bit of advice please...

[bert113]

Hi, bit of advice needed if possible...

 

I visited a local primary school yesterday to speak to a colleague (non-technical role) and look at quotes they've had through for Apple products.

 

They currently have airport extremes dotted around the site, 1 in each classroom (4) and 1 in an admin office - they have a maximum of 24 devices that could connect at any one time, they've been quoted for a managed system, which to me sounds way beyond what they need. Personally , and I'm no expert on airports, while they aren't specifically designed for commercial / school use, they are more than suitable for use in a v.small primary school (around 70 on-roll). Any thoughts on this?, this is a very small school.

 

Also every device (bar one) in the school is apple based, is there a economical way of creating some storage / backup etc... as at the moment nothing appears to be backed up apart from the single windows based sims system.

 

Any advice would appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance..

[furby]

I agree with you, it sounds like they've got the wi-fi covered, is there any reason they want to change it?

 

The neat thing about the about having Airport Extremes is that if you buy Airpot Express's they act as repeaters for the network. A 'cheap' way to flesh out the network.

 

Simplest way for backups is to buy an external drive and attach it to the airport extreme. It will then act as a NAS and you can use it as a time machine target.

 

I've been brief but if you need more info go ahead and ask

[davidacland]

We normally use Meraki access points for wireless unless its for a few users. You can manage them all through a web interface. That being said, if they've already got the Apple base stations it wouldn't be enough of a case to throw them away and change. I would only go for Meraki if the client didn't have anything.

 

For backups, I assume you're talking about Macs and not iPads? Time Machine might cause a few technical headaches as its easy to setup but can also fail on a regular basis.