Aruba - thoughts

[EvLPhenom]

Afternoon folks, currently looking at replacing the wireless in 2, 2 form primary schools, we have just had a company out and give us some information about Aruba both myself and my colleague were very impressed with what they had to say and how the system works.

 

I just wondered if there are any schools that use Aruba for their wireless and would love to hear some thoughts about it. Good, bad anything would help to make an informed decision. We are meeting with Xirrus in a couple of weeks to see what they have to say.

 

Have also met with and use Meru so have them to consider aswell.

 

May also be able to sort out a site visit if anyone near Birmingham area is willing to have us to pick your brains about the system.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

[abillybob]

Well that's convenient...

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/network-classroom-management/148226-major-wi-fi-issues.html

 

It's been good up till now and it's pretty much always maintained itself never had to do anything with the kit. Though I have also used Xirrus arrays which are a lot better imo.

[Zourous]

We moved from Aruba to Meraki in the summer. Aruba was fine but we are planning ahead so we can go 1:1 in the future. We do still have all the old Aruba waps available for a price if anyone is interested. They are only wireless G though, but served us well.

[jamesreedersmith]

Look at Ubiquiti Unifi - lots of threads on here about it.

 

"Bang for Buck" its brilliant - particularly for primaries.

[EvLPhenom]

Thanks for replies so far, @jamesreedersmith i will look into that.

 

I should have mentioned that we are looking to go AC so that we are future proofing. I know older Aruba systems may not have this available but as a company and what the kit is like i am very interested to hear about it.

 

Cheers

[Abaddon]

We were Aruba for many years - rock solid kit, and almost flawless performance. I would have no issues recommending it. It was so reliable, that I didn't actually look at two whole revisions of firmware after they were installed - it never went wrong, so I didn't need to.

 

For a bit of perspective, I think abillybob has issues which would have affected ANY wireless system in that situation. We also saw it here with our Aruba. Anyway - not particlularly relevant other than to say it's not specifically an Aruba issue!

Edited January 22, 2015 by Abaddon

[Davit2005]

At a previous place we had an Aruba system but then we moved to Ruckus and saw improvements but I think it was more the issues of how the Aruba was setup by an external company who went bust (probably explains it).

 

The Ruckus gave us much better coverage but as said I don't think we were getting the best out of the Aruba. They also stung them with an additional Aruba controller when it was found that more access points were needed.

[Haptic]

 

In my own personal opinion, the only vendor that can successfully do AC is Meru. From certain standpoints such as their single channel architecture and their virtual cell environment feature, I believe these features are beneficial for a "future proofed" wireless network that should typically last 5+ years factoring in a good installation also. Now please don't quote me on the technical side, but I have heard that Meru increases throughput on 'n' clients by 30% and you'll also be able to cater for new AC compatible devices that are beginning to come out. I also think that Meru are fairly competitive in terms of pricing when coming against other AC proposals, not to mention that they have some great bundles on offer to support small primaries to secondary's alike.

 

 

disclaimer: I work for an IT company that sells wireless equipment from multiple vendors.

 

I'd be very interested to see what independent evidence you have that backs this? Not least on the basis that any 802.11ac solution will provide potential for increased throughput when compared to an 802.11n solution? Also I could gladly point you towards a plethora of educational sites currently running a variety of vendors 802.11ac systems very successfully...not just Meru.

 

Lastly, on what basis are you claiming that single channel architecture is an improvement on multi channel?

 

The attached makes for an interesting read in the single v multi channel debate: Aruba WhitePaper: Single-Channel and Adaptive Multi-Channel Models

 

Mark

[Haptic]

I would certainly recommend trialling each solution in situ and seeing how you get on with a couple of AP's from a few different vendors.

 

You can compare specs and people's options all day long, but the proof is always in the testing/pudding!

 

 

Chris

[MatthewL]

Where I used to work had Aruba, in excess of 200 AP's over 2 counties in varying buildings, 2 controllers as redundancy and a number of RAP's, solid performance cannot fault it. The RAP's where one of the best bits about it, made it cheaper for us to expand our network without having to have costing connections, could just bung it on a broadband. Great for engineers too, bring the corporate network to home to enable working from home easier with kit preparation.

[Oddbod]

90 Aruba APs on 10/100 poe got replaced by 40 ruckus 500s on gigabit poe here with one zone director in the server room, readying the college for their rollout of 5000 mobile devices. Works very well here but your mileage may vary [emoji2]

[Trebs]

Use both Aruba and Ruckus - both are good in their own right and rarely have issues with either. Ruckus is a bit simpler to manage and configure not sure on the prices anymore.

[Jehanzeb]

We're using 20 Aruba APs with Netgear POE switch in our Primary school. Currently running over 130 clients with no issues. Haven't tried others, perhaps a comparison of two systems would help you?

 

Regards

 

J.