WiFi In Education

[nicko17]

A thread where users can share their experiences and past experiences with other people who are looking to implement a wireless in their schools.....

[glennda]

Hate it! Laptops are the bain of our schools life - partly due to the fact the wireless isn't great (cisco kit is good but 100mb connections 30 laptops isnt) We have removed all but 2 sets of laptops and have moved to ICT suites - they are more reliable

[localzuk]

We've implemented Ruckus here. Not being used in highly dense situations yet, but it has been flawless for the 25 or so laptops that get used around the school so far.

 

Just make sure you keep it up to date, and use 1Gbit connectivity to wireless N access points.

[irsprint84]

Agreed, wireless should only be seen as a backup option but its used as first option here and other companies will be the same

[Brpilot99]

One school works great (Ruckus) Another school, nightmare!! (Trapeze) Due to the safety wire mesh in the classroom windows and school doors apparently.

[nicholab]

HP MSM422 AP's with MSM760 utter rubbish even when we upgrade to Cisco Network with 1000Gbit to AP. It never works Consistently.

[Butuz]

Wireless in education is exactly the same as wireless in any other place - it's either slow and unreliable, or it's hideously expensive.

 

I am clinging onto wires for as long as possible!!!

 

Butuz

[nicko17]

I thought this I have got a solution called Aerohive, not sure if you have heard of them. They are making some great progress in education both sides of the pond. I have got my system implemented and have multiple users around the school. All AP's are fully featured and do not have a costly slow controller!!!!!!

 

I thought wifi in schools was a bad idea to be honest, but I have now had this solution in for 6 months, was so impressed i have now rolled out more AP's lighting up new areas of the school. I am also working on a new project for a large secondary school down the road, rolling out Aerohive there. They run VOIP aswell for their teachers and staff around the school..... if you are having problems and looking at upgrading definately would recomend aerohive guys very intuitive!

[nicko17]

Hate it! Laptops are the bain of our schools life - partly due to the fact the wireless isn't great (cisco kit is good but 100mb connections 30 laptops isnt) We have removed all but 2 sets of laptops and have moved to ICT suites - they are more reliable

 

 

are you using .11n devices, you will have this problem running this ammount of users on a network that doesnt support .11n, most cosco kit is crap i used it in the past. theres about 20 different costs and uses a costly controller........ as i was once told by someone 1% of ciscos revenue comes from wireless..... so do you really think they do much with it?

 

no they just buy small companies and stick their name on it, then all the people from these companies leave and go to specialist companies. I would advise looking at solutions such as aerohive merakia aruba if you want to get the best in wireless, they are specifically wireless companies!!!

[djones]

Cisco managed wireless with max. 30 laptops:1 AP (54g) at any one time plus >18 staff laptops connecting through WiFi around the school = great experience overall. Only thing that slows is trying to deploy larger software installs or bandwidth hungry stuff like video.

[steveg]

Has anyone else noticed how almost every one of nicko17's posts is promoting Aerohive, or starting a thread in which they can promote it? Maybe its just me.

 

Steve

[glennda]

are you using .11n devices, you will have this problem running this ammount of users on a network that doesnt support .11n, most cosco kit is crap i used it in the past. theres about 20 different costs and uses a costly controller........ as i was once told by someone 1% of ciscos revenue comes from wireless..... so do you really think they do much with it?

 

no they just buy small companies and stick their name on it, then all the people from these companies leave and go to specialist companies. I would advise looking at solutions such as aerohive merakia aruba if you want to get the best in wireless, they are specifically wireless companies!!!

 

i didnt purchase i don't use it i don't really care - we only use it now for the pe staffs laptops (about 5) and registers and the 6th formers personal ones - plus our mobiles so we can setup fog tasks around the school without logging in.

 

Plus i have looked at aerohive before and wasnt really that impressed - would probly look at ruckus anyway

[localzuk]

Has anyone else noticed how almost every one of nicko17's posts is promoting Aerohive, or starting a thread in which they can promote it? Maybe its just me.

 

Steve

 

Yup. I've noticed...

[jdoyle]

are you using .11n devices, you will have this problem running this ammount of users on a network that doesnt support .11n, most cosco kit is crap i used it in the past. theres about 20 different costs and uses a costly controller........ as i was once told by someone 1% of ciscos revenue comes from wireless..... so do you really think they do much with it?

 

no they just buy small companies and stick their name on it, then all the people from these companies leave and go to specialist companies. I would advise looking at solutions such as aerohive merakia aruba if you want to get the best in wireless, they are specifically wireless companies!!!

