Wireless recommendation

[PaulG1]

We are looking to replace our ageing Meru wireless system, comprising 1 x MC1500 controller and 10 x Access points. Has anyone gone through the same process recently and would recommend a suitable wireless manufacturer? Many thanks.

[Guest Guest]

I’d go with Ubiquiti. There pricing is very competitive, you don’t need a controller - just download there free software and the performance is great

[mikeprice]

I’d go with Ubiquiti. There pricing is very competitive, you don’t need a controller - just download there free software and the performance is great

 

^^^^^

What he said!

 

Changed out system over a year or so ago - totally revolutionised the whole thing - controller just runs on anything you want and takes naff all in terms of resources

 

stuff just works - and performance is great

[IrritableTech]

We’re currently replacing a ruckus system (which has served us well for six years) with a unifi install. The list of features isn’t as long as the big brand names, but the bang for buck is hard to beat.

 

^^^^^

controller just runs on anything you want and takes naff all in terms of resources

 

The unifi controller is limited to 1gb of ram by default, unless you unpick the conf files.

[Edu-IT]

I’d go with Ubiquiti. There pricing is very competitive, you don’t need a controller - just download there free software and the performance is great

Just picking up on this, can it not be cloud managed?

[Guest Guest]

Ubiquiti do offer a cloud based controller. I’ve never used it so don’t know much about it

[fiza]

We’re currently replacing a ruckus system (which has served us well for six years) with a unifi install. The list of features isn’t as long as the big brand names, but the bang for buck is hard to beat.

 

 

 

The unifi controller is limited to 1gb of ram by default, unless you unpick the conf files.

Does unifi have the features schools need? Radius authentication, vlan separation for byod and captive portal for guests?

[Guest Guest]

Yes it does

[PaulG1]

Thank you for replying, I will take a look at Ubiquiti.

[fiza]

What about support? Do you have to rely on user forums for any issues or can you buy support if you want?

[Guest Guest]

They have live chat within the controller to there tech support. I’ve used it several times and they seem pretty knowledgeable

[fiza]

They have live chat within the controller to there tech support. I’ve used it several times and they seem pretty knowledgeable

Is that FOC or paid for?

[Guest Guest]

What I’ve used is FOC they may offer paid though

[fiza]

Does anyone know how long the current unifi AC PROs will be supported for? Don't want to buy into something just to find it's going EOL soon.

[IrritableTech]

Does anyone know how long the current unifi AC PROs will be supported for? Don't want to buy into something just to find it's going EOL soon.

 

The original UAP is still supported which has been out years and years. The first wave of ac points aren’t going to be supported for long, but I’m not sure how many really sold. So it’s hard to say. I suspect the ac-pros will be supported for some time. Fingers crossed because we’ve just bought 20 of them.

[njc235]

Do you have a reason for moving away from Meru?

 

BTW Kieron, it’s ‘their’.

[XiJ]

We run a cloud based controller of unifi. It’s actually installed on centos and on one of our web servers.

[m25man]

It wasn’t that long ago when the only Wifi vendor allowed to be promoted on this forum was Ruckus. Oh my how that has changed...

 

The 1st gen AC points (the square ones) used a different chip set as did the first gen AC outdoor.

This means that they need to maintain code they neither want or need so rest assured they will drop support of legacy hardware at the earliest opportunity.

 

The Gen 1 AC points didn’t work out for us, they always ran hot, over heated and sometimes killed the injectors . (If any one wants some PM me as I still have a couple BNIB).

 

The latest current firmware release is definitely affecting our older standards and Pro AP’s.

They have begun disconnecting and rebooting and injectors have failed in some cases associating clients but not passing packets.

 

Fortunately having AC Pros spare we have just replaced them and all is fine.

 

Some of the older units have given sterling service for well over 5 years so they don’t owe us anything but it’s quite clear that when Unifi decide it’s time for them to go EOL, a code tweak will see them in to landfill.

 

Ubiquiti’s business model is somewhat unique in this market sector which they describe as “disruptive”.

The large number of class action law suits against them in progress over some of these activities is worthy of note.

 

There can be no doubt they continue to gain popularity here due to cost, they are great value for money even if the feature set isn’t as rich as some of the tier 1 vendors but IMOHO this should be an important factor when choosing a WiFi vendor.

Selection on cost alone is always a bad move.

 

Look at all of the mergers and acquisitions of WiFi and switch manufacturers HP Aruba, Ruckus Brocade, Fortinet Meru etc etc.

 

Increased demand at the AP means you will inevitably need more than single 1Gb uplinks.

