Which wireless network provider would you recommend?

[kennysarmy]

Meraki here since the Summer - rock solid and a reasonable interface - does everything we want of it.

[colly72]

We use Meraki here. We've had it for around 18 months now,with around 50 APs and it's been great for us and worked really well for our BYOD devices. The dashboard makes it so simple to use and we found it easier to manage when we looked at alternatives such as Ruckus, Meru, Aerohive etc.

[Darylrese]

PPSK....never could see the point of it. Why invent a further way of identifying users when they could use their AD logon with radius....and then smoothwall can report by logon name without having to use captive portals or some additional method. And yes, I’m sure Aerohive works well...as does ruckus...Aruba..meraki..fortinet and unify. When you want WiFi, get some kit in to test it under a real work load...compare their management functionality...and of course compare pricing.

 

PPSK allows you to control access on a user or device basis. For example, you can restrict it to a single use key for BYOD to stop students connecting multiple devices or setup some keys that have a specific time limit, firewall rule etc. Smoothwall's RADIUS can't do that, its just a simple yes or no which is a shame.

 

Personally, i love it and wouldn't use anything else.

[Rob_D]

My last place we used Unifi with the controller software installed on a server. Everything worked great - highly recommend for small-midsized schools.

Here we use Meru and have had some problems with apple devices dropping connection and refusing to reconnect. Otherwise, it's all worked fine.

[foofighterjim]

PPSK....never could see the point of it. Why invent a further way of identifying users when they could use their AD logon with radius....and then smoothwall can report by logon name without having to use captive portals or some additional method.

 

Found PPSK very useful for things that don't support RADIUS such as our franking machine, some of our digital displays and users that we don't want / need to create an AD object for. Definitely better than having an SSID with just a standard PSK. Not only can it limit how many concurrent connections with a key it can also bind the key to the first MAC address that authenticates with it.

[Net-Ctrl]

If you were to stick with Ruckus, then the ZD3k is worth keeping, it still supports the latest FW codes and is a rock-solid piece of kit. You will be able to extend the support, which will provide you with the advanced replaced on your ZD, FW codes etc. I'd suggest looking at your clients and your current performance. If you're currently not receving any complaints in regards to your signal and all devices are connected, then the locations/density would seem pretty covered. It then comes down to if you support a BYOD network, and whether your school owned deviced are AC capable. If you do support a BYOD network, and you do have the AC capable devices, then look at upgrading your Access Points, as @timbo343 said, the R510 is a great AP. It can support a theoretical max 512 concurrent clients. Now, we all know you're not going to hit that once encryption overheads etc etc is taken in to account but even after all of that you will still be able to support at least 100 clients on each radio.

 

For that number fo Access Points, you should be able to negotiate a good deal to upgrade with your existing Ruckus reseller and it will also make use of your existing ZoneDirector and AP locations. If you move to another manufacturer, you may need to review your deployment and AP count as one of Ruckus' main benefit is that due to how it handles the RF environment you typically require less APs.

[robjduk]

You go out and you put Meraki in. No arguments.

 

Replaced Ruckus with Meraki over the summer and didnt know wireless could work so easily.

[BKGarry]

I have recently been pulling out aging Meru kit in place for Unifi Pro ACs, The performance of these have been great.

 

We have almost 1000 laptops and 60 ipads and 50 Chromebooks, there is always around 600 full domain laptops on and working at any one time, ipads as and when and the chromebooks are pretty heavily used.

 

I would say they were really easy to setup myself and has been great to us so far.

[Wave9_Andy]

You go out and you put Meraki in. No arguments.

 

Replaced Ruckus with Meraki over the summer and didnt know wireless could work so easily.

 

Meraki recognised the challenge of the licensing model for schools and have responded. There are some specific licence pricing models for schools that are really excellent value when you look at what it covers. The management dashboard continues to be the differentiator for us. A well designed and configured network from any of the key vendors should do the job in terms of coverage and capacity in a school environment. That's why a thorough RF survey and a well though out design that also considers the underlying switching infrastructure and other network components is key.

