Affordable wireless controller/system for a primary school?

[JJanisch]

Hi,

 

I'm looking at bringing in a new wireless system that will initially support 30-40 devices, with the potential of 60 more to come in the near future. I have used (very basic use at least...) an Aruba 650 and Ruckus Zonedirector at other sites before, but I was wondering if there might be a better solution primarily when it comes to cost? Not all features will be there but on the flipside my extensive use of WLANs at the moment is display AP, connect to AP, and done! We'll need around 8 APs for adequate coverage.

 

Have any of you used a Zyxel solution before? The company I'm getting in to do all of the cabling works have recommended the NXC2500 which seems like a pretty good, cheap solution. Then again, experience using the device is more important than product blurb.

[mikeyw]

We are currently rolling out Ubiquiti Unifi APS, great value for money and no hardware controller needed (Free Software To control them).

Ubiquiti Networks - UniFi® AP

[Oaktech]

for your application Unifi is the perfect combination of cheap and features!

[JRowley]

I cannot support Ubiquiti Unifi enough, they are perfect for education. No rolling costs, no hardware controller, a good quality product for the money.

 

The standard access point is about £45, and the Pro £140, I would recommend the Pro if your budget will stretch as it features a 1Gbps ethernet port and is 802.3af compliant.

[fairm010]

Use UniFi here, 19 AP's roughly 40 users at any time and it is flawless!

[EasyMug]

Where I'm working we're currently using Ruckus but to be honest if the choice was up to me we'd be using Unifi - fantastic value for money and doesn't require a controller.

[synaesthesia]

UniFi over and above anything else for a primary in that bracket. Awesome kit, easy to manage, install. Set and forget.

[JJanisch]

Wow, high recommendations for UniFi then! I'll have a look into this now.

 

Anyone use a partner to get a good price on them, before I go direct?

[Haptic]

Have a look at the Ruckus AC Access points as they are on offer currently. Not as cheap as the Unifi, but packed with more features and it doesn't always boil down to cost, sometimes best value wins out!

 

Chris

[mrtechsystems]

Highly recommend Unfi as people suggested

 

[JRowley]

We bought ours through one of our suppliers, CCSMedia. They did us a reasonable price, but that was almost 2 years ago.

[synaesthesia]

4gon is one of the main suppliers and did me some good deals. Luke Perry is the guy I usually deal with from there.

[caffrey]

+1 Unifi, 32 pro AP's with 400 users - doesn't miss a beat and the controller is a VM. I use MSDIST.co.uk for mine

[mikecain]

cisco meraki points are awesome, cloud controlled. We have started to replace out Trapeze system with them.They are a little more expensive, but awesome to run and configure.

[DanPTL]

As if you need it, another plus one for UniFi. We've put into a number of primary schools with good results.

[LeMarchand]

Unifi again!

 

4gon is one of the main suppliers and did me some good deals. Luke Perry is the guy I usually deal with from there.

 

I wasn't impressed by their service last time I used them - but Millgate were good for us. Sorry to hear that the acting work has dried up for Luke Perry; wasn't a 90210 fan but enjoyed Jeremiah.

[synaesthesia]

Glad I'm not the only one that thought that

[Gaz]

broadbandbuyer.co.uk are selling Unifi APs but with the option to have it managed via the cloud through them.

Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC Simultaneous Dual-Band WiFi Access Point w/ 1-Year Hosted Cloud Controller Service (1750Mbps AC)

[Patrick]

Unifi AP's for us! We have a corridor of classes at a primary school that sometimes have about 60 devices on at once. We had 3 Netgear boxes covering this area and the connection was slow and would drop out often. Installed 2 AP's yesterday at the school and all seems to be well, still testing this out if we need a third one in this area but looking unlikely at the moment! Can't fault Unifi AP's.

[NotSoFast]

Another happy Unifi school here...

[achedgy]

Another vote for Unifi, does everything a primary needs, have schools using from 4 to 40 and it just does the job nicely, cheaply without fuss and expensive support contracts. They are the best value by far. Millgate & GCI are my suppliers

[SteveM555]

Unifi here for a secondary - Currently around 20 APs, doubling the amount shortly as the kit is very good.

 

CBC also supply Unifi gear if you need another supplier, as do 4gon.

[avenn]

Unifi are good and I use them but have moved on to mikrotik which offer just as good performance but are cheaper (£35 and up) and far more selectable / configurable - they are like a swish army knife - very configurable (cisco level) with central controller CAPSMAN (£60 and up) - however the flipside is that you need to know what your doing.we have used them for BYOD and never failed. Built in or centralised firewall/bandwidth controller/AP manager. Take a look at RouterBoard.com : Products

 

Send me a private msg for skype details if you want a natter. I'm certified in both unified and mikrotik amongst others.

 

For me they are awesome kit.

 

Hope this post helps!

[m25man]

As one of the first adopters, importers and hardcore Unifi evangelist here on Edugeek I can only echo the comments already made by others.

I regularly have 100+ users associated to a single UAP Pro have sites with 60+ APs and have been cloud hosting controllers since the beginning (now have multi tenanted sites running on Azure).

Even been installed on a SunSeeker!

 

There is nothing else out there that gives better vfm but it's certainly not as refined nor as sophisticated as some systems.

 

We recently deployed an Aruba system at a cost in excess of £36k for just 16 APs and there can be no doubt that it out classes the Unifi at every level.

 

Features like auto provisioning of WPA2 clients, fire walling at the AP uk

[caffrey]

Yes, that's the whole downside with it being cheap, I can't fault it but it won't ever support things like auto profile installation on BYOD devices etc. (if such a thing exists)