need to pass through; Manual Mode is suitable for switch interfaces where only voice traffic passes through.
- Security Mode: Enabling this feature can isolate voice traffic from data traffic, preventing malicious attackers from using the Voice VLAN to transmit non-voice data.
Step 3: OUI
- For IP phones that support the LLDP protocol, the switch will collect the OUI information of the device based on the received LLDP messages and encapsulate the voice traffic using the Voice VLAN.
- For IP phones that do not support LLDP, voice traffic needs to be identified by manually adding OUI information.
And that’s it your Voice VLAN is now ready to work like a polite traffic officer, keeping voice calls smooth while the rest of the network does its own thing. No more choppy calls, robotic voices, or people asking, ‘Hello? Can you hear me now?’ every five seconds.
Hopefully your network is now happier, your phones are calmer, and your troubleshooting time is much shorter. Where we’ll probably convince another switch to behave properly.
Hahaha alright, that’s a wrap for today’s article—my coffee’s gone, so that’s my cue to stop typing.
Let’s end this with a Bismillah at the start and an Alhamdulillah at the finish. Catch you next time, tech gembelers!.
hi kids, this is your dad, huahuanjayy wkwkwk, Nuenomaru the handsome is back in action. Okay, this time your dad is going to write a tutorial QOS in Cloud Ruijie. Before we start, please prepare coffee, instant noodles, and mental strength. Because configuring QOS is like explaining to your crush why you replied ‘wkwk’ after they sent a long paragraph. One wrong queue, suddenly YouTube becomes 144p, Mobile Legends starts teleporting, and your family accuses the WiFi of joining a meditation retreat. But calm down kids, your handsome dad Nuenomaru is here to save the bandwidth and restore peace in the household.
QoS introduction:
Traditional IP Networks *Primarily carry data traffic, using a best-effort delivery method where quality of service is not a priority. Current Developments in IP Networks *The network has evolved from a single-purpose data network into a multi-service carrier network. *Resources are relatively limited, with various services competing for these scarce resources. *Different services have distinct requirements for transmission performance. *Ensuring critical services is achieved by controlling the allocation and usage of resources.
*Trusted Mode: Different modes affect how packet priority is determined and how packets are assigned to different queues based on priority. *Untrusted Mode: Ignore the priority information in incoming packets. Use the interface-configured 802.1p value as the priority and assign packets to queues based on the 802.1p to queue mapping table. *802.1p: Directly use the packet's 802.1p value as the mapping input and assign it to a queue based on the 802.1p to queue mapping table. *802.1p-DSCP: For IP packets, use the DSCP value as the mapping input and assign the packet to a queue based on the DSCP to queue mapping table.
*Change the mapping table relationships to alter which queue a packet of a specific priority is assigned to.
Hahaha alright, that’s a wrap for today’s article—my coffee’s gone, so that’s my cue to stop typing.
Let’s end this with a Bismillah at the start and an Alhamdulillah at the finish. Catch you next time, tech gembelers!.
hi kids, this is your dad, huahuanjayy wkwkwk, Nuenomaru the handsome is back in action. Okay, this time your dad is going to write a tutorial Ruijie access point roaming using AI roaming in the cloud.
Roaming Introduction:
*An STA moves from one AP to another AP and associates with the new AP. *When environment variables are changed, and the STA finds that the service quality of AP-B is better than that of AP-A, the STA sends an association request to AP-B. AP-B confirms the association request. *During roaming, network services are not interrupted, and the user identifier (IP address) is not changed.
*Layer 2 roaming: An STA roams between APs in the same subnet. *Layer 3 roaming: An STA roams between APs in different subnets.
Roaming Protocol Introduction:
*The 802.11k protocol enables APs and STAs to exchange wireless status information, helping STAs quickly select a roaming AP by collecting and reporting nearby AP data for better roaming recommendations. *The 802.11v protocol enable wireless devices and APs to exchange network topology and signal environment information, improving the overall network. APs not only respond to neighbor AP reports but also evaluate connection quality and guide STAs to the best AP for better Internet access experience, balancing AP loads.
*With the cooperation of 802.11v and 802.11k, the roaming target AP is determined.
