# Access Points

A wireless Access Point (wireless AP) is a network device that transmits and receives data over a wireless local area network and serves as an interconnection point between the WLAN and a fixed wire network. Monitoring these access points is essential to ensure network reliability, performance, and security.

OpManager allows you to efficiently monitor various aspects of your access points including availability, health, signal, alerts, notifications, generating reports etc. This help document will guide you through the basics of access point monitoring in OpManager.

- [Discover New Access Points](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/access-points.html#discover)
- [Monitoring Access Points](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/access-points.html#monitor)

![OpManager-WLC-Access-Point](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/WLC-Accesspoint.png)

After [discovering](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/discover-networks.html) your WLC, OpManager automatically identifies and displays a list of all the Access Points that are connected to it. To view the list, go to **Network** > **Wireless** > **WLC** and select a WLC. Or go to **Inventory** > **Devices** > and select a **WLC device**.

On the Access Point tab, the number of Access Points that are connected to your WLC is displayed. Click on **Access Points** tab to view all the Access Points that are identified by your [WLC](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/wlc-monitoring.html).

A list containing all the access points including the ones that are not monitored is displayed.  
To monitor an access point, choose an access point and click on the **Start** button corresponding to the AP or choose multiple APs and click on the **Start** button. Conversely, choose an access point and click on **Stop** to halt monitoring your AP.

**Note:** The availability of an access point can be viewed only by enabling Advanced Monitoring. To do this, the user must have purchased the **Access Point License** first.

## Discover New Access Points

OpManager keeps your network inventory up-to-date by automatically scanning for new access points every 6 hours. If you wish to discover manually to immediately detect newly added access points or to refresh the details of existing ones:

- Navigate to the WLC Snapshot page within OpManager.
- Select the Access Points tab.
- Click on the Discover Access Points option.

The display names and IP addresses for any monitored access points will also be updated automatically.

## Monitoring Access Points

When an Access Point is selected for advanced monitoring, it gets added to OpManager's inventory. As such, OpManager monitors the access point as a regular device for availability. If SNMP OIDs are available for the particular device models, and if the device responds to SNMP, OpManager can not only initiate performance monitoring, but also retrieve data regarding the connected clients and configured SSIDs as well.

![OpManager-WLC-Access-Point-Summary](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/access-point-summary.PNG)

To monitor the clients connected to the access point, navigate to the **Clients** tab on the access point snapshot page. You will find the following data:

- **Client:** The username of the connected client.
- **MAC Address:** The physical address of the connected device.
- **IP Address:** The network address of the connected device.
- **SSID:** The network SSID to which the device is connected to.
- **Signal:** The strength of the signal connection between the device and the access point.
- **Connected:** Shows the time since when the device last connected to the access point.
- **Last Polled At:** Shows the time when the connected device was last polled at.

![OpManager-WLC-Access-Point-Advanced-Monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/WLC-AP-Monitoring.png)

To view the list of SSIDs that are configured to the access point, navigate to the **SSIDs** tab on the snapshot page. You will find the SSIDs, each with the number of clients connected to that particular SSID, the bandwidth usage, and the time when it was last polled at.

![OpManager-WLC-Access-Point-SSIDs](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/access-point-ssid.PNG)

Since the advanced monitoring of access points causes OpManager to treat it as an individual device, you can [add monitors](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/adding-custom-monitors.html) of your choice in addition to the ones assigned (by default) through [device templates](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/device-templates.html).

![OpManager-WLC-Access-Point-Monitors](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/images/access-point-monitors.PNG)