Ruckus Wireless?

[SYNACK]

Should I go Ruckus? I have heard plenty of good things from here and was very impressed with the webcast that I saw a couple of years ago but lately I have been hearing some worrying things. Stuff like service contracts being shortened and models being replaced effectivly dead ending software updates for the old controllers.

 

I'd like to hear from the Ruckus experts if this stuff is true and if so whether it is still a safe and sane choice.

 

I am in a school that could quite easily benifit from the unique features of Ruckus, Aruba or Xirrus but given what I have heard from here would really like to give it a go if it is still a good choice.

[Michael]

I've used HP for years, no major problems and their new wireless 'N' kit is pretty good.

[SYNACK]

On the shiney features list we are after, Wireless N, multiple SSIDs, band and client steering, rogue AP isolation and I am quite fond of the triangulation feature that the Ruckus kit had (this along with the beam forming is probably the features that most draw me to it).

[basicchannel]

Has anyone ever heard of Ubiquiti? I've been told they're a much cheaper alternative to Ruckus, but it could be sales spiel.

[SYNACK]

I have heard of it but it has always seemed a little rough for me, reflashing non PoE APs, single ratios, no adaptive band and client steering etc. Many of these things things may have been sorted though.

[Achandler]

I'll address the concerns before m25man does.

 

Ubiquiti is not an all singing all dancing wifi solution, as doesn't offer as much as other manufacturers but then half the stuff the others offer you don't end up using so why pay for them. There is a new Wifi point coming our soon, a Pro version of the current Unifi. Which vastly improves the current offering, including gigabit uplinks etc.

 

I use Ubiquiti across the school, and have done for about 12 months with no problems, for a school it is perfectly good, maybe for some corperate offices of Microsoft it won't be godo enough but we aren't a corperate user we are a school, I currently have 300+ devices on my wifi and I can monitor them, see there usesage, block them if necessary. I can login 15 laptops happily in about 1 minute, it is everything you need in a wifi system for a school, there are wireless solutions companies even offering this now to schools instead of the "big" boys because it is usually about 1/4 of the price!

[basicchannel]

I'll address the concerns before m25man does.

 

Ubiquiti is not an all singing all dancing wifi solution, as doesn't offer as much as other manufacturers but then half the stuff the others offer you don't end up using so why pay for them. There is a new Wifi point coming our soon, a Pro version of the current Unifi. Which vastly improves the current offering, including gigabit uplinks etc.

 

I use Ubiquiti across the school, and have done for about 12 months with no problems, for a school it is perfectly good, maybe for some corperate offices of Microsoft it won't be godo enough but we aren't a corperate user we are a school, I currently have 300+ devices on my wifi and I can monitor them, see there usesage, block them if necessary. I can login 15 laptops happily in about 1 minute, it is everything you need in a wifi system for a school, there are wireless solutions companies even offering this now to schools instead of the "big" boys because it is usually about 1/4 of the price!

 

Thanks Achandler, that was helpful. Our main issue is that we haven't money in the budget for Ruckus, yet we need to improve our infrastructure to deal with the glut of shiny kit coming our way. Ubiquiti seems like a good alternative

[SYNACK]

Thanks Achandler, that was helpful. Our main issue is that we haven't money in the budget for Ruckus, yet we need to improve our infrastructure to deal with the glut of shiny kit coming our way. Ubiquiti seems like a good alternative

 

Likewise, I would wait for the new gear to come out as 100MB is quite a limitation, our deployment is more immediate though and I am not onsite all the time so alot of those shiney features are the things that keep my networks running along smoothly while I'm away at other schools/asleep. Still looking foward to hearing mitigating arguments from the Ruckus crowd on how their support will continue, I don't want to be stuck with a 2 year old controller and no updates. @MarkPower @Net-Ctrl

[White_Fi]

As with all vendors, kit that has been around a while and will go end of life. The 7942 went EoL as the cheaper and more recent 7343 and 7341 where out performing it, that just makes sense.

The ZD1000 series has gone EoL (currently bug fix support for a further 4years) since the memory was no longer sufficient for the amount of AP firmware it needed to hold. It has been replaced with the ZD1100 series. Same kit just more memory.

 

Even though Ruckus is our main wireless kit here at Net-Ctrl, I come from a vendor neutral point of view being qualified on the CWNP programs. With that said other vendors are doing some fantastic stuff, Aerohive from the CoOp control point, Aruba from the firewall and security point of view but Ruckus' USP is where it matters: IN THE AIR!!

