ruckus kit

[neilmac]

I did ours. Tell the boss you're an expert and pocket the £4000. Its a walk in the park and there's plenty of great advice available on here. Heck I'll take a couple of days off and come and do it for you for £4000.

 

Bad advice. Dont underestimate wifi and only take expert advice from experts. Check certifications.

Edited October 8, 2013 by neilmac

[SYNACK]

Bad advice. Dont underestimate wifi and only take expert advice from experts. Check certifications.

 

You can do a lot with reading and trial and error though, in this case a professional contractor has been requested but it is not always necessary and it can benefit the school much more to give the experience to their local staff so upgrades are quick easy and cheap rather than requiring another couple of thousand pounds for a few hours work with their best effort implementation based on their possibly limited experience with the site and it's difficulties.

[neilmac]

OK, let's open a new thread on RTLS. What would you like to know about it ?

 

I can explain technical details, but not sales information.

[neilmac]

You can do a lot with reading and trial and error though, in this case a professional contractor has been requested but it is not always necessary and it can benefit the school much more to give the experience to their local staff so upgrades are quick easy and cheap rather than requiring another couple of thousand pounds for a few hours work with their best effort implementation based on their possibly limited experience with the site and it's difficulties.

 

That's not how professional WLAN designers work. Cowboy companies have been know to provide the wrong advice and charge a premium for it, but you should be able to trust a properly certified professional to be honest and ethical and work to your best interests.

Edited October 8, 2013 by neilmac
Clear up meaning

[plexer]

That's not how professional WLAn designers work. It's how cowboys work.

 

That's a maybe but in a lot of school environments it's a compromise between the money and resources available and what the local tech guys can deliver we'd all like to do things by the book but have to go McGuyver and cowboy every now and then so please temper your replies slightly.

 

Thanks

 

Ben

[SYNACK]

That's not how professional WLAn designers work. It's how cowboys work.

If internal it can still yield a decent result, I'm not suggesting a contractor do this. There are always going to be edge cases like grounded metallic insulation in walls and weird electrical systems. There is a middle zone where the learning is as valuable as the initial deployment and this site is all about decemination of skills and ideas so that everyone has a better idea of how to do stuff. There is always a place for experts but the best outcome is everyone knowing more about it so that experts don't need to be called in for every little thing. Share a little wisdom and the rewards are be greater than hoarding information that will be stale soon anyway.

[neilmac]

Hi Ben -

 

That was in no way directed to the abilities or skills of the school admins, if anyone has interpreted it that way, then that wasn't the intent and I am happy to set the record straight. I was referring to people who charge the end users a huge amount but provide bad service. Let me try to explain.

 

My point is that there are many installer/integrators who do not have professional level knowledge and do take advantage of the schools by overcharging for time, services and product. They do site surveys with Netstumbler etc.

 

If anything, I would like to hope that with only a small amount of additional knowledge, the end users (in this case the schools) would be able to understand enough to know when they were getting a good, honest service.

 

Schools vey often do have a limited options, which is why it's even more important that it's done right first time.

 

So, if your network is not particularly stressed (ie needs constant high throughput and is high density) then virtually any WiFi product will work. It's debatable if there is any benefit to enterprise systems if you can manually configure low tech access points. if they are wiFi alliance certified they will work as well as any other in low stress environments.

 

But, what when you want to go more complex ? Again, even more complex equipment can be installed and will run, if there are faults in the design, then they won't be noticed as the user experience is good enough.

 

How about when you are really planning something specific ? In this case, you can meet a couple of scenarios. Someone not too skilled sells a solution they themselves don't understand, it's installed wrong and doesn't meet the expectation. It's painful to the end user and usually they have to pay out more to get it fixed. Or, a professional designer will work with the customer to understand their requirements and design and install a solution to match. Professional wifi people don't charge lots of money for shoddy advice, they really do provide a proper service when it's required. It's people who charge a lot of money for the wrong solution, and leave you high and dry, they are the ones you need to avoid. If youwant to use a professional company, just ask them for their certifications. If the answer is "none" then that should tell you something.

 

So you have to plan from the very beginning a solution that will match time, specification and budget. If you want to just put the access points up yourself and do the config, it may well work fine, and you can ask here for help, lot's of switched on people will give you advice.

 

My aim through all of this is to offer technical advice that enables the end user to make informed decisions.

 

As for the original post, he wants a professional install with training, 4,000 pounds for a week's works from a reputable company is a fair price for professional level work.

 

Again, my apologies to anyone who thought I was referring to them, it's not the case.

 

NM

[SYNACK]

OK, let's open a new thread on RTLS. What would you like to know about it ?

 

I can explain technical details, but not sales information.

 

Cool, maybe how it works, how much it is, what it requires and it's limitations, a nice overview of the tech would be handy.

[dhicks]

OK, let's open a new thread on RTLS. What would you like to know about it ?

 

Does "RTLS" mean Real Time Location Services? I can picture the feature I want - a handy 2D plan view of the school, split into different floors, with little Xs marking various devices. I vaugly imagine triangulation of a particular device involves getting signal strength data from the central controller / each wireless access point for each wireless device and doing a quick spot of triganometry to figure out its location. If that is the case, any idea how I get a Ruckus (or set of access points) to cough up signal strength data?

[neilmac]

Hi David, I posted a new thread on RTLS, I'd be happy to take questions there.

[burgemaster]

Do the Ruckas points have to be ceiling mounted in the middle of the room for the beamflex to work optimally??

[kiwimatt]

so i've been told , we might not do that however as some of our ceilings have asbestos so no drilling

[localzuk]

I believe that is the case, but we haven't done it here - we can't in most of our rooms as the ceilings are something like 15ft high and we aren't allowed in the void due to asbestos. Instead, they're put on the walls and we've not had any issues as yet. However, our system is aimed at coverage rather than density. So, the positioning and alignment will depend on your environment's needs.

[Haptic]

Do the Ruckas points have to be ceiling mounted in the middle of the room for the beamflex to work optimally??

 

A lot depends on the Access Point- the 7363 for example has only single polarity on its antennas so it should be mounted horizontally i.e. on ceiling. Regarding Beamflex, ideally a clear air area of around 2m helps it achieve best performance.

 

Mark