UniFi Wireless

[Avalon]

I share the opinions on this thread, I am looking to implement a small wireless infrastructure in a primary school and can not justify the expense of a wireless controller and came across the unifi products.

From what I have read about the unifi solutions seems amazing and seems to fit the bill perfectly. Can any tell me how the unifi software handles clients moving between AP's and if this happens seamlessly as it would on a ruckus/meru managed system? Also, does anyone know of any free wireless planning software so I can calculate how many AP's would be required? Looking at the range I think one per classroom would be overkill but would rather get it right first time without having to add additional AP's later on!

[drewp]

Not a wireless expert but what I have read suggests that most access points can support about 25-30 clients per access point. One per classroom might be the only way of delivering it, perhaps with each access point set to run with its power at the lowest setting to avoid over laps – perhaps a wireless expert could say what they think…?

I have seen/heard of Ruckus access points working fine with 75+ clients connected to a single access point…

[plexer]

There is a free planning tool from Aerohive

Building Your Network | Aerohive Networks

Allthough you appear to have to geister to use it so expect some sales contact I guess.

Ben

[gshaw]

Just had a look at the Unifi with m25man, looks pretty good - only question is long-term build quality... are there any example installations trundling along quite happily after 1-2 years that can be seen or being a relatively new product is it still a bit unknown?

[Avalon]

There is a free planning tool from Aerohive

Building Your Network | Aerohive Networks

Allthough you appear to have to geister to use it so expect some sales contact I guess.

Ben

great thanks, will look into that - the wireless will be predominantly for 16 iPads and staff laptops so load on any AP is likely to be at most 16-18.

[soveryapt]

Ooo .. not come across the UniFi Solutions before .. I'm lucky enough to live in a converted farm house and barn thingy, but the walls in that place make for WiFi nightmares .. I've cobbled together various odds and ends of kits off eBay to run a basic system in the house, but this looks like it could be ideal to do the job properly ..

Now, the Unifi controller software, I take it this needs to be on a machine that will remain on 24/7 (or at least when you're wanting to use the Wireless anyway - which in our house with 5 kids between the wife and I normally means 24/7 .. lol) or is it just for setting up the Access Points? If it needs a machine 24/7, is there a Linux version of it? As I have an Ubuntu Media Servery thing in the house ..

Ta All

[plexer]

Doesn't have to be on 24/7 but when the machine running the controller s/w isn't running you won't be able to make managed configuration changes or use some features such as guest access.

Ben

[soveryapt]

Doesn't have to be on 24/7 but when the machine running the controller s/w isn't running you won't be able to make managed configuration changes or use some features such as guest access.

Ben

Ok, that's fair enough .. do you know if there is a Linux Controller for it? I noticed a Mac and PC one in the PDF that was linked above, but not a Linux one ..

[ShorehamGeek]

Ok, that's fair enough .. do you know if there is a Linux Controller for it? I noticed a Mac and PC one in the PDF that was linked above, but not a Linux one ..

Yes there's a linux one. I downloaded a .deb file for my Ubuntu server.

[soveryapt]

Yes there's a linux one. I downloaded a .deb file for my Ubuntu server.

Whoop .. Now to convince the wifey it's a great idea to get this WiFi ..

See what I did there?! lol .

[earlyriser]

We have been running Unifi at our school for around 9 months. I just couldn't go past the initial price in comparison to the competition, and so far it's been working brilliantly. As far as I'm aware it doesn't have some of the 'smarts' of the alternatives (i.e the AP's aren't aware of each other and don't shift traffic automatically dependent on load), but we haven't had a single technical issue since I installed and commissioned it. We have 38 AP's around the school, and between 3-400 devices accessing the wireless networks (3) at the same time. I have occasionally seen individual AP's with 50+ clients with very little impact on performance at the client end. I haven't done any scientific testing at all though, really just looking that staff and students can login, browse the web, transfer files etc. all with reasonable speed. For under $9000 NZ (That's about 5000 pounds) we have good, stable wireless coverage across our entire campus and so far the staff and students (1000+) have been happy

[m25man]

Great to hear that our Antipodean cousins have also smelt the coffee, unfortunately the air is so polluted over here its hard to get people to smell it even when its right under their noses.
As a nation of folk who are used to making every dollar stretch as far as it can go it comes as no surprise to find its been successful down under.

Oh to be back in the Bay of Islands....

[Avalon]

We have been running Unifi at our school for around 9 months. I just couldn't go past the initial price in comparison to the competition, and so far it's been working brilliantly. As far as I'm aware it doesn't have some of the 'smarts' of the alternatives (i.e the AP's aren't aware of each other and don't shift traffic automatically dependent on load), but we haven't had a single technical issue since I installed and commissioned it. We have 38 AP's around the school, and between 3-400 devices accessing the wireless networks (3) at the same time. I have occasionally seen individual AP's with 50+ clients with very little impact on performance at the client end. I haven't done any scientific testing at all though, really just looking that staff and students can login, browse the web, transfer files etc. all with reasonable speed. For under $9000 NZ (That's about 5000 pounds) we have good, stable wireless coverage across our entire campus and so far the staff and students (1000+) have been happy

great thats good to know, can I ask whether you manually set AP channels or let it automatically sort itself out? Trying to decide the best way to go about this ...

[m25man]

@Avalon we leave the settings to auto to the majority of ours and lettem get on with it it seems to just work fine.

We have 3 AP's in one room which are set on a low power setting but auto channel and I often find that they have all switched channels between themselves overnight.

I too have had 80 clients hanging off a single AP after I stupidly reset one remotely during a major event the crazy thing was that nobody even complained so Im not sure if it was a quick transition as the default screen refresh time in the Unifi console is 2mins and one minute they were quite evenly balanced the next 80 users on one device whilst the other was re-provisioning.
When it didnt come back online I did have to walk out the the device and unplug/replug the PoE cable where it immediately came back online and within a few minutes they were all balanced out again.

[earlyriser]

great thats good to know, can I ask whether you manually set AP channels or let it automatically sort itself out? Trying to decide the best way to go about this ...

We let the AP's auto decide what channel to use. We pretty much have an AP per classroom, so I imagine there is some bleed from room to room, and we do get client devices connecting to AP's in the classroom next door, but it never seems to cause any end-user issues