Ideas for 25 AP Site

[talksr]

Hi guys,

I am in the very early stages of replacing a 25 AP Fortinet site. Our system is about seven years old and has been really reliable. Two controllers running together and then the 25APs.

 

I don't think we will be able to afford Cisco, so I was going to start looking at Unify, Meraki (Cisco) and Aruba.

 

Has anyone got any recommendations but more importantly with April almost here, any rough estimates on costs involved would be greatly appreciated so I can put something in for my budget next month. Seven years has been a long time and standards, technologies and prices have obviously changed so I am slightly out of the loop on this one!

I was thinking of putting £15-20k in the pot.

[Jawloms]

Speak to @Net-Ctrl

[mavhc]

Cambium

[speakercon]

You could do it for about 5-6 grand with Ubiquiti assuming like for like placement and existing cabling is cat5e or better.

[dmj]

Thought about building your own?

https://openwrt.org/toh/openwrt/one

 

or perhaps

 

bpi-r4 (needs an additional card for Wifi7, and another adapter for PoE)

 

then manage it all centrally https://github.com/openwisp

[CrootUK]

Meraki is possible with that budget, highly recommend https://www.redwaynetworks.com

[MisterTechMan]

I would also throw TP Link Omada into the pot - have been using it for years (over two refreshes) and it's solid. We replaced around 25 AP's for under £5k.

[Ratcliffepg]

Cambium

[mbedford]

+1 Meraki

 

I was against a cloud managed solution for years, and had to deal with useless WiFi (Fortinet, Meru, HP..) Moved to Meraki, 140+ AP's across 5 sites, works well... Well as well as WiFi can be expected to work.

[MatthewL]

Unifi have hundreds of the things deployed no issues.

 

I have put in Omada at the Scout Hut as it worked out good price at the time, impressed with it although the admin side is a bit clunky but then I am used to Unifi.

[FN-GM]

I have had over 300 Unifi access points deployed across 20 sites with zero issues.

 

Something to consider with Meraki is the renewing of licences. If you don’t pay all your hardware turns into bricks. That doesn’t sit well with with me. I have heard some horror stories about renewal costs as well.

[dhicks]

You could do it for about 5-6 grand with Ubiquiti assuming like for like placement and existing cabling is cat5e or better.

 

+1 for this option. If you're okay to fit devices yourself (and Ubiquiti access points are simple enough to fit, just a couple of screws and a twist-on mount) you can replace devices one at a time as you get the chance.

[Reverend_Dan]

Cambium +1

[FragglePete]

Another +1 for Cambium

 

Pricing very similar to UniFi kit. Cloud managed, UK Support (never needed it though). Redway Networks did the specification and setup for us. Came in around the £25k mark for 97 APs dotted around our site of various specifications. We used existing cabling with the odd 'new' here and there. Just works, gives us no hassle (apart from having to renew a certificate yearly on the RADIUS server) and speed is pretty good.

 

Pete

[synaesthesia]

Aruba InstantOn may be a good solution if you need to stay with a "brand" and have no chance of going over the limit (I think its 50 APs?)

Also the number of current AP's might not be a good indicator of what you need - if you have 25 APs and they're covering multiple classrooms on old tech, you may find that newer wifi needs 1AP per 1 or 2 classrooms to give acceptable signal & performance levels. At that point then Cambium/UniFi is easily one of the better bets. Big difference in case this hasn't come up is better support (well, you get some compared to unifi's DIY route). I still have a preference for the UniFi kit purely as I can afford to buy and keep a few spares just in case we need to wait for warranty replacements (none yet) or something else (lightning strike killed APs, had 2)

[TheHyperTechie]

If it was me, I would be looking at UniFi. Always used them, and never had any issues. If you went with the U6 Enterprise it would cost about ~£5500, assuming its just a swap out job and no additional cabling etc is required. You could then host the controller on a VM or buy a cloud key for about £150.

[Net-Ctrl]

Hello - please send me a PM if you would like us to discuss this further.

 

We can talk about the site and your requirements, both now and in the future and talk through your options and considerations, such as cabling and your switching infrastructure.

 

We can review your AP layout and review if it follows best practices and if required surveys to assess your next solutions.

 

We have been delivering Wi-Fi into EDU space for nearing 20 years so we have a lot of experience and understanding. We're work with a range of vendors and will work with you to determine the most suitabe.

[Rob_D]

We got a 100 ap Aruba installation from SwitchShop about 4 years ago and it all works great. When I've looked Aruba instant-on seems to come in at a similar price to unifi.

 

Even if you're less interested in aruba, it might still be worth reaching out to SwtichShop, those guys always seem to know their stuff.

[RedwayNetworks_Michael]

Great to see all the Cambium fans, ive been talking of Cambium for years. Not many had heard too much of it but its great to see now people recommending it.

 

They also have a campaign for a free AP going too for anyone wanting to try before buying