 

Cisco has a policy of "eating it's own dogfood" (ie using it's own kit and making sure it works in a demanding environment) and has wireless all around it sites worldwide. When first implemented at Bedfont Lakes it was slow but pretty soon went to being an indispensable and extremely reliable part of the infrastructure.

 

Whilst it is true that Cisco has acquired a number of companies (just taken over Tandberg), it's equally true that it's rejected approaches by many others to be acquired.

 

Revenue for the latest quarter = $10.84 billion. 1% of a single quarters revenue sounds good to me.

 

Never heard of Aerohive so can't comment.

[CyberNerd]

hideously expensive Meru network here. 802.11n, Student VLAN, 1GB/s uplinks, 4GB/s to controller.

 

Works fine in high density, can walk from one end of the school to the other without loosing a ping.

 

Wasn't cheap though

[Sylv3r]

We have non-managed HP 'Fat' AP's around the school here with around 75% coverage - no problems with our setup up to now, but it takes some setting up each AP so I would go down the managed route such as Ruckus in the future.

[cpjitservices]

Hi, I've heard of a company called blusocket and saw it implemented in a college, it worked great 99.9 % of the time and had managed ap's, I think it had AD integration and authentication.

 

maybe worth a look.

[nicko17]

Has anyone else noticed how almost every one of nicko17's posts is promoting Aerohive, or starting a thread in which they can promote it? Maybe its just me.

 

Steve

 

yes i have just because I am impressed, although I would to also like to point out, I have mentioned other solutions such as meraki aruba etc, just providing my overview as i am impressed with it

[gjdb]

Six or seven years ago we started with wireless, at that time a managed system was not around (or at least not in my country), so we bought 'dumb' thick AP`s.

Every AP has its own 100mbit POE link, every class room has at least 1 AP and up to 3 AP`s a class room if more laptop`s are used. (total of AP`s 35-30)

We started with 60 laptop`s and at this moment we have over student 160 laptop`s, small class rooms have 5-10 laptop`s and the large ones have 30.

Overall it works well, no more or less problems as with a regular desktop and if there are problems its mostly user related.

 

All our AP`s are Cisco Aironet 1200 series.

[Psymon]

We've implemented Ruckus here. Not being used in highly dense situations yet, but it has been flawless for the 25 or so laptops that get used around the school so far.

 

Just make sure you keep it up to date, and use 1Gbit connectivity to wireless N access points.

 

Same as quoted, we have 24 AP's and have had 80 laptops connected at once with no issues.

 

Have had 20+ connected to 1 AP with no noticeable issues.

 

Si

[Disease]

We implemented Ruckus in the smmer, 11 AP servicing150 laptops, no problems as yet, all seems to be working as described on the tin.

[drevil]

The BSF schools in Leicester City all have Cisco managed wired and wireless networks implemented by Northgate. These networks are a joke - they can't cope with 6 laptops logging on at the same time.

 

Is Cisco the problem?

 

No, it's Northgate. - Poor design, poor implementation, poor performance. Some of the access points aren't even plugged in to the network.

 

Long live Leicester BSF

[Duke5A]

Cisco managed wireless with max. 30 laptops:1 AP (54g) at any one time plus >18 staff laptops connecting through WiFi around the school = great experience overall. Only thing that slows is trying to deploy larger software installs or bandwidth hungry stuff like video.

 

We're running the same deal with six buildings, and an AP in every other classroom. Totals out to something like 120 access points across three Cisco wireless control switches, which in turn are managed by a single Cisco Wireless Control Server. We had issues at first, but now it is working great with netbook carts rolling through the schools with 30 units per cart, and every teacher has a laptop. It's not uncommon for a single AP to get loaded up with 30 associated clients. Streaming video on an entire cart works great. The WAPS themselves are Cisco 1130s B/G, with 100Mb up-links.

 

The key tweak to get it all working was to disable the 1Mb, and 2Mb data rates on the B/G radio. You'll be surprised how much of a difference that makes.

[nicholab]

120 AP's is massive we have 48 AP's.

[mhowell]

Hi there

I run Meru's education business here in the UK.

Meru has a very well trained partner channel, of which we are extremely proud. Meru is certainly not at the cheap end of the market but based on the advanced discounts we offer our partners and the quality of the solution that has been proved to be absolutely fit for purpose in a high density dynamic RF environment like a school, r.

Warm regards

Mark

Edited October 21, 2010 by Domino