10G BaseT copper uplinks and Smart Rate switch ports will provide this and the vendors that have managed to assimilate WiFi and switches are now giving us 2.5Gb and 5Gb and even 10Gbe Fibre AP connections.

 

Ruckus dropped off the radar after its botched sale and resale by Broadcom and Brocade and to be honest like many I had written them off as a viable option with many schools faced with Rip and Replace due to prohibitive license costs and limited upgrade options.

 

Clearly they have now taken action to address this and have now changed their business model to a more traditional channel and distribution in an effort to re-establish themselves in a sector they once dominated.

 

The WiFi wars are not over, in some ways they are just beginning again.

The Radios have evolved to a point where there is little more that can be done without regulatory changes but the demand now is for higher density AP’s

 

Multiple radios, intelligent antenna arrays with AP’s capable of associating 000’s of users, 10Gbe ports with Smart Rate switching is the order of the day and most of the top tier vendors have this now.

Unifi don’t as yet, even the AC Pro HD only has a single 1 Gb port with a second for bridging, although Link Aggregation was slated to be enabled in Firmware 5.4.x I’ve yet to try it.

But they are at least 50% of the cost of an Aruba or Ruckus point.

 

With budgets strained as they are its an easy choice to pick Unifi and win brownie points with the Bursar, but as soon as you have the need for clever tricks you will start scratching around for work arounds and bolt on’s.

 

Easy secure On boarding features such as DPSK are still just on the horizon for Unifi where they are standard on the “other” tier 1 vendors.

 

You get what you pay for, It’s still the finer details like these that can let them down and many Unifi users all over the world will also tell you that being used as beta tester can be very frustrating.

 

Do your research, listen to your peers but do remember one size doesn’t fit all.

[PaulG1]

Do you have a reason for moving away from Meru?

 

BTW Kieron, it’s ‘their’.

 

No specific reason, we are at the investigative stage and interested in finding out what other schools have invested in. We will certainly be looking to Meru (Fortinet) for a quote at some point.

[caffrey]

I agree with the Unifi statement

We use Unifi everything (Switches, APs and CCTV) mainly because of budget, but I always have this nagging doubt about it. It seems every time a new version comes out it brings along issues - I had issues with the first gen AP pros which I swapped out to AC pros. I recently had issues after updating the switch firmware that caused them to randomly reboot - that's now settled down and no longer happens.

I really don't like it when you make changes on the controller and the devices re provision taking the network down for a brief time

But for the cost - I really can't complain, I've now got POE everywhere and some 10G uplinks which I could never financially do with other vendors

[Edu-IT]

Cost wise, how much different is a Ruckus Unleashed AP, lets say?

[Blue_Cookeh]

We're still running the original first generation UniFi access points and haven't seen any of the problems people mention about new firmware etc. They're still getting updates and they're coming up to 6 years old now in our environment.

 

I'm replacing them with UAP AC Lites this FY - only because we want 5GHz and AC, though. Would thoroughly recommend Ubiquiti over the big players nowadays, even if something goes wrong with the hardware they're cheap enough to have a couple sitting on a shelf to swap over. RADIUS authentication and VLANs work fine. I'm still not convinced on their security appliance or switches yet - we're using a mix of Juniper and HPE/Aruba for that.

 

I'd be shocked if a school could saturate newer generation hardware - I don't see a need for 2.5/5Gbps access ports in schools yet, not in our LA anyway.

 

In terms of the controller we run our's on site in a virtual machine but you can either use Ubiquiti's own cloud controller, or host it yourself up in Azure/AWS/Google Cloud etc. There is only very basic and community support out of the box, but Ubiquiti do now offer an 'Enterprise' support service that you can buy.

Edited March 18, 2018 by Blue_Cookeh

[Edu-IT]

Does anyone have a link to where you can buy their hosted cloud controller and the costs? All I’m finding is 3rd parties that are selling their own instances.

[davethetekkie]

Had a first generation UAP-AC for testing and like many here I found it ran too hot so didn’t go ahead with them; I’ve since rolled out a set of UAP-AC-PRO points and for the money they’ve been rock solid.

[jmak]

AFAIK you either set up your own instance on AWS (or similar):

 

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/209376117-UniFi-Install-a-UniFi-Cloud-Controller-on-Amazon-Web-Services

 

Or buy one of their cloud keys, which isn't actually in anyone else's cloud, but is an independent device that sits on your network and is remotely accessible:

 

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/unifi/UniFi_Cloud_Key_DS.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwj2oOuh6PXZAhXkK8AKHcL2CXAQFghPMAw&usg=AOvVaw1yQtPYPYooFSaYsisKCz3u

 

It doesn't have to be on your school network - it can be anywhere with a network connection and can control multiple installations.