 

If you want to try some Free Meraki kit and have a play with the dashboard then you can do. Wi-Fi for Education | Wave 9 | Cisco Meraki

 

Andy

[Blue_Cookeh]

There are some specific licence pricing models for schools that are really excellent value when you look at what it covers. The management dashboard continues to be the differentiator for us.

 

Maybe for some people - we were being quoted £20,000 to do a Wireless uplift in our primary school, something we did using Ubiquiti for < £2,500.

 

It's typically Cisco of them. Meraki were also incredibly pushy on sales wrt switches and firewalls. I get that's what they sell, but they put me off before we even looked at the pricing because we were not in the market for them. Also bricks when you stop paying the licensing cost blah blah

Edited December 10, 2017 by Blue_Cookeh

[AlanD]

Meraki = Rolls Royce solution. Schools need the Ford Mondeo solution....works fine...goes much the same speed....(or so close you'd never notice the difference). Don't expect a solution provider to come knocking at your door to sell you the Unify kit...because they make almost nothing out of the sales...

[robjduk]

Found Meraki to be cheaper than the others in the end. Will never go back to fannying about with zone directors.

[ricki]

I like ruckus and meru in education. But the best way to get the best out of any WiFi system is to have a proper survey which costs you money to save money

[chrisjako]

We use unifi and built the system in house over the summer holidays - whole system across two sites cost us £3200 for all the ap's and 4 technicians 2 weeks of work over the summer holidays we run it across 2 sites - love it works great as a set and forget system

[AlanD]

Found Meraki to be cheaper than the others in the end. Will never go back to fannying about with zone directors.

Well either you bought some rubbish Meraki kit or lacked the financial wisdom of testing Unify first ....Could probably have bought a whole unify system for just the money you spend on support...exactly the same wireless chip sets ... same microcode.... OK - I accept the web management system is fantastic...but once you get bored with fiddling months will go by without using it.

[gh5000]

So is it literally just the APs and the cloud key? £3,700 seems incredibly cheap for a school-wide wifi network!

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]46550[/ATTACH]

 

Even cheaper if you go to a ubiquiti "distributor". Even cheaper still if you get a trade account with the distributor http://www.4gon.co.uk/ubiquiti-unifi-ac-pro-indoor-outdoor-access-point-5-pack-p-6641.html

Or

Msdistribution (Msdist.something)

[atcoates]

Well either you bought some rubbish Meraki kit or lacked the financial wisdom of testing Unify first ....Could probably have bought a whole unify system for just the money you spend on support...exactly the same wireless chip sets ... same microcode.... OK - I accept the web management system is fantastic...but once you get bored with fiddling months will go by without using it.

 

That's a tad harsh. Schools have different budgets and there are a number of other choices that come into play. For us we have Meraki Switches, Wi-Fi and SM. I manage multiple sites so having everything in the cloud is a great advantage, plus the ability to manage everything through one interface is a massive plus.

[synaesthesia]

A bit like what you can do exactly with Unifi?

[atcoates]

A bit like what you can do exactly with Unifi?

Do ubiquiti do MDM now as well?

[synaesthesia]

Ah, no, see what you mean with SM now though. Gotten rid of all my Meraki SM setups now Cisco wanted $$$ for the priviledge!

[atcoates]

Ah, no, see what you mean with SM now though. Gotten rid of all my Meraki SM setups now Cisco wanted $$$ for the priviledge!

It has gotten a lot better lately with loads of new features that really are making a difference. We used Apple Configurator prior to moving to the SM and I'd pay anything to get away from that!

[synaesthesia]

Damn right. Moved to Mosyle which although looks complicated worked a lot better than Meraki used to, and AC was just nuts!

[SuperfluousAdjective]

Stay with the big boys. Meru for us but very expensive.

 

Whoever told you Meru is a big boy in the wireless space lied to you. Their single channel architecture is counter intuitive with modern wireless advancements and their marketshare is abysmal.

[CHM-ITServices]

Whoever told you Meru is a big boy in the wireless space lied to you. Their single channel architecture is counter intuitive with modern wireless advancements and their marketshare is abysmal.

 

Out of interest, why is it counter intuitive?

[synaesthesia]

because it's not what he's paid to bump/advertise?