 

Its easy to manage just like aerohive (infact even more so) and security is fully supported with 802.11i - where it matters. If you want a firewall....you have one...if you don't you should!

 

Using a smart adaptive array of antennas to beamform (not to be confused with chip-based .11n beamforming) the RF energy to where it is needed improves client performance drastically.

It is all about getting the highest throughput to the client as quick as possible, freeing up the medium for the next client. Its where WiFi matters and that is at the PHY.

Ruckus have fixed the problems with WiFi, the RF, at the physical layer and no one else even come close to this. Omni-Directional antennas, although work, are not optimum any more for today's explosion of iEverythings. Capacity is key for WiFi these days and Ruckus DO provide just that.

[Achandler]

I find it interesting that a forum sponsor, who has a Ruckus dog as his icon claims to be vendor neutral and that Ruckus is just simple the best at everything. Personally I've used Ruckus from a supplier, either the installation was awful or the product was awful because it was worse then the previous mix of G points, this was 3 years ago though. I don't write Ruckus off because it may have been installation by the company that was the issue, it was so bad the wifi points set the burglar alarms off!

 

My problem is that a lot of wifi manufactuers charge vast somes of money for the same mass produced wifi points, then attempt to convince consumers they NEED them, like other fruit based technology firms. The problem is most people don't need beam shaping, or most of the other functions offered. I compare wifi systems to cars now, sure you spend £250,000 on a car then it will be better, have a nicer interior, won't be as bumpy and make you feel better, but that doesn't mean the car that cost £25,000 doesn't do everything you need and if your £250,000 goes is no longer "fixed" you need to make another huge investment. If your cheaper car is no longer "fixed" well you can buy the latest cheaper model and still be £200,000 to the good.

[localzuk]

I find it interesting that a forum sponsor, who has a Ruckus dog as his icon claims to be vendor neutral and that Ruckus is just simple the best at everything. Personally I've used Ruckus from a supplier, either the installation was awful or the product was awful because it was worse then the previous mix of G points, this was 3 years ago though. I don't write Ruckus off because it may have been installation by the company that was the issue, it was so bad the wifi points set the burglar alarms off!

 

My problem is that a lot of wifi manufactuers charge vast somes of money for the same mass produced wifi points, then attempt to convince consumers they NEED them, like other fruit based technology firms. The problem is most people don't need beam shaping, or most of the other functions offered. I compare wifi systems to cars now, sure you spend £250,000 on a car then it will be better, have a nicer interior, won't be as bumpy and make you feel better, but that doesn't mean the car that cost £25,000 doesn't do everything you need and if your £250,000 goes is no longer "fixed" you need to make another huge investment. If your cheaper car is no longer "fixed" well you can buy the latest cheaper model and still be £200,000 to the good.

 

Any solution can be destroyed by a bad installation, or bad prep work.

 

The Ruckus solution I installed in my last school just works. Unboxed, configured and running as desired in a half hour. Access points went up and set themselves up easily too.

[White_Fi]

Achandler, the dog is there because I believe Ruckus is the best out there right now. Why not promote it.

 

I’m a little worried about your burglar alarm and the company the supplied the solution to you.

I’m presuming your alarm system was operating in the unlicensed 2.4GHz spectrum, they tend to give interference off as a by-product but should not be triggered by it. I’d invest in a new one.

 

Directing the RF to a particular location in space prevents RF blasting to a location that it is unwelcome.. the AP behind it, avoiding co-channel / adjacent channel interference.

Biggest source of interference in 90% of situations are your own APs. You may not see this if the wifi infrastructure is low capacity but start chucking clients on to it and streaming video, throwing lots of data over it. You’ll see packet loss and reduced throughputs. Prevent the interference and mitigate other sources you have improved capacity on the channel.

[Little-Miss]

Before the fire i had HP. It was ok, did what it needed to...kinda....but me being a newbie to managed wireless felt i needed a qualification to managed the blooming thing!

 

Had fire, Ruckus installed at Hogwarts and its done the job nicely even in this old rickety building. Nice interface. It's coming back with us (with extra AP's as they have pretty much made the classrooms that were repaired into Faraday cages!).

[Achandler]

Just for your information, as I stated earlier I believe it may have been caused by poor installation.

 

The problem with the burglar alarm was nothing to do with wireless burglar alarm points but if the Ruckus point was near the alarm (IR Sensor) then it set it off, if we movesd the point 1 metre to the left or right then it was fine.