AI Roaming on Ruijie Cloud: AI Roaming configuration path: Project > Configuration > AI Optimization > AI Roaming
*AI roaming significantly enhances the roaming experience by combining AI with wireless clients and the IEEE 802.11k and 802.11v standards. *AI adapts to the unique signal reception capabilities and roaming strategies of different clients, addressing challenges in complex environments such as high-density deployments and sudden signal drops. *By using a scenario-based matching approach, AI ensures smoother and more efficient roaming.
*AI Dynamic Optimization: After it is toggled on, the system intelligently optimizes the roaming handover timing based on the real-time status of clients and APs in complex network environments. *To ensure smart roaming, when the topology changes, please scan the wireless network again.
*After configuring roaming, Ruijie Cloud Pro provides a view of the device roaming status, enabling the evaluation of wireless roaming performance.
Basic Troubleshooting:
1 Phenomenon In an office scenario, a client reported that roaming is often slow when walking around, causing problems with sending images and messages on phones and tablets. 2 Roadmap Check AI Roaming page, find out the signal quality is poor and RSSI is –80 dbm (below normal value). This indicates a sticky roaming issue, with a STA struggling to roam. The low RSSI value suggests limited signal coverage, causing the STA to connect to the old AP instead of finding a new one while moving. 3 Method Appropriately increase the AP power and reduce the roaming sensitivity.
Hahaha alright, that’s a wrap for today’s article—my coffee’s gone, so that’s my cue to stop typing.
Let’s end this with a Bismillah at the start and an Alhamdulillah at the finish. Catch you next time, tech gembelers!.
hi kids, this is your dad, huahuanjayy wkwkwk, Nuenomaru the handsome is back in action. Okay, this time your dad is going to write a tutorial WLAN Optimization with Ruijie Cloud. This lesson primarily covered the basic theory of wireless network optimization and how to use the one-click optimization feature on the Cloud Pro platform.
Since the wireless network relies on high-frequency radio waves for data transmission, factors such as transmission distance, channel planning, and interference can significantly impact the quality of the wireless signal and may even cause network failures. Typical issues in wireless networks include:
*Weak signal: Blind spots, AP offline, Connect to APs slowly, cannot Connect to AP *Internet access jitter: Broadcast message flooding, AP interferes strongly with each other, AP performance insufficient *Poor roaming experience: remote association(frequently connecting to distant APs), Roaming viscosity (fail to switch to a strong signal)
In WLANs, the surrounding environment affects the running of APs. When the channels of two neighboring APs overlap, the signals of an AP will be interfered with if the power of another AP is too high. To ensure user experience, conduct channel optimization to reduce air interface interference. The Power parameter controls the power for transmitting data frames and is used to optimize the transmission rate and control the interference scope. While maintaining the original throughput, decrease the local power to reduce interference on neighboring APs.
Wi-Fi Optimization is an intelligent and automatic RF optimization scheme tailored for complicated scenarios with multiple APs.
After Wi-Fi Optimization collects spatial information, including SSID, channel, signal strength and client status, it analyses information through the intelligent algorithm to provide the optimal network solution (channel and power planning for each AP), and automatically adjusts the configuration of APs in the network.
*Wi-Fi Optimization function entry: Project > AI Networking > AI Optimization *The user does not need any additional configuration except click Optimize Now *APs that require network optimization need to be online in the Cloud
*Select Optimization Mode: *Deep optimization : During optimization, external interference sources are identified and analyzed to compute the optimal configuration. It surpasses quick optimization in effectiveness but takes more time.
After completing the AI WIO process, Cloud Pro will generate a detailed report that allows you to view the comparison of network status before and after optimization.
If you find the AI WIO is not suitable, you can still adjust the radio planning manually.
Hahaha alright, that’s a wrap for today’s article—my coffee’s gone, so that’s my cue to stop typing.
Let’s end this with a Bismillah at the start and an Alhamdulillah at the finish. Catch you next time, tech gembelers!.
hi kids, this is your dad, huahuanjayy wkwkwk, Nuenomaru the handsome is back in action. Okay, this time your dad is going to write a tutorial on Client-to-Site VPN with Ruijie through the Cloud. By the way, you can also check out this article: VPN Site-to-Site with Mikrotik
Client-to-Site: To connect mobile clients to enterprise intranets, common VPN types include Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN and L2TP VPN.
Okay, first, log in to Ruijie Cloud, then select your project. Click on the Device Config menu, and choose VPN.
