RezolutionICT

Hi Primus, firstly I'm not trying to upsell anything. I don't mention any other vendors at all. In fact I was simply passing on my experience of over 300 wireless installations in schools over the last 15 years. I've had experience of over 5 major wifi vendors in various ICT Support positions. Unify is the worst I've experienced with a serious lack of "decent" support. It's priced low end for a reason. I agree, the U6 perform better then previous versions but I would still never recommend Unify. Im not saying this is all down to cost as there are other vendors in the same price bracket whose solutions work better. This is based on my personal experience.. Issues such as "sticky clients" 5hz roaming, auto channel changes and Support also take forever to respond and actualy fix issues. (3 weeks to solve why one of our schools' switches kept going offline for no reason.....A beta firmware update eventually fixed it). I know that Unify is becoming more popular now but when I see posts such as these complaining of 5ghz channel issues and sticky clients then it doesn't surprise Me. For info 5ghz needs dedicated free seperated channels to work effectively, otherwise more collisions happen and therefore less throughput. Anyone who installs wireless professionally should know this. Also for info when coverage is good as it should be 95% of devices now use 5ghz so 2.4ghz is not important at all so left on Auto. It's not worth the hassle as there is only 3 free channels. (One of its major floors) I don't know why you would try and pick an argument with someone who is clearly just providing some sound advice. Isn't this forum for just that?

Stick all the 5gh channels on manual. Use 40mhz bonding so you have enough so not to overlap. Example. 36, 44, 52, 60 etc... Leave 2.4 on Auto. (Print out your site map and write 5gh channel numbers in groups so they are not near each other. Once you're happy config each ap from the controller. Then walk round and test each AP throughput using LANSpeed test. Plus use wifi analyser. This will highlight any issues. Auto never works in any installation. It's not clever enough and always picks same channels. Especially Unify as its low end cheap kit with poor support. Just for info Unify also changes the manual channels every now and then. Something it should not do. A restart of the AP reverses the change of channel.. Andy (Rezolution ICT Ltd)

When I worked for local council schools IT dept a few years back we had a couple of DfE CtC post install inspections. Just checked cabs, switches and AP numbers. Basically checking the kit on the proposed design was actually installed.

Worth checking which AP your connected to for testing purposes. Unify kit is very poor at roaming and stays connected to APs two rooms down the corridor. Not ideal. Also setup manual 5gh channels @ 40mhz bonding for all APs. Unify is also very bad at selecting Auto 5ghz channels.

Cambium Networks all the way. Great connectivity and client roaming. Easy to configure, no licensing costs with cnMaestro Essentials. Support ticket system very good. 5 years warranty.

Cambium Networks CnMatrix EX2016M-P. Definitely a fantastic switch. This range also has 10Gbit uplink SFP ports. Only downside there are only 6 x 2.5Gbit ports which means you could need quite a number of PoE switches if you have a load of APs. XV2-2 wifi6 are a fantastic match for these switches. CnMaestro to setup and Manage is also free. No licensing.

Hiya, I would advise you look at potential vendors such as Cambium Networks, Aruba, Cisco Meraki etc. Also whether you are replacing the switching or just the wifi? Also is the existing data cabling sufficient? Are additional Cat6a runs or replacement fibre needed etc (OM4)? Choose one vendor depending on features, reviews and cost etc. For info - Cambium Networks CnMaestro Essentials (cloud management) has no licensing so can reduce install and ongoing costs drastically. Choose three suppliers and ask for site survey. (Some suppliers charge for this as its very time consuming) This should provide you with three reports including full design details including any infrastructure cabling requirements (to replace existing or additional), full kit list list and quotation from each. Then you can make a decision. :-) Good Luck.

I have 5 years experience installing cambium kit. I would recommend the following. Firstly ensure you don't have any packet loss on any of the switchports across all switches. Could be a switch issue and not wireless. Check your APs are connected at Gig or MultiGig. Update AP and switch firmware to recommend using cnMaestro. Check all online, synced and no errors. Manually map 5ghz channels on all APs. (40Mhz bonding, no overlap anywhere) 36 up to 132. (Dont use 124) Leave power on Auto. Leave 2.4ghz on Auto channel. Test each individual AP using one client Check connected speed to that AP, check channel etc (use ac or ax). Ensure you connected to AP in the room. Check wifi analyser for channel overlap. Needs clear channels. If good close app as this interferes with testing if same laptop used. Run continuous ping to DG. Should be less than 3ms unless data being Transferred, then it increases. Run bandwidth test from each AP to local server UNC path using LAN Speed Test app. You should see speeds well over 150mbps for read and write. Transfer approx 300mb. Anything less then could be cabling issues. APs lose around 2.5 - 5dB if mounted vertically. This isn't enough to worry about and normally has no real impact on connection speed or connectivity issues. Hope this helps. [email protected]