Wireless Network Vendor Report

[will_]

We have four NetGear WN802T access points in our primary school, and they've been one of the the most unreliable pieces of kit I have ever used. Two have been replaced (within two years) because they bricked themselves. All four regularly drop connections or crash completely until they are power cycled; one is so bad that I have it on a timeswitch to cycle every morning. They'd probably be great for a home user with one or two devices but with any more than that, they quickly become overwhelmed - staff meeting this evening with 8 laptops was enough to crash one unit 3 times. We've checked they're all running the latest firmware and have suffered the same problems with laptops and desktops made by HP and Dell (both of both). Avoid!

[nephilim]

Righty, I got a few suppliers done, dusted and written up. Quite a few pulled out and some refused since I made it clear the report would go to all vendors involved...they saw it as giving away trade secrets I suppose. I will publish it soon.

[TechSupp]

Yes got four at different schools. Found the older ones to be fine but found the newer white onces to be problematic. Using one school with an older one with 20+ netbooks reasonably well, but using the newer ones has proved very unstable. Would not use one again.

[Bud180]

Are these tests still running. I would like to see some results of Bluesocket?

Thanks

[SOCDavid]

Been using the Colubris (now HP) gear for quite a few years now and its proved very solid.

Got it integrated into our Cisco network and tied to AD via RADIUS (IAS)

Currently have 5 SSIDs to split college owned domain joined from college owned non-domain, privately owned laptops, smartphones (staff and students) plus guests.

All works nicely.

Cheers
David
"Reality is nothing but a shared perception"

[vikpaw]

Great idea.
Any more updates? Keen to see your report @nephilim , partial or otherwise. Especially cost/performance for CISCO compared to others.

[nephilim]

This was all on my work laptop which since being unemployed I have no access too. If I very a job in a school its being done again.

[vikpaw]

This was all on my work laptop which since being unemployed I have no access too. If I very a job in a school its being done again.

I thought that might have been the case. Shame.
Well, it doesn't have to be in an edutech environment, offer your services to some local businesses You could even do a some testing for some local shopping mall or something, and the companies involved may be more willing to help out, given they may gain corporate customers if they win, or at least some exposure.