*Meet diverse VPN access requirements across various scenarios. *The L2TP over IPsec VPN provides high security and strong penetration capabilities, ensuring stable performance even on complex networks. *The L2TP VPN is easy to configure and is compatible with multiple operating systems. *The OpenVPN provides high security and supports customization. *The PPTP VPN provides fast connection speeds.
*The account with the username ruijie is online. *The user successfully obtains an IP address in the range of 10.70.17.0/24.
Hahaha alright, that’s a wrap for today’s article—my coffee’s gone, so that’s my cue to stop typing.
Let’s end this with a Bismillah at the start and an Alhamdulillah at the finish. Catch you next time, tech gembelers!.
hi kids, this is your dad, huahuanjayy wkwkwk, Nuenomaru the handsome is back in action. Alright, it’s been a while since I last wrote an article. So let’s get straight to it. In this article, I’ll share a solution for those of you who use multiple access points especially the Ruijie RAP series who want to improve and stabilize the performance of your Wi-Fi users. By taking advantage of load balancing features, whether it’s client load balancing or traffic load balancing, you can ensure a smoother and more stable network experience for everyone. AP load balancing balances traffic and connected STAs among APs. This prevents heavy traffic on an AP or excessive connections to an AP.
Signal overlapping occurs between APs on a wireless network. By default, STAs in a signal overlapping area randomly select APs to create connections. As a result, a single AP may be connected to a large number of STAs or bear heavy traffic, affecting user experience. You can configure AP load balancing to balance the number of STAs and traffic among APs in the same load balancing group. This prevents overload on a single AP.
Key advantage: STAs are load balanced, relieving the load of excessive connections to some APs.
Project > Device Config > Wireless > Load Balancing to configure Load Balancing (client and traffic load balancing) ^_^
Click add Load Balancing Group
Client Load Balancing
- Group name: Indicates the name of a load balancing group. You can name the group by area. - Type: Select Client Load Balancing. - Rule: When an AP is associated with more than 10 clients, and the difference in the number of clients associated with different APs reaches 5, load balancing is triggered. - Add APs in the target area to the load balancing.
Traffic Load Balancing
- Group name: Indicates the name of a load balancing group. You can name the group by area. - Type: Select Traffic Load Balancing. - Rule: Load balancing is triggered when the traffic of an AP reaches 300 x 100 kbps, and the difference in traffic between it and another AP with the least traffic exceeds 20 x 100 kbps. If a client is rejected by an AP more than 3 times, the next association attempt will be permitted. - Add APs in the target area to the load balancing group. - This function is supported only on RAP series products. One AP can join only one load balancing group.
Hahaha alright, that’s a wrap for today’s article—my coffee’s gone, so that’s my cue to stop typing.
Let’s end this with a Bismillah at the start and an Alhamdulillah at the finish. Catch you next time, tech gembelers!.
hi kids, this is your dad, huahuanjayy wkwkwk, Nuenomaru the handsome is back in action. Okay, this tutorial article is very useful as a basic guide to handling common network issues that occur when your provider covers an apartment area where there is more than one broadband internet service provider. The most basic network problem usually happens during activation, when a provider’s technician plugs in all the available LAN cables inside the customer’s unit. Meanwhile, one of those LAN cables is still connected on the panel side to an active switch port. As a result, the switch in the panel indirectly receives broadcast traffic from the newly installed device of another provider. Ideally, when a customer is no longer subscribed, the corresponding switch port in the panel should be shut down. However, if this situation has already occurred, let’s continue using the most basic troubleshooting approach so we can build a clear logical process in resolving the network issue.
The customer in Unit XXX, West Wing, is no longer subscribed. However, the UTP cable going to the panel has not been dismantled. This is to make it easier in case the customer decides to subscribe again in the future, so there will be no need to pull a new UTP cable from the panel to the customer’s unit (which also helps reduce installation costs charged by the apartment management).
** before we continue, I would like to remind you that this is one of the most basic methods, but it is not efficient. I am writing this method solely for the purpose of building a smoother analytical process such as performing MAC tracing, executing switch commands, and manually handling broadcast traffic within the network.
