New Wireless System

[Bluetooth]

Hello All

 

Right, this might be a bit of a long post so bear with me here as i have a bit to discuss and lay out so you can formulate proper opinions/suggestions

 

One of my 6 schools is a junior school from year 3 to 6 and has around 350 on roll.

 

Over the past 4 years we have stuck with 30 machines in the ICT room and wireless points around school. I have spent most of the time over the past 3 years getting new laptops in and making sure the staff can do their job from a teaching point of view. This has now reached a pinnacle insofar as most staff have laptops either 1 or 2 years old.

 

Anyway, we are now moving into updating the ict system for the kids, with the curriculum changing next year we want to move ICT more into the classroom to go with the discrete ICT subject.

 

So basically we're looking at expanding the wireless in the school to accomodate more netbooks that the kids can use.

 

The school is laid out in the most perfect way i can think of really, its a square with 4 more squares on each corner making up the year group units. As below

 

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt170/Bluet00/schoolwifilayout.jpg

 

The red splodges are current wireless points (3 linksys WAP54G's and 1 Netgear WAG102 - there is also 1 wap54g in the staff room but no children go in there only staff)

 

Currently we only have 6 netbooks (on top of around 15 staff laptops or so), however we're obviously looking to expand this to more netbooks for child use. I think to be honest we'd be looking at a peak of maybe 15-20 netbooks per year group (maybe more) so obviously we need a wireless system that can handle the hammer.

 

I have heard that some schools use this ruckus with the smart antennae array or something and what to get peoples opinions on that initially, also any other things i should look at.

 

I am planning on maybe 2 - 3 wireless access points per year group or if i dont need to have 2 - 3 wireless points maybe 1 - 2 points that can handle the load as mentioned above.

 

At other schools i have had good experiences with Netgear WPN802t's (a/b/g/n) and i am currently running 15 netbooks on 2 of these points without any issues with reliability/connectivity so these would be my first port of call but i wanted to investigate other possibilities.

 

Thats about all the plan i have so far, would love to hear peoples opinions and also any good/bad things about ruckus (also what it is tbh) and any other wireless i could look at.

[mattstevenson2005]

Hi Bluetooth

 

Sounds like what you need is a managed wireless network system. Ruckus is ok but I would recommend the Meru wireless system, I work in a secondary school and we have had demos from Extricom, Ruckus and Meru and we have decided to purchase the Meru system as a campus wide solution with the possibility of supporting hundreds of wireless devices, so it will 100% support your expected number of clients. Also its very cost effective as you can depending on your budget purchase the base model system and when you have more money upgrade it to the top of the range system if you wanted just with a software update. e.g. going from a 'G' speeds to 'N' speeds We had a few quotes from a number of companies but have decided to go with a company called Virtue they are really good and would recommend them, give them a call 01695 731233 and ask for Phil Lawson and he will sort you out.

 

Matt

[Haptic]

Hi Bluetooth

 

Sounds like what you need is a managed wireless network system. Ruckus is ok but I would recommend the Meru wireless system, I work in a secondary school and we have had demos from Extricom, Ruckus and Meru and we have decided to purchase the Meru system as a campus wide solution with the possibility of supporting hundreds of wireless devices, so it will 100% support your expected number of clients. Also its very cost effective as you can depending on your budget purchase the base model system and when you have more money upgrade it to the top of the range system if you wanted just with a software update. e.g. going from a 'G' speeds to 'N' speeds We had a few quotes from a number of companies but have decided to go with a company called Virtue they are really good and would recommend them, give them a call 01695 731233 and ask for Phil Lawson and he will sort you out.

 

Matt

 

what made you decided against Ruckus Matt and choose a more expensive solution that has less features ?

[Tricky_Dicky]

The position of your access points look fine, but obviously that depends on the size of the classrooms. I'm presuming they are a similar size to mine.

I am also presuming the building is single story? If it is then try and put the access points on the ceiling as central in each location as possible to give the most even coverage and best range.

Ruckus is simply a managed wireless system. In that you have a central controller which you configure with what ever settings you need (SID, keys etc..) and then you place an access point where you want and as long as the access points are connected to the network the information will be distributed to each of them.

