Skip to content

Page permalink

Always use the following permalink when referencing this page. It will remain unchanged in future help versions.

https://docs.sophos.com/central/customer/help/en-us/index.html?contextId=wireless-AP

Access points

View all wireless access points and their details.

Go to My Products > Wireless > Access Points and view your access points.

A wireless access point (WAP) is a networking hardware device that allows a Wi-Fi enabled device to connect to a wired network. To configure an access point from Sophos Central, you need to connect it to the internet and register it on Sophos Central using the serial number available on the package.

The Access Points page lists all access points that have been registered with Sophos Central, in alphabetical order by name. You can filter the list by choosing a site from the drop-down menu.

The list refreshes automatically. You can stop the list from refreshing by turning off Auto refresh.

Access points are listed with the following details:

  • Name: Access point name.
  • MAC: Access point's MAC address.
  • Serial number: Access point's serial number.
  • Internal IP: Access point's assigned internal IP address.
  • Model: Access point model.
  • Config status: Access point's update and configuration status, such as up to date, waiting to update, or offline.
  • Available Power: Shows the power available from the power sourcing equipment (PSE) connected to the access point. A green lightning bolt Green lightning bolt. indicates the access point has sufficient power. A red lightning bolt with an exclamation point Red lightning bolt with an exclamation point. indicates the PSE can't provide sufficient power to the access point.
  • Workload: Connected device load on an access point. The workload is calculated based on memory and CPU usage. Memory usage up to 60% or CPU usage up to 50% is shown as green. Memory usage of 60% to 80% or CPU usage 50% to 80% is shown as yellow. Memory or CPU usage above 80% is shown as red.
  • Band: Configured radio bands on an access point.
  • Mode: Channel operating mode such as autochannel (AO), dynamic channel (AC), or manual channel (M).
  • Channels: Displays configured and operating channels. It is displayed as configured channel (operating channel). The operating channel might differ if radar is detected on the configured Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) channel.
  • Firmware: Firmware version installed on an access point. A green check Access point is up to date. indicates an access point it up to date. A blue arrow Access point firmware upgrade available. indicates a firmware upgrade is available. A clock icon Access point upgrade scheduled. indicates the access point is scheduled for a firmware upgrade.
  • Uptime: Displays the uptime for an access point.
  • Mesh Role: Displays the role of access points in a mesh network. An access point can either have a root role or a node role. A hyphen in this column means the access point hasn't been assigned to a mesh network and doesn't have a mesh role.

Register an access point

If you're registering an access point already registered on Sophos Firewall, you must delete the access point from Sophos Firewall before registering it with Sophos Central.

Before registering an access point, make sure it can communicate with Sophos Central. See Domain requirements.

You can register access points individually or in bulk.

To register a single access point, go to My Products > Wireless > Access Points, click Register, and enter the serial number. The access point is validated after you click Register again.

To register multiple access points, you must have the serial numbers of all the access points in the first column of a comma-separated value (CSV) file. Each row must have a unique serial number. Go to My Products > Wireless > Access Points > Register, click Bulk Provisioning, and upload your CSV file. The access points are validated.

You can then enter and save the hostnames. When registration is complete, the access points are displayed on the list.

Country setting

The country setting of an access point regulates the available channels to comply with local laws. For AP6 access points, it also affects what sites you can assign the access points to. For more information on access points, see Access point operating instructions.

When you register an AP6 access point, it chooses a default location based on its stock-keeping unit (SKU). See Sophos Wireless: AP6 SKU country mapping.

To change the location of an access point, add it to a site. For AP6 access points, you can also set the country in the local UI. See the following pages:

Note

When you change the location of an access point, it restarts to complete the configuration change.

Firmware upgrade

AP6 series firmware upgrade

You can schedule firmware upgrades for AP6 access points from Sophos Central, or manually upgrade from the AP6 GUI.

To upgrade the firmware of AP6 series access points from Sophos Central, do as follows:

  1. Go to My Products > Wireless > Access Points.
  2. Click Firmware upgrade.
  3. Select the access points you want to upgrade.

  4. Click Choose schedule. You can select from the following scheduling options:

    • Now: Click Upgrade to immediately upgrade the firmware on the selected access points.
    • Custom: Select a specific date and time for the upgrade to take place and click Save.
    • Recurring: Select a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule to automatically apply firmware upgrades to the selected access points. The default schedule is weekly on Tuesdays at 03:00 AM.

If an AP6 access point is scheduled for a firmware upgrade, you can cancel the scheduled upgrade by clicking Firmware upgrade, selecting the access point for which you want to cancel the upgrade, and clicking Cancel schedule.

To manually upgrade the firmware on AP6 access points, do as follows:

  1. Sign in to Sophos Central.
  2. Go to Devices > Installers.
  3. In Wireless, click Download firmware for your wireless.
  4. From the downloaded archive file, extract the tar.gz.sig file for the AP6 model you want to upgrade.
  5. Sign in to the AP6 GUI.
  6. Go to Advanced > Update firmware.
  7. Select a file on your PC.
  8. Click Choose file.
  9. Select the tar.gz.sig file you extracted earlier and click Open.
  10. Click Update.

APX series firmware upgrades

You can upgrade the firmware of APX series access points by clicking Firmware upgrade and then clicking Upgrade legacy AP?. This takes you to Basic settings where you can schedule a firmware upgrade. See Basic settings.

Export to CSV

You can export the details of all your access points in to a CSV file. To do this click Export to CSV. The CSV file automatically downloads.