First, the user may complain that the internet package they subscribed to does not match the expected performance. After checking via Speedtest and WhatsMyIP, it is detected that the device is obtaining a DHCP IP address from a different broadband provider, not from the ISP the user subscribed to just like a typical retail customer who would immediately file a hard complaint with customer service. Then a technician is dispatched to visit the unit. Here are several steps you can take:
1 Check the Gateway When the technician is on site, connect a laptop or smartphone to the customer’s unit network, either via Wi-Fi or LAN cable. Once connected, immediately open the IP gateway address in a browser to access the login page of the provider’s device that is broadcasting the signal. If you are able to log in to the device (most broadband ISP default usernames and passwords can usually be found on Google), check the MAC address of that device. In this case, the customer subscribes to broadband internet from an ISP called Nue. However, when the technician checks on site, the customer is receiving a DHCP broadband IP address from a different provider.
Once the MAC address has been identified, you can proceed to shut down the corresponding port or blacklist the MAC address at Layer 2 within your network infrastructure.
2 arp -a If you are unable to access the gateway of the device that is broadcasting, open Command Prompt (CMD) on the technician’s laptop at the site. Type arp -a to view the MAC addresses of devices on the connected network. Once the list of MAC addresses appears, copy and identify the MAC address by checking it on https://macvendors.com/ If it is identified as a device brand that is not part of your infrastructure, immediately trace it and shut down the corresponding port. However, keep in mind that the arp -a command only displays devices on the network that have previously communicated with your laptop.
3 Trace the Full Layer 2 Network Infrastructure If all previous methods fail, we move to the most fundamental approach. The technician should perform a direct bypass test to the Layer 2 switch in the panel (the ISP internet source), connecting the switch directly to the laptop. Then, the Layer 2 team will run the `show mac` command and check whether any switch port is carrying more than two MAC addresses on a single port. If such a port is found, proceed to shut it down. Meanwhile, the field technician should verify whether the laptop is still obtaining a DHCP IP address from a different provider. This method focuses on identifying MAC addresses and shutting down ports one by one to ensure that there is no more than one broadcast source and that the unwanted broadcast is completely eliminated from the network.
4 Default Native VLAN 1 This step is an initial mitigation to prevent looping and unwanted broadcast traffic. Let’s go into the explanation. Using Native VLAN 1 in a network that employs VLANs can create potential looping and broadcast issues if not managed properly. The Native VLAN is an untagged VLAN used to carry untagged traffic. On many networking devices, VLAN 1 is set as the default Native VLAN.
Looping and broadcast issues can occur in the following situations:
- Native VLAN Mismatch: If there is a configuration mismatch between connected devices ex; one device has Native VLAN 1 while the other uses a different Native VLAN—the untagged traffic may be misinterpreted, potentially causing loops. - Double Tagging (Q-in-Q): If a device sends a tagged packet (with a VLAN ID) to a port configured with Native VLAN 1 and adds VLAN 1 tagging again before sending it out, double tagging occurs. This can create network issues and loops on other devices. - Unintentional Inclusion in Trunk Links: VLAN 1 can sometimes be accidentally included in trunk links (paths that carry multiple VLANs across the network). If Native VLAN 1 traffic enters a trunk and is misinterpreted by the receiving device, it can cause looping.
To avoid these problems, careful VLAN configuration is essential. Best practices to prevent looping caused by Native VLAN 1 include:
- Change the Native VLAN: Change the Native VLAN from the default value (1) to a VLAN ID that is not used by other VLANs, reducing the risk of loops. - Separate Data and Management Traffic: Use different VLANs for user data and management traffic. Avoid using VLAN 1 for user data. - Monitoring and Understanding: Monitor VLAN configurations on all network devices and understand how VLANs and Native VLANs operate to identify and fix potential issues before loops occur.
Therefore, to prevent looping and broadcast, the Native VLAN must be redefined and changed from the default VLAN 1. In this setup, I use Native VLAN 800, and on the opposite side, Native VLAN 975 is configured. Only the required VLANs are allowed. When properly configured, VLAN 1 traffic will no longer pass through, making this method effective in preventing network loops and broadcast. The MAC addresses carried by VLAN 1 need to be analyzed.
Based on this case study of basic network issues with an ISP covering an apartment area, this is one of the recurring problems. Understand the concepts of handling both Layer 1 and Layer 2 network issues. Hahaha alright, that’s a wrap for today’s article—my coffee’s gone, so that’s my cue to stop typing.
Let’s end this with a Bismillah at the start and an Alhamdulillah at the finish. Catch you next time, tech gembelers!.
