Wireless Network - Which Vendor?

[CyberNerd]

One big thumbs up for Meru. We have total site coverage (I can genuinely walk from one end of the campus to the other without dropping a ping).

The great advantage of single channel systems such as Meru is that you can put as many access points as you require in a certain area/room without interference.

I would advise that you treat the AP's as any other switch that holds 30 connections - ensure that they all have 1gb/s uplinks to a decent core.

[m25man]

We have just started field trialling the Ubiquiti Unify system at one of our schools.
This will run for 3 months with 6 points running from a a single VM hosting the "Free" management controller.
This can also be downloaded as a VMware virtual appliance but we want to run it on the Hyper-v failover cluster just to see how things work out.

So far the initial installation was about as simple as it gets, blink and you miss it...

Then you deploy a few points using the supplied POE adapters or use the 802.11af compliant couplers.

Log into the web interface of the controller and you will see the newly deployed points as unadopted.

Select them and click Adopt...

That's it, the ESSID, VLan info, Power outputs and channel selection is done instantly and the controllers java based interface displays the AP's on your own floor plans with all of the client information such as MAC address, IP, SSID and current link speed/throughput.

Using all available 2.4Ghz channels and 20/40Mhz N capability we have had over 100mb throughput and a windows 7 laptop logged in with a standard user profile in about 14 seconds.

Now, at this point we have validated the performance using the Etherscope and see very healthy behaviour in what is a hostile environment in the busiest part of Londons West End the real fun will start when the kids come back after Easter and begin to give it a good pounding.

This is the best bit, at £200 for 3 APs including the passive POE adapters and the FREE controller software I think that the usual suspects lurking on this forum had better watch out.
I have every confidence in this kit, we have been using their bridges and point to point stuff for years giving 100mb links over several miles without ever loosing a ping but this is their first attempt at the enterprise wifi stuff.

With Dual Band Dual Radio units due later this year allowing N across both bands and radios simultaneously anything is possible.

So all of you over priced, over rated solution providers had better watch out, there is a new kid on the block and if nothing else will help cut some of them down to size in this current economic climate...

Reality bites, a $200,000 condo in a Disney Estate is now $65,000, why? because the Market is saturated with them and buyers have woken up and smelt the coffee!
Managed wifi solutions have been over priced for too long, with vendors selling us the same technology repackaged several times over.
I predict there will be tears from both vendors and those who have spent a small fortune on systems that just never lived up to the price tags.

[IanT]

I've used HP Wireless Solutions in my current role and last job.

HP ProCurve 760 Mobility Controller & HP ProCurve MSM422 Access Point

Solid as a rock!

[chrisgoodrich]

I really like the look if Aerohive. Has anyone got any experience of it? How does it work in your environment?

[sirsir]

Hi,

We currently have a Netgear Managed Wireless solution in our school which is not fit for purpose. Currently when 30 laptops are in use in one classroom in can take upto 15 or 20 minutes for them to login with a 3MB mandatory profile.

We are looking into alternative systems mainly Meru, Xirrus, Ruckus and Trapeze. What are your experiences with these products like? Will they manage high density quick enough? What would you recommend?

Thansk

Chris

We use Xirrus here, have done for 2 years now and no problems. We run a laptop per child scheme so we needed a beefy, reliable system. I can honestly say that I haven't had any staff calling me re. wireless problems ......

Tom

[hagridsbeard]

We've got site wide Meru here, but quite spaced out (38 APs for a 2500 staff/student school). It works well, but I'd advise you to be cautious if you have any RealTek WLAN cards (you're bound too) as they seem to have issues with the single cell.

Apparently Meru and RealTek are near to resolving it, but it has caused me a fair few headaches.

On non RealTek devices, it's honestly faultless.

[Zenden]

We have just started field trialling the Ubiquiti Unify system at one of our schools.
This will run for 3 months with 6 points running from a a single VM hosting the "Free" management controller.
This can also be downloaded as a VMware virtual appliance but we want to run it on the Hyper-v failover cluster just to see how things work out.

So far the initial installation was about as simple as it gets, blink and you miss it...

Then you deploy a few points using the supplied POE adapters or use the 802.11af compliant couplers.

Log into the web interface of the controller and you will see the newly deployed points as unadopted.

Select them and click Adopt...

That's it, the ESSID, VLan info, Power outputs and channel selection is done instantly and the controllers java based interface displays the AP's on your own floor plans with all of the client information such as MAC address, IP, SSID and current link speed/throughput.

Using all available 2.4Ghz channels and 20/40Mhz N capability we have had over 100mb throughput and a windows 7 laptop logged in with a standard user profile in about 14 seconds.

Now, at this point we have validated the performance using the Etherscope and see very healthy behaviour in what is a hostile environment in the busiest part of Londons West End the real fun will start when the kids come back after Easter and begin to give it a good pounding.

