Too many access points... problem?

[CyBeRkId2002]

Hi all,

 

I wondered if anyone could help. We are replacing our aging Cisco wireless system with a Ubiquiti Unifi system and are trying to get away with not having a wireless survey carried out (considering these cost in the region of £1000 - if not more... the price of 10 Ubiquiti access points!). My main question is as follows:

 

If we go for a 1:1 replacement of our current infrastructure it will completely cover the site as we have excellent coverage at present. If this is too many access points as I imagine the Unifi-AC have better coverage is this going to cause us problems with interference, or should the system be able to cope?

 

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

 

Michael

[maark]

A managed system should sort out the interference, channels, power etc. automatically - that is the main advantage.

When we went from loads of cisco points to ruckus I just swapped them over without a site survey and everything has worked fine with a few tweaks. You may need less access points if they are more efficient.

[fiberoptics]

I think it may cause interference if there is too many access points.

[synaesthesia]

The ubiquiti system is particularly good for a semi-managed system, you shouldn't have any difficulties just swapping out like-for-like. If you find some areas do struggle, then you can easily drop the power for certain APs.

[Net-Ctrl]

Morning @CyBeRkId2002 have you already purchased your Ubiq kit? If not would you consider looking at Ruckus Wireless at all?

 

We could offer to do a free of charge predictive survey for you to review your site and get an AP count. All we need is some accurate site plans.

 

We could then look at some of the latest promotions to get you the best price for your project. We can get all of this turned around fairly quickly and it will give you an alternative option to review that will be backed by our engineers.

[DalekSec]

Just curious, what unifi aps you going with? We run unifi here and recently got some of the AC-Pros in. They are amazing! The problem we had was its a old building with thick walls but it doesn't seemed to bothered by them!

[synaesthesia]

Morning @CyBeRkId2002 have you already purchased your Ubiq kit? If not would you consider looking at Ruckus Wireless at all?

 

We could offer to do a free of charge predictive survey for you to review your site and get an AP count. All we need is some accurate site plans.

 

We could then look at some of the latest promotions to get you the best price for your project. We can get all of this turned around fairly quickly and it will give you an alternative option to review that will be backed by our engineers.

 

There's a HUGE difference between Ubiquiti and Ruckus - typically if someone's looking at the Ubiquiti kit, Ruckus is already a no-go on cost!

[Net-Ctrl]

There's a HUGE difference between Ubiquiti and Ruckus - typically if someone's looking at the Ubiquiti kit, Ruckus is already a no-go on cost!

 

I don't think it would be huge. I'd welcome the opportunity to compare the two. Typically Ruckus will require less APs than Ubiq. Their latest R310 is it a lower price point where budgets are tight. For smaller deployments (sub 25) you also have the option to go Unleashed which removes the need for a controller.

 

You're right that we will still come out more expensive, but you will be getting a more feature rich solution. I completely accept that Ruckus isn't going to be right for every opportunity, where budgets are very tight Ubiq have a great solution.

[dapaulio]

I really like the unifi system. never had any problems in the years we have had it

 

When we upgraded from Netgear to unifi we swapped 1:1 and remember having the same concerns, as we had a netgear AP in every room. whilst it seems overkill unifi will throttle power and manage channels automatically. this can also be manually overridden if you do have issues.

We have never had any issues and we have just left everything on automatic. based on my experience i would be surprised if you had any issues.

 

if i were to critisise unifi on something it would be because we have had to replace a few aps under warranty and a couple which just fell outside of warranty as they developped hw issues. wasnt too much of a headache though as the warranty replacement was speedy and the price of replacing one really isnt that bad when you consider the cost of a ruckus/cisco system

[dapaulio]

Additionally we have a range of AP, including standards, pro, ac pro and outside-pro

 

be mindful though that the standard ap are 24v POE and dont work on POE switches which deliver 48V. the standards require the POE injector which are included in box.

 

the other thing to be mindful of if you use the poe injector they do not ship with UK 3 pin plug so you would need to negotiate as i did with my supplier to ship uk 3 pin to clover leaf or buy them separately