Ruckus Wireless or Cisco Meraki

[Gardinho]

+1 for Ruckus. Plug it in and it just works. Signal strength is awesome.

 

The only additional config we have here is additional vlan for the guest network (separate IP range).

 

As with most things, you get what you pay for IMO.

[Joanne]

To be fair Meraki is also very good. Get prices for both and choose which suits you and your school best!

[mikkydoos]

Go with any supplier that will come out and do a proper survey too. None of this thermal image rubbish on top of a Google maps picture.

[Joanne]

I used Bt business direct for my system and a guy came out and did a proper survey

[Net-Ctrl]

Out of the two we would always suggest Ruckus, admittedly we're going to be a little bit biased

 

On these forums you have both us and @CPLTD that are top tier Ruckus partners, if you're thinking of going with Ruckus, either of us will be a great place to start.

 

Best advice is to trial both solutions and see which you prefer.

 

Surveys will also be useful. If you get a predictive survey make sure the company is using some professional predictive Wi-Fi planning software, for example we use Ekahau and have found it to be incredibly accurate - although predictive.

[paulellam]

Thanks peeps, organised a proper survey for one vendor and will need the same from the other I guess.

[FN-GM]

We use Ruckus here. Very easy to manage and we have 43 indoor Dual Band AP's and 2 outdoor dual band AP's. Had it supplied and installed by @CPLTD. Have to say they were very good at the time and have been great for post-installation support when most normally disappear. Nice solution

 

Just to add to this. I have had another Ruckus purchase in my new job. This is for all sites in a multi Academy Trust. We have a pair of controllers centrally and AP in each of the schools and buildings. Supplied again by @CPLTD . No complaints at all.

[jcza]

I recently opted for a Cisco Meraki system to replace our aging Netgear and the more modern Meru systems we were trialing. I can say that it was a choice that I have not regretted. The MR32's have been rock solid so far, blisteringly easy to deploy, seamless roaming, excellent BYOD, and most importantly for me the easy ability to manage multiple sites in the consortium/trust from one location. I'll also admit I liked the idea of having integrated Bluetooth beacons for some of our future projects.

 

Only negative point so far has been that some old legacy devices had issues connecting at first, but most of those were down to older cards not supporting WPA2 correctly. A few driver updates or card replacements and pretty much everything was resolved and working fine.

Edited April 28, 2015 by jcza

[paulellam]

We have had a Ruckus solution installed and really happy with the system and the work of the installer: View Profile: Haptic - EduGeek.net.

 

Really pleased with the solution, coverage is fantastic (we can use laptops upto 300m down the field). Its a really easy to use management system and probably does far more than we require at present. Highly recommend!!