Decent POE AP recommendations.

[jthompson]

Not sure of where you'd source one, but how about a Cisco WAP361? As I mentioned, we've WAP321 previously, and it had a solid enough, non-janky web UI.

[Dan_ATR]

ok, so if I were to go for a unifi.... would this one be ok?

 

https://www.ebuyer.com/744689-ubiquiti-uap-ac-pro-unifi-ac1750-indoor-outdoor-simultaneous-dual-band-wifi-poe-access-point-uap-ac-pro

[m25man]

Aruba Instant, or Netgear Business AP's

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N4DV491?tag=ps-uk-netgear-02-21&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

 

Both have Standalone or Cloud options.

 

The new Netgear kit can be scaled up and out and includes some really advanced features.

Not renowned for their previous wireless efforts the latest kit is now a really serious contender and should not be passed over.

Lets face it they have been making AP's for years for almost every ISP in the UK

 

I am and always will be a staunch Unifi advocate, we have them running Radius and now 8 SSIDs they seem to go from strength to strength with each new release but,

 

If your looking for a turnkey solution that you can just install a single AP and walk away, the Aruba Instants and Netgear WAC's are a good call.

[SuperfluousAdjective]

I would go for Unifi over Aruba any day of the week. They absolutely are properly managed, and generally only rubbished by people who are trying to sell Cisco/Meru/Ruckus kit. All have their benefits but don't give them the same profit margin.

 

No reputable person sells Meru... let's put that on the shelf. Unifi is not in the same league as Aruba or the rest of the enterprise wireless marketplace. They are low end, underpowered APs with limited features. You get what you pay for.

[synaesthesia]

They are neither low end or underpowered. Yes they may be limited compared to some of the higher end kit, but in the majority of cases they are superior to so many other systems for various reasons; price isn't the reason that so many public bodies use them for large wifi installations outside of education.

[XiJ]

No, education market needs to go into schools to tell people to allow there technicians to buy the correct equipment and not to make them buy cheap junk.... I currently work in a school and I have thrown loads of items away which are just utter junk.... Its all fine when they want to buy a new toy for themselves but when it comes to buying things for the school, nope, dont want to know...

 

And now you want to buy d-link, dismiss a product that is working successfully in hundreds (if not thousands )of schools from 4 class primaries to large secondaries.

[SuperfluousAdjective]

They are neither low end or underpowered.

 

Yes they are. You get what you pay for. Compared to the low end APs from other manufacturers they have half the RAM, lower CPU, less performance. All reputable benchmarks show they fail to properly serve all associated clients higher density environments (40-50+ users per AP). If that performance is acceptable to you, that is one thing. But, they are not enterprise grade compared to the competition.

 

Yes they may be limited compared to some of the higher end kit, but in the majority of cases they are superior to so many other systems for various reasons

 

In what way are they superior? What feature or hardware component exists within their product portfolio that makes them superior in any way to the enterprise grade WiFi product portfolios on the market? The fact is they lack standard enterprise grade features like advanced RRM, DFS, basic roaming standards, fails to see any benefits of 802.11acw2 MuMIMO over 20 clients (due to hardware constraints), etc.

 

 

price isn't the reason that so many public bodies use them for large wifi installations outside of education.

 

It is 100% about cost. There is no technical reason to use them over the competition unless the decision is being made on cost. Other solutions can be easier to setup and manage and provide more features and hardware performance. The reason you'd use Unifi is because you can't afford or don't want a true enterprise grade platform.

[synaesthesia]

Mmhhmm.

[AlanD]

Yes they are. You get what you pay for. Compared to the low end APs from other manufacturers they have half the RAM, lower CPU, less performance. All reputable benchmarks show they fail to properly serve all associated clients higher density environments (40-50+ users per AP). If that performance is acceptable to you, that is one thing. But, they are not enterprise grade compared to the competition.

 

 

 

In what way are they superior? What feature or hardware component exists within their product portfolio that makes them superior in any way to the enterprise grade WiFi product portfolios on the market? The fact is they lack standard enterprise grade features like advanced RRM, DFS, basic roaming standards, fails to see any benefits of 802.11acw2 MuMIMO over 20 clients (due to hardware constraints), etc.

 

 

 

 

It is 100% about cost. There is no technical reason to use them over the competition unless the decision is being made on cost. Other solutions can be easier to setup and manage and provide more features and hardware performance. The reason you'd use Unifi is because you can't afford or don't want a true enterprise grade platform.

 

...really, I dont know where to start with such dogmatic, and largely ignorant and poorly informed information.

 

First..”you get what you pay for...” well you might...and you might not. There is absolutely no guarantee that the more you pay gets you a better product. Never has...never will.... that’s not to say that unify is better....or just as good...it’s just that price alone means nothing.

 

“All reputable benchmarks...” Most of the one’s I’ve see are extrodinarily biased. Most wireless systems have an edge in a particular environment. For Meru’s ...now fortinets single channel architecture ..it might be streaming to a larger number of clients...for Ruckus it might be their their beamflex giving a better signal through a wall to get a higher QAM connection....for Aerohive ..it might be their autonomous capability to work intelligently after loosing contact with a controller...for meraki it might be their brilliant user interface. But if you want all of it...you won’t get it...not for any price.

 

For unify...the USP is value for money. It’s the Mondeo car solution for schools. Is it as good as a Rolls Royce?..No. but it doesn’t cost as much as a rolls royce.. and yet does a perfectly good job.

 

40 to 50 users per AP is going to pretty awful with all APs. A single collision domain with that number of clients has a significant impact on overall throughput....well compared to “gigabit” rates you might have believed from the advertising.

 

Every AP uses one of two types of hardware chipsets ...and both chip sets come with their own microcode firmware which has been granted 802.11 certification. This cannot be changed by a wireless vendor...although I agree ..they can do a lot to help get the best out of what is intrinsically a difficult and limited transport medium with management software.

 

And keep in mind that wireless clients are significantly better today..and for example do roaming just fine without help from the AP...and power control to reduce the size of the collision domain etc.

 

Poor AP positioning and deployment can be more detrimental than choice of AP. Achieving the high data rates of acw2 for example needs a very strong signal to get the spatial separation of MIMO and high QAM rates. Typically no more than 3m or so in open space. Put a wall in the way or even bodies...and most of the benefits of acw2 disappear for all APs ...expensive or not.

 

My mantra..always ..is not to take anyone’s word for this...get some test kit it...test it under load....will unify deliver what some of the more expensive APs do? Probably not...but I had to get stop watch out to measure the difference ...well..a timer in the code actually...

[Dan_ATR]

Just to let you know, we got the unifi in the end as I was limited on time and had to get something.

[DrCheese]

& how are you finding it?