Meru vs Ruckus

[MyBrainHurts]

Afternoon all!

We are currently looking at a new centralised wireless system to replace our existing wireless network, which is being held together with duct tape and lots of hope! I'm interested in Ruckus and Meru - I see Ruckus gets a very positive response on here, but has anyone had any experience with Meru in a school environment?

Any good and bad points on either wireless system? Any other schools using Ruckus or Meru happily?

Cheers!

[nephilim]

A school I had an interview in used Meru but then changed over to ruckus. Meru cant handle the clients aswell as Ruckus can, as it has been known (at that school) to cause a drop in signal strength. My recommendation would be to go for a Ruckus Network. For a good deal on Ruckus see CP Ltd or NET CTRL.

[Edu-IT]

For a good deal on Ruckus see CP Ltd

Agreed! Simon has sent me some test kit and provided a very good quote for a Ruckus solution.

[wesleyw]

Could CPLTD PM with some prices?

a Controller and 10 units for instance?

Wes

[nephilim]

they could. We have done a deal for just that system with premium support also, cost us £XXXX (PM me to find out!)

[nephilim]

thanks for the PMs guys! I hope that the prices help you from what I recieved!

[CPLTD]

Could CPLTD PM with some prices?

a Controller and 10 units for instance?

Wes

will put a quote together for you , could you pm me your details fella

[Wes]

Centralise 802.11n wireless? Why? Do you want all that bandwidth making a big U turn through your core and back? Why not centralise management and distribute forwarding and control. There are controllerless vendors out there which can offer you a 10 AP solution which will match and better the features on offer from Meru, out of the box including a central network mangement system for sub £8K including support. With any deal, think about the costs going forward and where the money that has been cut is going to be made back (usually support renewals and further licensing to go beyond x number of Aps). A different Wes btw!

[zag]

We looked at Meru and Aruba, tested both and Aruba was far better.

Its been rock solid since we had it installed site wide.

[Dos_Box]

Because it doesn't use the bandwidth at the same time? And besides, most school laptops are b\g currently, and if a school had a Gb backbone they will be fine, and besides, which post here asked for managed 802.11n? Ruckus also do lower end b\g only access points.

[AngryTechnician]

I haven't used it myself, but visited a school in Gosport a few months back that were using Meru and were very positive about it.

We also had a presentation from a Meru reseller, and it was telling that amongst all the talk about how the technology compared to other systems, the only manufacturer they badmouthed by name was Ruckus.

[MyBrainHurts]

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

After many hours of research and several meetings with suppliers, we decided to opt for a Ruckus solution, which has exceeded our expectations over the past year. In a nutshell, the various issues that staff members were experiencing due to the poor performance of our existing wireless network, are now a thing of the past.

I dealt with Mark and Aggy at Net-Ctrl, who were both very helpful and assisted me throughout the planning, implementation and aftercare stages ...

To be honest, I was still very impressed with the kit Meru had to offer - I definitely would recommend that anyone who is looking into a centralized wireless system to read up on their solution. However we thought that the Ruckus solution was more suited to our environment.

Cheers,

Chris

[Dos_Box]

Post removed due to my breaking my own rules.

[Hecate]

We're really happy with Ruckus and the support we've had from Net-Ctrl has been first rate

[Wes]

Bacasue it doesn't use the bandwidth at the same time? And besides, most school laptops are b\g currently, and if a school had a Gb backbone they will be fine, and besides, which post here asked for managed 802.11n? Ruckus also do lower end b\g only access points.

I think it's fair to say you would want, in most cases, your WLAN to last at least 3 years which is going to bring you well into the timeline of schools having N capable laptops. I would not like to be reccomended an a/b/g solution myself as I can only imagine the APs won't continue to be sold for too much longer with the price of N technoilogy coming down all the time. You may soon find yourself with a bunch of obsolete Aps. With many manufacturers 802.11n is very slightly more expensive than a/b/g. A Gbps edge is definitely required for an N solution though as otherwise you're throwing away your not going to see the benefit.