Wireless replacement conundrum..

[njc235]

Interestingly nobody has mentioned Ruckus or Fortinet. Vendor supported bids through a decent reseller should put them all in the same ball-park. 802.11ax isn't ratified yet even though many vendors have '802.11ax compliant' kit.

[AlanD]

Interestingly nobody has mentioned Ruckus or Fortinet. Vendor supported bids through a decent reseller should put them all in the same ball-park. 802.11ax isn't ratified yet even though many vendors have '802.11ax compliant' kit.

 

...same ball park for performance...maybe...but not cost. Take a look at Ruckus R710 (4x4:4 wave 2) for £600 and compare with Ubiquity AC HD (4x4:4 wave 2) for £242.

 

And I'd hesitate to recommend Fortinet/Meru to anyone because I've heard some pretty mixed feedback about performance in busy/dense environments.

[ictgoodpractice]

For a primary school with only 6 aps the Aruba seems pretty good pricing. Has anyone used them in a smaller non secondary environment. If so which aps do you have please?

[Norphy]

Two of our primary schools have Aruba IAP clusters made up of AP-303 access points. They both have in the region of 20 access points each but the network works very well in both of them.

[Primus]

For a primary school with only 6 aps the Aruba seems pretty good pricing. Has anyone used them in a smaller non secondary environment. If so which aps do you have please?

 

Why not just go with the Ubiquity offering - what does Aruba get you that Unifi doesn't?

[ictgoodpractice]

Thanks.

[ictgoodpractice]

Looking at all, lots on here about Ubiq, curious about Aruba as last school used it about 6 years ago.

[Primus]

AlanD always says this and he's right - get a demo AP off all the big brands and buy 1 Unifi one as you're unlikely to find a supplier who does demo Unifi APs as they're so cheap. Do some testing.

 

Honestly for a network of 6 APs there's no point spending more on alternatives to Unifi but obviously yes you'd need to get multiple quotes etc.

[mavhc]

Everyone seems to do "1 AP acts as a controller because computers are so fast and cheap these days". Questions for a network of APs are: handover, automatic signal strength adjustment, automatic channel assignment, whether you need APs that work well with interference, usually less of a problem for schools than offices, being as they're a building far from other buildings. Also how much for software upgrades, fixing bugs, adding WPA3 etc.

 

How fast can you set up features, guest wifi, single use codes, what monitoring do you have? will it tell you AP z is getting interference, and AP w is overloaded at 9am?

 

And PoE requirements, will you need a new switch?

[ictgoodpractice]

Which Unifi would you recommend I buy please?

[Primus]

Either AC-Pro or nanoHD.

[Rizzo]

Give Mist Systems a go, http://www.mist.com. We're very happy with it. Highly recommend getting a demo AP.

[ictgoodpractice]

Thanks, all v helpful. Do you have to use their switches and poe switch? Already have another brand there and gig so hope it would run with them?

[Primus]

No they use standard PoE and will work with any switch. You'll need to setup a VM or use a Raspberry Pi or similar to host the controller software for Unifi but it's free to download and use.

[mavhc]

There's multiple levels of PoE, check what standard they require, and total power budget is available. Also nice to have a 10Gb uplink from the switch.

[ictgoodpractice]

Cheers , Even for a single unit test?

[ictgoodpractice]

Sorry I have been out of this for over 6 years.

 

Do you been the POe uplink switch please?

[Primus]

There's multiple levels of PoE, check what standard they require, and total power budget is available. Also nice to have a 10Gb uplink from the switch.

 

Both use 802.3af PoE and the Pro draws 9w max, the NanoHD 10.5w max. In practice they don't get close to these ceilings.

 

10gb uplink is unnecessary on 802.11ac.

 

Yes it's wise to check the PoE standard of your switches and the wattage available but I'd be shocked if his switches didn't do 802.3af and if he's replacing WiFi it's unlikely that these would use greater wattage than the current system.

[Primus]

Sorry I have been out of this for over 6 years.

 

Do you been the POe uplink switch please?

 

Sorry I don't understand your question.

[ictgoodpractice]

There's multiple levels of PoE, check what standard they require, and total power budget is available. Also nice to have a 10Gb uplink from the switch.

 

Sorry it was this one about the 10Gb uplink. Most POE uplinks are 1gb or do you mean main switch?

[Primus]

Sorry it was this one about the 10Gb uplink. Most POE uplinks are 1gb or do you mean main switch?

 

You don't need to uplink each AP at 10Gb. However your PoE switch should uplink to your core over 10Gb ideally.

 

 

That said most WiFi traffic is Internet bound for us - our Internet connection is 1Gb so that's the bottleneck rather than the switch uplink.

[mavhc]

It's not usually a problem until you try to power 24 APs on 1 24 port switch. Just check the total max power required and that your switch can cope.

 

10Gb uplink to the next switch I meant.

[ictgoodpractice]

Thanks for all your help ordered a nano. I guess i can’t just take straight out of box, the software looks quite complex.

[jmak]

Thanks for all your help ordered a nano. I guess i can’t just take straight out of box, the software looks quite complex.

It's quite powerful, but you'll get it going in a few minutes.

[Janx1975]

Thanks for all your help ordered a nano. I guess i can’t just take straight out of box, the software looks quite complex.

Hi ictgoodpractice,

 

Just wondering how you got on with your wifi solution? We are looking to replace our.... *cough cough* TP-LINKS.... wifi "system" that was partially installed by my predecessor and its cracks are now chasms...

 

Kind regards!