Thinking of renewing WIFI

[AlanD]

...I kind of wondered how long it would be before someone quoted these articles....not long as it turn out.

 

 

And I agree - that some careful thinking about usage, channel widths, etc is well worth stopping to think about. And it might well be that by taking away an access point in a room surrounded by others with access points is going to work. Certainly turning off some of the 2.4GHz radios helps a lot - because those left can use higher power settings.

 

It may also help in really dense environments to use APs with programmable radios and use 2 x 20MHz radio channels on a single access point to split the collision domain in half. No - it doesn't give you the greatest speed to a single device - but it does give you a better overall bandwidth throughput to a classroom full of devices.

 

All too often schools have resorted to using the most expensive access points (on the often mistaken grounds that you get what you pay for) but can then only afford enough to widely space them along corridors. In practice they would probably (and again - I'm all for testing in situ) be better off with twice as many cheap and cheaful APs (dare I say like Ubiquiti) placed in classrooms.

 

And I agree - that wireless itself is often a source of noise - and indeed distant access points (and ineed clients) often trigger false DFS detection preventing APs from using the full number of channels - which is really annoying in dense environments. So yes - if you can remove an AP so that you don't end up reusing a 40MHz channel further down the corridor it might be a good thing to try,

[Net-Ctrl]

This is where some sites can get stuck, if they're not hot on their wifi knowledge they can be led into the belief that "1 Ap per classroom" is the right approach to take. Some sites will have too many APs, increasing the likelihood of co-channel interference with more than 1 AP talking to a single device at the same time. I'm sure I read an analogy somewhere that said it's like listening to your favourite song on the radio and it keep being interrupted by another local station on the same frequency.

 

We have also seen installers, over-selling on AP counts, over-charging clients based on the notion of 1 AP for every classroom. Some have set low transmit power settings to try to get around the problems caused, but when you have classrooms that may have 1 or 2 devices per student, this lower transmit power won't prevent the co-channel interference.

 

Just something for those sites looking at deploying new networks to consider, or those having issues with their current system to review.

[atcoates]

Useful video. Most of my schools are all from 1890-1910 and have very thick, brick walls with very high ceilings.

[JATSO]

The last WiFi installer that gave us a quote a few years back came in with a preconfigured so and hi mobile plugged it in and checked the signal strength from room to room, then gave us a quote for about £10K putting Aps in each classroom.

I eventually put in half the amount of Aps, they were Netgear WAG102s they did the job for about 4 years and I noticed that they were not keeping up with the demand so I put in the Ubiquity Aps in direct replacement about 3 years ago and they are still going strong.

[Roberto]

That's not strictly true. All Meraki devices will continue to work with the last available configuration. You just won't be able to change that configuration until you renew the license.

 

On most busy, modern networks that's damn close to being a paperweight, and I notice even that's been disputed. We review and change our switch and wireless configs on a fairly regular basis (I'm doing it today in fact) and not being able to change settings on switches or wifi would cause absolute bedlam here.

 

I've got no problem with firmware updates and the like not being available outside the support contract, that's what it's for, but the idea that I can't actually manage my network then? I *don't* think so.

Edited October 24, 2017 by Roberto

[Zoom7000]

On most busy, modern networks that's damn close to being a paperweight, and I notice even that's been disputed. We review and change our switch and wireless configs on a fairly regular basis (I'm doing it today in fact) and not being able to change settings on switches or wifi would cause absolute bedlam here.

 

I've got no problem with firmware updates and the like not being available outside the support contract, that's what it's for, but the idea that I can't actually manage my network then? I *don't* think so.

 

Fair enough, but I still think it's pretty good value for money getting at least 10 years out of a switch considering they offer a 10 year license for the price of 5. Remember the device is covered under warranty during this time too, so should it fail, Meraki will replace it too.

[jertsy]

XIRRUS here, I had it at my last school too. Some AP's were 6 years old and never missed a beat.

[Accura2k7]

Maybe a little late to the party but we just installed the Unifi AC-PRO-EDU units across the site as we wanted a PA system as well as Wifi. Perfect install, the software management works perfectly and have no issues at all! We are a new build school so wanted to go latest spec and this certainly fills that need!

 

Our old site, we used Unifi too, the no PA system and again, worked flawlessly.

 

On a side note, I have a good dozen Unifi AP's in a box here, not the AC-PRO versions though, mixed between normal and LR editions if anyone interested for a small fee, and loads of the POE injectors!

[hallb15]

I've got a load of spare UniFi PoE injectors too as we connected most of the APs to PoE unifi switches. Free if anyone wants to collect them.

[DGardiner]

It works out about £16 a year with a 10 year licence so needs to be considered.

 

Whered you find those? every time ive considered meraki in my schools the licence per AP has been several times the cost of the AP alone.

 

 

in the end we ended up going with aruba instants, if i want to tack on cloud management i can and if i dont feel like renewing a few years down the line i have them back as instant clusters... though HP aquired them recently and ive noticed the ap prices start to creep up - couldnt be happier with how they perform though!

[atcoates]

PM sent.

[Katy]

It might just be a coincidence, or maybe they haven't tried using the laptops this week, but since replacing HP MSM460 with Ubiquiti AC-Pros we've gone from constant complaints to none, similar to other people's experience.

 

Obviously now I've said this everything's going to come crashing down and fail spectacularly tomorrow to prove me wrong.....

[nathan]

It might just be a coincidence, or maybe they haven't tried using the laptops this week, but since replacing HP MSM460 with Ubiquiti AC-Pros we've gone from constant complaints to none, similar to other people's experience.

 

Obviously now I've said this everything's going to come crashing down and fail spectacularly tomorrow to prove me wrong.....

 

 

if it makes you feel better i installed the old Unifi (non pro n's) AP's about 5 years ago and they are still going strong!

[mikeprice]

It might just be a coincidence, or maybe they haven't tried using the laptops this week, but since replacing HP MSM460 with Ubiquiti AC-Pros we've gone from constant complaints to none, similar to other people's experience.

 

Obviously now I've said this everything's going to come crashing down and fail spectacularly tomorrow to prove me wrong.....

 

Oh I dunno

 

I put ours in a few years ago and they have been really boring - they just work

 

Only exciting bit about them is watching the staff moving from room to room on the events list

[GuyJD]

Only exciting bit about them is watching the staff moving from room to room on the events list

I thought I was the only one that looks at that thinking "what were they doing all the way down that end of the school"

[mikeprice]

I thought I was the only one that looks at that thinking "what were they doing all the way down that end of the school"

 

They were talking about you!

 

 

Is it wrong that I have identified most of the phones that connect and put the Teacher/TAs name on the config so I can see where they are???

 

or have I just watched one too many Harry Potter films

[hallb15]

They were talking about you!

 

 

Is it wrong that I have identified most of the phones that connect and put the Teacher/TAs name on the config so I can see where they are???

 

or have I just watched one too many Harry Potter films

Nope - I'm the same.

[AlanD]

Do you not see their Radius Logon username? (...wondering if you are just using a WPA code...and are unable to identify users by ID?)