Looking for very competent and good value wireless supply and setup company

[SJA]

I am looking for a new wireless network for our (large) school in the South Hertfordshire/North London area.

 

I have my own existing suppliers, but I would like to open the door to new ones for this project. This is because wireless often requires people with training and experience to advise, supply, and setup properly. It would be useful to find a company who specialises more in the wireless side of things than just everything, and has more than one qualified engineer. Also, some of my existing suppliers are glued to HP/Dell or such like, and I want to explore the all best options.

 

I'm looking for companies to put themselves forward*, and persuade me that they are brilliant. I'm also looking for recommendations from fellow Edugeek users. As well as all the other things I mention, after sales support will be important.

 

Thank you!

 

*We use HP Comware switches, and Fortigate UTM, and will be looking for people who can work with us to integrate all this together.

Edited October 20, 2015 by SJA

[Net-Ctrl]

I would like to throw our name into the hat, Net-Ctrl is a very experienced (9 years now i think) Ruckus Wireless reseller, installer and integrator, and I hope a number of EduGeek members would back us up on that

 

We have our own in house wireless engineering team that are certified with Ruckus and have obtained CWNA accreditations.

 

If you would like to put us to the test, i'd suggest jumping on the phone with one of the guys and discuss with them what you'd like to achieve, and they can advise how you can go about it with us.

 

If you would like some more information, please send me a PM.

 

Josh

[bossman]

LAN3 for the Wireless, very competent company with excellent engineers and support

[Norphy]

My old place used Vanix for their wireless project. They were superb.

[exonetsystems]

Soft Egg?

[john]

I would like to throw our name into the hat, Net-Ctrl is a very experienced (9 years now i think) Ruckus Wireless reseller, installer and integrator, and I hope a number of EduGeek members would back us up on that

 

We have our own in house wireless engineering team that are certified with Ruckus and have obtained CWNA accreditations.

 

If you would like to put us to the test, i'd suggest jumping on the phone with one of the guys and discuss with them what you'd like to achieve, and they can advise how you can go about it with us.

 

If you would like some more information, please send me a PM.

 

Josh

 

Multiple time customer here vouching for those services, in fact one of the first in the UK for Ruckus with Net-Ctrl and that good I've bought Ruckus from Net-Ctrl at every job I've ever had now including my current job Top notch support and services from the team so well worth talking to them

[featured_spectre]

I am an avid fan of ruckus. Does the job and very intuitive. I got mine from @Haptic, and worth every penny.

[SJA]

Really grateful for the replies so far. Thank you

 

Ruckus is definitely somewhere around the top of my list for the hardware. All suggestions for hardware and supplier very welcome.

[mhowell]

Hi SJA,

Locally Meru, recently purchased by Fortinet, have an excellent partner called Switchshop who I know are highly accredited with HP, Meru platinum partners, and understand the integration complexities you will face.

As the Country Manager of Meru I would have no hesitation in recommending them and they are based in South Herts.

They have deployed nearly a hundred schools with our technology and I'd be happy to supply local schools they have worked with if you PM me, or mail me. Happy to supply many other local schools running our technology.

Feel free to contact me directly, Mark Howell, [email protected], 07919057244 or contact Switchshop directly [email protected]

[Haptic]

Thanks @featured_spectre it's always good to hear feedback from satisfied customers.

 

Ultimately @SJA we would recommend a solution only after knowing more about your site and the objectives you wish to achieve.

 

Having spent 10 years deploying Wired/Wireless networks, it is certainly a forte’, the best projects are those driven not by hardware/vendor but by the aims of the customer.

 

We’d be happy to assist, likewise we find putting you directly in touch with our existing customers is always helpful. We are also Top Tier Ruckus partners, HP and Fortinet partners alike thus the integration of your existing solutions wouldn’t be an issue.

 

Feel free to PM us.

 

Joe

Edited October 21, 2015 by Haptic

[Wave9_Andy]

Agree with what Joe has said about being objective not vendor led and getting a real understanding of your requirements and plans.

 

Our technical team have lots of experience in design and delivery of high capacity wireless having designed and deployed everything from Schools WLAN through to Wireless WAN for Scottish Highlands and Islands and City Wide Wireless.

 

We could offer a Meraki option.

 

Click the link for more info including a couple of education case studies at the bottom.

 

WaveConnect Wireless & Network for Education

 

Reference call can be arranged if you would like to speak to a customer we have worked with.

 

Hope that helps. PM me if you would like to find out more.

 

Thanks

 

Andy

[sonofsanta]

For networking, we've always gone with SwitchShop, and their advice & support has been utterly superb. Plus they send a bar of Dairy Milk to you at Easter, so well worth being on their mailing list.

 

They're vendor agnostic, so they'll talk you through any system; we just went with UniFi through them as it was about half the price of Ruckus and good enough for our purposes (that is, Ruckus is better, but we didn't need something that good).

[Griff]

Tell you a company I wouldn't personally recommend and that is Datrix took them 6 months to replace a broken controller here. I would recommend looking at Lynx Networks Edited October 22, 2015 by Griff