This is the best bit, at £200 for 3 APs including the passive POE adapters and the FREE controller software I think that the usual suspects lurking on this forum had better watch out.
I have every confidence in this kit, we have been using their bridges and point to point stuff for years giving 100mb links over several miles without ever loosing a ping but this is their first attempt at the enterprise wifi stuff.

With Dual Band Dual Radio units due later this year allowing N across both bands and radios simultaneously anything is possible.

So all of you over priced, over rated solution providers had better watch out, there is a new kid on the block and if nothing else will help cut some of them down to size in this current economic climate...

Reality bites, a $200,000 condo in a Disney Estate is now $65,000, why? because the Market is saturated with them and buyers have woken up and smelt the coffee!
Managed wifi solutions have been over priced for too long, with vendors selling us the same technology repackaged several times over.
I predict there will be tears from both vendors and those who have spent a small fortune on systems that just never lived up to the price tags.

Wow that really does look good. We have just ordered 6 APs to try them out too, how are you getting on with them? They seem almost too good to be true! one question, do they have a function whereby they reboot themselves when they cant connect to the controller/the network or do they have a self healing function (eg the two closest APs to a broken AP take over its workload?)

thanks for the headsup, i really hope these are as good as they sound as they seem to be an absolute bargain!

[m25man]

@Zenden thanks for the rep...

Have you got yours working yet?
Our trial is going well and I cant wait to get my hands on the Dual Band Units... evidently they plan to extend the firmware onto some external units as well which will be interesting.

Let us know how you get on.

[Zenden]

@Zenden thanks for the rep...

Have you got yours working yet?
Our trial is going well and I cant wait to get my hands on the Dual Band Units... evidently they plan to extend the firmware onto some external units as well which will be interesting.

Let us know how you get on.

got it in and up and running today, so far so good!! got a guest SSID running on a seperate VLAN which goes straight out to the web (thus avoiding our LAN which makes me happy!), have installed 6 APs as a trial and they were all adopted easily with no hickups and the Controller immediately picked up that there was a new firmware so i installed it right away I am very very happy so far, if things carry on like this we will cover the whole school with this thing. If it stays up and running and sturdy then I can see Ubiquiti really taking over, three Access Points for 180 quid and a free Controller is a rediculous bargain! I think it is worth a punt for anyone looking into managed wireless, buy 6 APs just as a trial and even if it fails you are only 360 quid down (when you consider the price of other wifi solutions this is a drop in the ocean!).

We did have one hickup though --> The access points are american standard so they need 24volt POE rather than UK 16v. We had bought a POE switch for it in advance (doh!). did you happen to find a 24v POE which can purchased in the UK?

[mac_shinobi]

solid as a sock.

It is if you try and dry the sock in freezing cold weather lol

[chrisgoodrich]

got it in and up and running today, so far so good!! got a guest SSID running on a seperate VLAN which goes straight out to the web (thus avoiding our LAN which makes me happy!), have installed 6 APs as a trial and they were all adopted easily with no hickups and the Controller immediately picked up that there was a new firmware so i installed it right away I am very very happy so far, if things carry on like this we will cover the whole school with this thing. If it stays up and running and sturdy then I can see Ubiquiti really taking over, three Access Points for 180 quid and a free Controller is a rediculous bargain! I think it is worth a punt for anyone looking into managed wireless, buy 6 APs just as a trial and even if it fails you are only 360 quid down (when you consider the price of other wifi solutions this is a drop in the ocean!).

We did have one hickup though --> The access points are american standard so they need 24volt POE rather than UK 16v. We had bought a POE switch for it in advance (doh!). did you happen to find a 24v POE which can purchased in the UK?

How does this perform with 30 laptops logging on to the domain in the same room at the same time? I believe the AP's do not do any load balancing between them.

[Zenden]

How does this perform with 30 laptops logging on to the domain in the same room at the same time? I believe the AP's do not do any load balancing between them.

we dont have a setup like that so i couldnt comment, sorry mate

[snoerre]

We have just started field trialling the Ubiquiti Unify system at one of our schools.

I like the new Unifi software. Unfortunately the amount of SSIDs on their access points i currently limited to 4. Also the dualband version of their access point is not yet released.
Unfortunately, IPv6 is not being talked about at Ubnt.

When all these topics are being covered in 09/2011 I will definitly try them out.

[nephilim]

Give me to the end of the academic year and I will have my comprehensive report up and running again. This time more vendors stepped forward and wanted to have a fair crack at it. For the purpose of my testing, we are running it side by side with my current network (ruckus) and when it comes to testing ruckus, we are using a different SSID for it.

The sole purpose of the testing is to give each vendor a chance to look at faults and see where they can improve. All vendors who have replied to me (some in person, some via email etc) have all asked for a copy of the report, so we can go from there. Watch this space is all I can say

[nickbloomfield]

I am from Aerohive Networks, I am interested in knowing how you have trialed our units? And what the feedback is?