Pros; Simple centralised configuration, The access points will self manage power levels and channel number, each AP can handle a crazy number of clients, PoE is great if you have it.

Cons; Not cheap compared to individual access points.

If you currently have 350 children on role then I personally be expecting about 75 laptops for the children soon enough so make sure you get enough APs to cover that. That being said with a managed system it is very easy to add more APs.

Good luck.

Rich

[Bluetooth]

Thanks for the comments.

 

Regarding the ruckus managed stuff, i saw the wap management server or whatever, i take it that just sits in the comms cab and all the AP's just find the settings whatever from there?

 

Also with around 80 netbooks running at any one time (at peak) how many AP's would you go for per unit? just the 1 as these ruckus things seem to be quite strong and smart (watched the webinar and stuff on their website)

[Haptic]

Thanks for the comments.

 

Regarding the ruckus managed stuff, i saw the wap management server or whatever, i take it that just sits in the comms cab and all the AP's just find the settings whatever from there?

 

Also with around 80 netbooks running at any one time (at peak) how many AP's would you go for per unit? just the 1 as these ruckus things seem to be quite strong and smart (watched the webinar and stuff on their website)

 

if you fancy trialing out the Ruckus Managed Solution be sure to give me a shout and I can get an eval unit out to you for you to see the benfits first hand,

[Bluetooth]

Oooooooooooooooooooh really?

 

So what would that contain Simon?

 

one of those managed server doodads and an AP?

[Haptic]

Oooooooooooooooooooh really?

 

So what would that contain Simon?

 

one of those managed server doodads and an AP?

 

A Zone Director Management Console and three 7942 (N) Access points,

 

just ping me over an email to [email protected]

Edited June 14, 2012 by Dos_Box

[Bluetooth]

Already done my friend.

 

Regarding the Mero or whatever stuff, why should i look at ruckus over their stuff?

[Haptic]

Already done my friend.

 

Regarding the Mero or whatever stuff, why should i look at ruckus over their stuff?

 

Ruckus is far more cost effective and the easiest solution to deploy, I have many edugeek members we have supplied Ruckus to who can offer testimony to this FACT, we supplied one with a solution for 10K and meru were around 18K

[localzuk]

Already done my friend.

 

Regarding the Mero or whatever stuff, why should i look at ruckus over their stuff?

 

We've installed Ruckus here, and it took me a total of 10 minutes to get the controller unboxed, plugged in, set up and then permanently housed in a cabinet.

 

Setting up AP's is just a case of plugging them in...

[Tricky_Dicky]

As we speak I've got 76 clients connected over 15 APs but that is over a very large area. Each AP will easily handle 30 clients at a time. Peak I've ever seen is 90 but I'm running a stress test next week with all 150 machines so will see how that goes..

 

Yea the controller just comes with cabinet brackets and you plug it onto the network.

[Bluetooth]

that sounds quite impressive but the price sounds a bit costly, i wonder if i could get away with 1 ap per year group?

 

If i could get the network and data put into the center of the year group id guess it would be around 10-13m from windows on all sides and walls would vary but afaik they are plasterboard anyway.

[localzuk]

that sounds quite impressive but the price sounds a bit costly, i wonder if i could get away with 1 ap per year group?

 

If i could get the network and data put into the center of the year group id guess it would be around 10-13m from windows on all sides and walls would vary but afaik they are plasterboard anyway.

 

Ruckus AP's have been shown to handle a large number of laptops at a time. One user on here posted a test result he did, where he had (IIRC) 90 clients connected, playing streaming video from BBC iPlayer, through a single AP.

 

So, a single AP per corner would do the trick perfectly.

[Bluetooth]

Alright, so it totally depends on price then, the trial i will get from simon will hopefully show me how good these are

 

Thanks again guys

[Iain.Faulkner]

We've just deployed Ruckus (having looked at all sorts of options available to us, including Meru, Extricom, Netgear) into our PE department purely for wireless registration.

 

Having done the various tests, we found that Ruckus provided significantly better signal strength and coverage than the others we trialled, whilst also requiring fewer access points. Where the alternative manufacturers were specifiying 10+ access points to cover our PE area, we found that Ruckus could easily do it with no more (and we suspect we'll actually only put in 4 of the 6 we've bought). As a result of the fewer AP's required, it drives the cost down as well. Ruckus was significantly cheaper than the alternatives we looked at.

