Xirrus

There's been a lot of misquotation, rumours and plain rubbish talked about us recently, specifically about one of our sites where we have solved an issue where others failed. This is spread by competitors who can't compete on technical level, so they start using fear, uncertainty and doubt. The customer has posted to clear any confusion up on another thread. Interesting reading for anyone looking to do capacity. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/bsf/14672-bsf-wasting-money-before-we-start.html Thanks Ben

A bit of a guess would be that you have one AP set in a channel the laptop wifi card either isn't capable or isn't set to see. Eg do you have one set to an 802.11a channel and the client is 802.11bg only? Or do you have an ap set to channel 13 yet the country code on the wifi card can only see channels 1 to 11?

BTW Neil, I believe you are at one of my 2 old schools as I went to school in the Market Rasen/Caistor area - I'd love the opportunity to come and talk to you about the Wifi if you would be gracious enough to let me. Thanks Ben

I know the exact site you are talking about and apologise if you feel this was a bad experience. Firstly, we were informed that client devices were 802.11abg - there were 802.11a ap's in the network onsite which were not in use (although live) because when we investigated the client devices they were 802.11bg only. This means that to cover the number of clients in that one area there were 3 available channels (1,6,11). We were also informed that the test was to only cover 2 classrooms hence why an XN4 was supplied. Once it was shown that we needed to cover the entire floor then we specified an XN8 which at the extremes of the entire floor provides an RSSI of -65db. Also the location of the cable run for the test was around 40ft away from the correct location. Using b/g only the test was poor - as it was with 2 other manufacturers (including single channel architecture) because of the physics of the environment and number of clients. The school has now purchased 802.11agn cards (PCMCIA) and we are testing again next week and expect to be very successful this time. Our networks are always designed to use a mix of clients for density situations as this is the only way to create more bandwidth. To create more bandwidth you need more radios. To have more non-interfering radios in the air you require use of the full wifi spectrum of 2.4ghz and 5ghz (802.11abgn). We will test better than anyone else once the new clients are in place as we will be providing more available bandwidth. Again I am sorry if you could not get hold of our guy, but we continue to work with the customer to create the correct solution for them. In the interests of transparency I will post results of this testing (successful or unsuccessful) when it is completed. Thanks Ben

It could have been 1 array per building and a basic coverage survey if capacity wasn't an issue. Every site is different hence why we do a real life site survey and guarantee our work. Ben

Thanks Tom - All our techs are multi-purposed, as are our Sales people (Sales also are fully tech trainined and capable of surveys, design, install and support). Generally the same Tech will provide survey, design, installation and support so each site has a continuity that most people don't get.

I fully take your point on board - biggest doesn't always mean best. However our team is split with at least 2 Technical Staff to each Sales person, meaning our customers get ontime, local support from people involved with the site and direct from the vendor even though we are deliver through the channel. We deliver a indirect fulfillment with direct touch model to make sure our customers always get the best support. I even print all my contact details so anyone can call me! Thanks Ben

If you need anything just let me know - always here to help. Thanks Ben

I'd also be fascinated to hear this - the only school in Lincoln I know that we had a unit in was fine once the array had been located correctly. Initially it was placed not in the location that was shown by our survey, but in a convenient location for testing. We then heard very little and were told it didn't work. I then visited and tested with an Array in the right location and proved coverage was excellent (even in an artroom, through 2 more 1930's heavy brick walls) but the decision was that there was no budget...... Thanks Ben

Quite frankly what is written above is simply untrue. I personally surveyed, managed and oversaw the installation at BBA and was even doing a reference visit there last week. Hundreds of users get on without issue everyday, and based on the success of the xirrus system they are adding another 200 or so users in September. Our support is excellent and we now have the biggest team in the UK for a Wireless Specific vendor. I have asked the customer to post on here so everyone can here straight tom the horses mouth so to speak. Btw a recent support call of the "failure" of 2 xirrus units turned out to be the managed service provider disabling the switch ports they were plugged in to..... Thanks Ben

Hi Sam - As a vendor we have deployed in many schools in the Hampshire area. We are the only vendor to offer ae Free Real Life Site Survey and a 100% coverage guarantee. My details are below in my signature - please feel free to contact me so I can provide you with references and get you in touch with our guy who covers Hants. Thanks Ben

My name is Ben Wilson and I am the UK Country Manager for Xirrus. We've just started to sponsor this networks forum and have a thread introducing ourselves and our product. We have many hundreds of education sites across the UK and many thousands across the world using our high performance WiFi Arrays. We are the only wireless vendor to off a Free Real Life Active Site Survey and a 100% Coverage Guarantee. We work with nearly all the main education partners in the UK and outperform all other wireless equipment in terms of coverage and capacity on a per devices basis. If you would like to know more, I would be more than happy to discuss detail and competitive landscape with you. Thanks Ben

Good to see there are so many suggestions out there. At Xirrus, we will provide a free full real life site survey and then supply a quote. We then back it up with a 100% coverage guarantee meaning that if more units are required than we say, we will supply them free of charge. We also do free installation, training and configuration. Feel free to get in touch and also check out the new thread we started yesterday as sponsors of this forum. Many Thanks Ben

If you are budgeting for a managed, enterprise class wifi system then we will fit in that budget. If you sned me contact details we can have chat, then i can get some budgetary figures together for you. Thanks Ben

I've got a couple of sites running 600+ Asus netbooks with full 802.11n, WPA2/AES without issue. What card models and drivers are you running and I'd be happy to compare?