Ruckus controller, do I need one?

[Simcfc73]

Hi,

 

I have begged stolen and borrowed to get some cash together to upgrade some bits of our wireless and I think I am going to go for the Ruckus stuff. I have a Meraki unit on trial which is fine but the cloud thing... .ewwwwee. Anyway, what will I miss out if I don't go for a zonedirecotr? (I can't afford one anyway so I will have to do without). I reckon I will get 6 or so AP's so having to configure them individually isn't such a killer but is there something other than that which I will miss out on.

 

Really annoyed I missed out on the offer recently for the controller and 6 units but hey ho.

[Net-Ctrl]

Hi @Simcfc73 i ut your question to one of our wireless techs here, and this is his response, i hope it helps!

 

You will still gain all the massive enhancements over the Physical Layer from a Wi-Fi point of view.. and at the end of the day that is what Wi-Fi is for, right?

You want reliable constant, high dense wireless availability… You’ll still get that with the AP alone.

 

Here is what you will get:

1)Ruckus’ smart BeamFlex technology (What makes Ruckus so great)

2)ChannelFly (the new Ruckus smart channel selection methods)

3)8 SSIDs per radio(16 with a dual band)

 

Here is what you miss by not having a ZD:

1)Guest Access features

2)SPoM (Single point of mgmt.)

3)WLAN service scheduling

4)Bandsteering (steers 5ghz clients onto the 5ghz radio)

5)WIPs (wireless intrusion prevention)

6)Hotspot

7)Access Policies (Device based / Layer 2-4)

8)AD Captive portal

9)DPSK

 

Etc.. the list goes on. The point is with the AP alone you are still winning over having anything else with all the bells and whistle… Great Wi-Fi is always going to be better than Google maps integration.

 

Get the APs now for a seriously good WiFi network and get the controller at a later date, should you need it.

[achedgy]

Unifi, if cash is tight, the way to go and frankly even it isn't, still buy unifi and put the rest of the money towards something else instead

[soveryapt]

I'd had to give a +1 for the Unifi Kit as well. Seriously well priced and functional robust pieces of kit. As has been pointed out, it has a free software controller so bang it on your server (with a bit of playing about it will run as a service too which makes it even easier). Certainly worth the look in for my money. Looking to roll it out at a couple of other places shortly.