GEAR ProSafe Smart Wireless Switch

[z4ydi]

has anyone used or know about NETGEAR ProSafe Smart Wireless Switch WFS709TP, it is quite a cheap managed wireless network solution, but I dont know whether it is a reliable and stable peace of equipment. if anyone has any experience or information about how good it is please let me know
thanks

[lonewolff]

we have one of these switches running 8 access points for areas of the school where there are no desktop computers form registration and it works really well. We plan on expanding the wireless network with more of these 'stacked' to cover the whole school, they support 16ap's each and you can stack as many as you want all getting their config from the master switch

[z4ydi]

Does it do load balancing, because we have about 30 laptops in a classroom and they all start to login in one go and this is where the big test comes. have you tested the APs in such a situation to see whether it allows all devices to connect or it drops out some of the laptops etc.

[m25man]

Netgear have been courting Aruba since 2005.

These are made in partnership with Aruba, thats why they work.

http://www.netgear.com/Partners/TechnologyPartners.aspx

I think these will definately establish themselves in the "Budget" managed wifi market quickly.

If nothing else it will help bring the price of the big boys toys down a bit!

[lonewolff]

they support load balancing as well as handoff of wireless devices between ap's if you have roaming users (wireless IP phones, PDAs etc)

[contink]

they support load balancing as well as handoff of wireless devices between ap's if you have roaming users (wireless IP phones, PDAs etc)

Just out of interest, have you ever tried stressing your setup to see if it falls over or runs particularly slowly at any point?

[z4ydi]

My worry is that when about 30 latops in a classroom start to login to the network in one go, will overload the AP and it may fail to get all the laptop connected, that is why i asked about load balancing ie: if one accesspoint takes 10 laptops then it can pass another 10 to another AP and another 10 to another AP and so on, this way allwoing good connection and bandwidth. I want to know whether Netgear provides this or something similar.

[contink]

My worry is that when about 30 latops in a classroom start to login to the network in one go, will overload the AP and it may fail to get all the laptop connected, that is why i asked about load balancing ie: if one accesspoint takes 10 laptops then it can pass another 10 to another AP and another 10 to another AP and so on, this way allwoing good connection and bandwidth. I want to know whether Netgear provides this or something similar.

As lonewolf pointed out they do seem to offer this capability..

Targeted towards the growing business NETGEAR ProSafe Smart Wireless Controller provides
continuous wireless coverage with features such as IntelliFi radio management. IntelliFi radio
management provides automatic self-configuration of all radio parameters including transmit
power level, channel, load balancing and interference avoidance.

Ref: http://www.netgear.com/upload/produc...ss_23oct07.pdf
(pg. 1)

[contink]

Did a bit more digging and it seems a call to Netgear may be in order if some of the points raised are anything to go by.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/networ...-Controller/p1

[john]

From what I have seen of them I am impressed myself, and would certainly be looking at using them for a wifi install if I get one in the future that demands that bit more than a couple of standard APs.

[contink]

From what I have seen of them I am impressed myself, and would certainly be looking at using them for a wifi install if I get one in the future that demands that bit more than a couple of standard APs.

In fairness, the job I'm looking at for this coming 5 months is a prime candidate for this too. The budget just can't handle a £5k+ price tag for wifi AP's and management given the other constraints.

Things like the rogue AP detection or suppression are going to be less of an issue in a primary school whilst the planning tool for AP location is going to rely more on a decent wireless survey and I'm less worried about over-engineering things than not covering all the areas.

If I can though I'm planning on waiting for the guide Ric is putting together.

[Ric_]

If I can though I'm planning on waiting for the guide Ric is putting together.

I am going to be contacting some other companies to see if they can help out... I want the advice to be as good as possible. Unfortunately, not everyone has a lot of free time at the moment

My initial investigations into the Netgear solution does reveal a very cheap option (approx. £1k per controller and £80 per AP - more for ABG APs). My only concern is that the APs need to be wired back to the controller directly. If you have multiple cabs or multiple buildings this can get expensive! For instance, I have 7 buildings so would need 7 controllers, yet the majority of the controllers' capacity will be unused.

[nicholab]

I think you can use a POE switch or a power injector and then tunnel traffic to the controller.

[lonewolff]

I think you can use a POE switch or a power injector and then tunnel traffic to the controller.

This is correct, the ap's just need to connect to your network somewhere. Not one of our access points actually plugs directly into any of our wireless switches.

[eean]

Does anyone know if the ABG version can load-balance between A and G? So, say, you had 15 computers with AG cards, and they were within suitable range for A, half of them would be told to go on the A band whilst the other half went on G?
Any sign of a Pre-N version?