 

Do take Simon up on his offer though for the demo kit, it really opened our eyes to how easy Ruckus is to install and manage. By far the easiest solution I've ever seen or used.

[KWestos]

Alright, so it totally depends on price then, the trial i will get from simon will hopefully show me how good these are

 

Thanks again guys

 

You will NOT be disappointed in Ruckus! We received a trial (also from Simon at CPLTD) and we had a suite of laptops running on it within the hour. It is very very easy to set-up and administer. After our trial, we immediately purchased a kit and had it installed in no time. It really is very very easy - well, you will find that out when you receive your demo unit.

 

If you want to contact me, I'm more than happy to provide you with my details and you can see it in 'anger' if you like.

 

As a side note, I purchased our's from CPLTD and I'm glad I did because the two occasions I've needed help. They were resolved immediately!! And it was not a problem with the Ruckus, just my stupidity!

 

You won't regret it, honestly!

[mattstevenson2005]

what made you decided against Ruckus Matt and choose a more expensive solution that has less features ?

 

 

One of the reasons for going with Meru was their brilliant EzRF Appliance which allows you to rewind the clock for example, teachers are brilliant at coming to see you two or three days after they have had a problem but when you go to check it out its all working fine, this system allows the teacher to come and see me and tell me that she had a problem with a number of clients accessing the wireless network last Wednesday at 2pm then I can access the EzRF appliance a drill down to the particular access point or client computer at the given time and give a correct answer why she may have had a problem e.g. there was lots of interference, or the laptop has a hardware fault. I don't believe that ruckus offers this feature?

 

Matt

[stariq]

another one for Ruckus mate - we have 28 AP's here all jobs a good-un

[K_T]

PM sent, Bluetooth ;o)

[Dos_Box]

I really hope you have just not broken the AUP.

 

It's hammer time!

[EduTech]

I would recommend Ruckus also, we have it hear and it is outstanding and very cost effective aswell. I am not knocking any other solutions but for schools/education with the way budgets are at the moment and how great the solution is ruckus ticks all the boxes.

 

Feel free to drop me a PM if you have any questions, I am very happy with our deployment as are many other members on here.

 

Good Stuff!

 

James.

 

@DB - Thanks

[K_T]

In all fairness, not sure if you want to block me in this instance...Considering sponsorship for Edugeek...but as Cisco already has ads here and when everyone keeps talking about Meru, Ruckus [excuse me. but I haven't heard of] when their company is Meru, etc...hmmm...then not much luck for my sponsorship, is it?!

I'm just an IT and gamer geek working for years with Cisco...can't and don't want to get out of it...i rather wish to engage in explanation about how Cisco actually works but i'd be banned straight away...[!!!]

[EduTech]

In all fairness, not sure if you want to block me in this instance...Considering sponsorship for Edugeek...but as Cisco already has ads here and when everyone keeps talking about Meru, Ruckus [excuse me. but I haven't heard of] when their company is Meru, etc...hmmm...then not much luck for my sponsorship, is it?!

I'm just an IT and gamer geek working for years with Cisco...can't and don't want to get out of it...i rather wish to engage in explanation about how Cisco actually works but i'd be banned straight away...[!!!]

 

As said to everyone here before, nothing wrong with other wireless systems we encourage discussion to be honest. If you have an opinion on another wireless system that yes there is no stopping you from saying so aslong as you can backup what you saying, it's when people come on here saying things are really really bad etc but then cant back up what it is they are trying to say.

 

Yes, as a sponsor you cannot advertise, sell, promote any products/services your company deals with so supppose that makes things difficault for yourself.

 

Suprised you have not heard of Ruckus/Meru though, might be worth looking at to see what it is they do also.

 

The reason Ruckus is popular in education is down to the cost of the kit it is very edu friendly and it works very very well!

 

James.

[K_T]

Thank you for the explanation, James. I really appreciate it.

I have heard about Meru, just wanted to clarify - apparently it uses only channel 6 [instead of bleeding 1, 6, 11] which I cannot understand can work efficiently [?!] Maybe thinks have changed in the past couple of years. Also I think Aruba is good too but again not sure about the cost.