ITTony Posted January 24, 2014 Posted January 24, 2014 Hi Guys, So I have been tasked with gaining some quotes to upgrade our wireless network To either upgrade existing or replace. All ready for our BYOD deployment along with supporting our growing Apple device network. Who would you recommend and do you have the rep contact details? In the south/Hampshire. Many thanks and yes I will be hassling suppliers at Bett!
cscc Posted January 24, 2014 Posted January 24, 2014 Ruckus, Meraki, Meru, Aerohive, HP – all big players in the wireless industry. From what I’ve read/heard Ruckus seem to be very popular and successful across the board.
fiza Posted January 24, 2014 Posted January 24, 2014 contacting @Net-Ctrl or @Millgate would be good places to start. 1
Jawloms Posted January 24, 2014 Posted January 24, 2014 Contacting @Net-Ctrl is definitely a good place to start. Nothing against @Millgate, I'm sure they're lovely, but we've used @Net-Ctrl for years and always found them nothing but excellent! 1
FN-GM Posted January 24, 2014 Posted January 24, 2014 Hi, We have had Ruckus installed recently. Management side of it is excellent. I add a new AP it was easy. I had to tell what VLAN to use, once it did that it contacted the controller updated the firmware and configured itself and surrounding AP's for the best coverage.
craig4gon Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 lots of people are also now looking at Ubiquiti, I am seeing the market quite disrupted by UBNT. I would speak to as many people as possible for Ruckus and Ubiquiti there are lots of deals to be had on both
kendallb Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 I have just upgraded my wireless kit to Ruckus, It's a fantastic bit of kit. I honestly believe that these days they are all much of a muchness if you know what I mean. They all basically achieve the same thing in the end with varying degrees of .... for want of a better word quality. One of the most important thing to take into consideration is how manageable is a system and I can honestly say Ruckus is amazing, the more complicated options are just made simple great bit of kit. I procured Ruckus without installation service from Contrac a local company for me, brilliant service great banter with the reps . They actually arranged for one of the Ruckus engineers to come and see me free of charge to give me advise and make sure i didn't do something stupid too I suppose . I deal with Contrac regularly because of their service they just bend over bacwards to help you out great supplier!
craig4gon Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Ruckus do that, They will come out foc and have a look at the instillation
kendallb Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Well true enough, I didn't have direct contact with Ruckus in my case Contrac arranged the meet etc.
Simcfc73 Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 What about Netgear... hahahahahahahaha Sorry, I have been swapping out my Netgear stuff for Ruckus and the coverage and throughput is much better as well as the management side of it. Didn't need as many AP's either. Didn't like the cloudiness of Meraki and its more expensive. I have bought a couple of 7363 off eBay and they work a dream, I know its a risk but I haven't been stung yet.
kendallb Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 I know what you mean about Meraki cloud management of devices just feels wrong (Called me old fashioned) how you maintain your kit when somebody cuts through your nice dark fibre!
Simcfc73 Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 I know what you mean about Meraki cloud management of devices just feels wrong (Called me old fashioned) how you maintain your kit when somebody cuts through your nice dark fibre! Exactly which is why I hate chromebooks too and anything 'new'
kendallb Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Exactly which is why I hate chromebooks too and anything 'new' Cloud is ok if you can host it all yourself just. I don't want to take things of topic but lets be honest hasn't cloud technology been around long before it was in vouge (Apple's doing) We cherry picked what was good and bad on merit not because of one feature it was "in the cloud" sometimes it can be a good solution to a problem or requirement. but management of switched and AP's really?
glennda Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 I know what you mean about Meraki cloud management of devices just feels wrong (Called me old fashioned) how you maintain your kit when somebody cuts through your nice dark fibre! They Continue to work when the internet is down (or not depending on what you choose) - once the internet is back up the device reconnects to the cloud controller and away you go you can manage them again. I have used the majority of the Meraki kit and can say it is brilliant and works very well even in high density (with the right AP's)
kendallb Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Yeah I get that it still works when the internet is down but what about managing the devices. Just saying it would be nice to do it locally. Seriously not saying its not good kit, I have one Meraki AP that I got for testing and playing, really good AP and the dashboard is great. there is no one solution for all. would be fantastic if there was
ITTony Posted January 28, 2014 Author Posted January 28, 2014 Just Grabbed a free AP off meraki from the Bett show to play with. I don't feel confident in a cloud managed network. Spoke with the rep and asked the what if scenario and he simple said "just means you cant make any changes whilst it's down" ! well done sherlock ! Still I'll reserve judgement until I have had a proper play with it. Just awaiting all the reps from Bett to get back to me and go from there. All Ruckus partners had very big smiles when mentioning Meru, Interesting.
glennda Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Yeah I get that it still works when the internet is down but what about managing the devices. Just saying it would be nice to do it locally. Seriously not saying its not good kit, I have one Meraki AP that I got for testing and playing, really good AP and the dashboard is great. there is no one solution for all. would be fantastic if there was But how often do you manage the AP's? In my experience very rarely once the initial setup is done. and the odds on the internet being chopped and a wireless fault is very unlikely.
glennda Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Just Grabbed a free AP off meraki from the Bett show to play with. I don't feel confident in a cloud managed network. Spoke with the rep and asked the what if scenario and he simple said "just means you cant make any changes whilst it's down" ! well done sherlock ! Still I'll reserve judgement until I have had a proper play with it. Just awaiting all the reps from Bett to get back to me and go from there. All Ruckus partners had very big smiles when mentioning Meru, Interesting. If you have any questions on Meraki you can always PM me or tweet me and I will aim to help 1
ITTony Posted January 28, 2014 Author Posted January 28, 2014 If you have any questions on Meraki you can always PM me or tweet me and I will aim to help Thanks Glennda I will keep that in mind, just have to wait for the post now
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