[zag]

We use Aruba here and its been awesome.

 

I don't understand the setup but I have not touched it in 3 years because it just runs. You do need a company to set it up in the first place I think.

 

Its incredibly fast as well and has never crashed in all that time which is amazing really

[Net-Ctrl]

As with most things everyone will always have their favourite solution for the job, @SYNACK if you would like to loan some evaluation equipment to put the Ruckus solution through its paces send me a PM and we will look to facilitate this for you. This will provide you a first hand view of what Ruckus can do:

 

In answer to your point "I don't want to be stuck with a 2 year old controller and no updates"

 

 

Ruckus kit that is supported will generally receive two major updates each year with bug fixes, any EOL kit by law has to have bug fixes for five years after EOL notification. Any kit purchased from now on will not be EOL for many years to come. Hope that answers that for you.

 

Any questions please don't hesitate to ask

Edited March 16, 2012 by Net-Ctrl

[Chris_Cook]

We have ruckus, it works really well. Haven't had many problems (and none recently). Can't really comment about the changes mentioned in the first post, but I can't say I'm worried about them either.

 

I was impressed recently with the meshing. We had a partial power cut a month ago. We ended up with a chain of 5 aps across the site. It was quite a slow link, but it worked and kept a fair few people working - the ones that still had power at least.

 

You should demo the equipment and have a look first hand. Maybe even find a school locally who is using one of the different systems and see it in action.

[joshbrowne]

The issue with Ruckus is that they've even admitted themselves that they're focussing on the carrier market, not enterprise wifi.

 

My concern would be whether or not they will continue to develop the features of the network once you've purchased it?

[White_Fi]

I beg to differ.

 

I was at the Ruckus partner conference a few weeks back and they are focusing heavily on both markets. Ruckus happen to fit very well into the carrier grade wifi market thanks to the way they handle the physical layer and improve signal quality and throughput. Trying to sqeeze every Mbps in 802.11 is a big deal now mobile devices are everywhere. Mediocre WiFi is no longer acceptable.

 

The technology they focus and built for carrier grade wifi is seen in all of their enterprise solutions, and they do not see the enterprise as a second best market. How can they when the margins are bigger for them in the enterprise.

 

Rest assured people, Ruckus will continue to deliver outstanding wifi solutions for both carrier and enterprise markets.

 

Stuart

[joshbrowne]

Oh OK, I'm really only going on what I've read.

 

This is the article that started my thinking: Interview: Selina Lo, CEO of Ruckus Wireless - TechDay

 

Particularly with regard to:

''TD: That’s obviously why you’ve chosen to remain a niche company rather than go into other areas.

 

SL: Yes. If we were to stay in the enterprise wi-fi business, we would have to do a lot more things like firewalls – basically, we would have to copy what Cisco and Aruba are doing. Then we’d also have to compete with them head-on in terms of the size of the sales force and so on. I just didn’t think that strategy would pay off that well. However, the mid-tier enterprise had really taken to our technology, so I didn’t want to abandon it either. So we decided, let’s stick with the mid-tier enterprise and focus on the technology that mattered to them – which is how robust the RF technology is – and then let’s look at other markets where that technology really is necessary, and be the first one there. That was carrier wi-fi.''

[Haptic]

I'd have to agree with Stuart, for example in terms of additional features the 9.3 firmware release, take a look at the attached release notes:Whats New in ZoneFlex Software Release 9.3.pdf. The 9.4 firmware release will include such features as Client Fingerprinting, Dynamic per user Rate limiting, Wireless intrusion protection, to name but a few, for the full details see the below video;

 

http://www.ruckuswireless.com/asset/watch/404

 

As Stuart points out there is constant developments on the firmware, personally I've found Ruckus to be far more accepting and proactive on taking customer requests for features and implementing them than any other vendor; very much of the Kaizen philosophy.

 

Mark

 

WiSE Guy

[White_Fi]

Mark, agreed.

 

Features are coming thick and fast in the releases now.. They focused on the Wi-Fi first. Something I believe vendors seem to forget these days, "your a wireless vendor. Make my Wi-Fi better, i don't need all these FW rules, I have have a firewall"

 

Ruckus are not focusing on the Enterprise market like Cisco etc by offering unnecessary security and additions hardware appliances for a well working Wi-Fi solution... firewalls etc... They are focusing were a Wireless vendor should..you guess it. The Wi-Fi