snoerre

As said before the more you buy the higher is the discount you get from the big vendors. For Aruba AP-* access points we currently get over 64% off price list from HPE with a volume over 2 millions €.

Beware: Unifi 6 Lite and Unifi 6 Long Range support 802.11ax on 5 GHz, only. On 2.4GHz both support 802.11n. So both are "50% WiFi 6" access points. - https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/Ubiquiti_Networks_UniFi_AP_6_Lite

I wouldn´t recommend the MikroTik switch. Its software is rubbish compared to anything else; e.g. layer 3 is not ready, has alpha status or has no full hardware acceleration. I use those as inexpensive media converters, only. Fibestore (FS.com) resells components from many chinese vendors and provides warranty itself. That FS.com switch is actually this one from a company called Ruijie Networks.(=> configuration guide and cli manual) That company is rather unknown in western countries. In china e.g. Tsinghua university uses its switches according to 1 or 2. At least they know something about IPv6, i.e. "SAVI" in year 2010, something MikroTik isn´t aware of in year 2021.

I am curious about your prices. The standard pricing from my distributor: R650 unleashed: 460€ R750 ZoneFlex: 590€ R720 ZoneFlex: 550€ R610 ZoneFlex: 380€ R510 ZoneFlex: 290€ R550 ZoneFlex: 580€ R550 unleashed: 340€ R710 ZoneFlex: 540€ R320 ZoneFlex: 170€ E410 (802.11ac Wave 2, 2x2): 170€ E600 (802.11ac Wave 2, 4x4): 280€ XV2-2 (802.11ax, 2x2): 300€ XV3-8 (802.11ax, Tri Radio, 8x8): 820€ plus taxes For each classroom with ~30 pupils I´d take one XV2-2.

I once ordered a free Cambium E410 (https://www.cambiumnetworks.com/cnpilot-free-ap/) and replaced a MikroTik cAP ac in one of our cafeterias. From this date the complaints from our students stopped. MikroTik cAP ac and Cambium E410 use the same chipset, i.e. Qualcomm IPQ4018. The Cambium can way better cope with densed environments than the MikroTik. I have never tested a Ruckus, though. In our environment I usually pur 1 access point in each class seminar room and disable 2.4 GHz radio on access points if there is too much noise.

Unifi 6 Lite might be still cheapest option nowadays while supporting 802.11ax at least with its 5 GHz radio. For UAP Ac Pro, is there any known end of support date by Unifi?

(We once had Netgear WFS709TP controllers way over 10 years ago which actually were Aruba 800 controller with different branding and somehow limited software and few software updates. What is Netgear using nowadays?) - Regarding UAP-AC-PRO: Aren´t those access points first generation 802.11ac access points, i.e "wave 1"? That would be way too old. In that case don´t buy those units any longer. - Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-HD would be 802.11ac "wave 2" access points. Instead of those I´d suggest to buy Aruba Instant IAP-315 ("HPE Renew" to reach Ubiquiti´s pricing) as Aruba has way better software support. - For 802.11ac (wave 2) there would be also Cisco Business 240AC access points with local management, which are less expensive than UAP AC HD. - As we now have year 2021, I wouldn´t buy 802.11ac devices for class rooms. I´d prefer 802.11ax access points, but not from Ubiquiti, at least nowadays (not the "50% 802.11ax Unifi 6 Lite access point", Unifi 6 Pro is still beta.) So if you want Unifi only, you might wait until that "6 Pro" is officially available. Typical advise for inexpensive or let´s call them "cheap" controller based 802.11ax access points from non-Unifi vendors would be TP-Link Omada OC200 controller (80$) + EAP620HD (2x2:2, 200$) or EAP660HD (4x4:4, 300$). Grandstream will release its GWN7660 (IPQ6000 SoC, 2x2:2, 120 - 160$) in May 2021 with integrated controller. We setup GWN7630/LR last year in some libraries which actually work nowadays without problems (There was a bug with VLAN last year). For management we use Grandstream´s manager software on CentOS7. GWN7630 is 802.11ac (wave 2, 4x4:4) but uses Mediatek MT7615DN only. Fortunately we can use our old 3Com PoE (802.3af) to power them. For high density rooms we actually use more and more Aruba AP-535, AP-555 access points although those are quite expensive, but for smaller class rooms with only 30 clients those would be way too much.

We use Aruba Instant with multiple local clusters. - No hardware / software controller, so no CAPWAP tunnel; small local subnets in each building for different user groups, "VRF-lite" + source NAT. - No central Aruba management software. Just plain SNMP monitoring. - No additional hardware or software contract, just plain HPE´s "lifetime" warranty. - Prices are without taxes, without mounting kit, without PoE+/PoE++ injector: AP-505H: 240€ AP-535: 470€ AP-555: 630€

Good old MSM765 802.11n access points. Nice. - Do you still have IEEE 802.3af PoE switches for them? If so why not save some money and buy current IEEE 802.11ac (Wave 2) access points which run with 802.3af? - Don´t buy expensive IEEE 802.11ax access points for now (year 2020). Wait for Wifi6E. - I like Aruba´s Instant access points and its inbuilt cluster management, i.e. no licensing costs - So for now for a quick and dirty replacement I´d suggest you to take a look at Aruba IAP-315 access points.

Hello, looking around in this forum, I only read about either Ruckus or Aruba wireless if someone askes about wireless for campus environments. Well, I forgot to mention Ubiquiti. Yes, we could buy Aruba Instant AP-555 access points for 900$ (plus IEEE 802.bt 60W power injector, plus mounting,...) because of academic / educational pricing. We could also get Ruckus R750 for 1200$ or R650 for ~900$ including taxes. We actually bought some Aruba AP-555 some days ago, installed ArubaOS 8.6.0.2 code, setup tri-radio mode, so we now have 2x 5GHz (40 MHz) and 1x 2.4GHz (20 MHz) with WPA2 enterprise, some VLAN, nothing special. And we disabled "high efficiency" because our students just don´t update their Intel driver for getting connectivity to those Aruba devices and failed to connect with older ones. So, actually we have damn expensive 802.11ac access points with 40 MHz 5 GHz channels as air is too crowded in our buildings in general. That´s simply too expensive... So let´s look at cheaper devices which just work when 30 to 60 or even more clients connect in one single room. Of course there is Ubiquiti with its nanoHD which has quite good reviews. But I don´t know why I don´t like that vendor. When I look on to price comparison sites, there is also e.g. TP-Link EAP245v3 or even a 4x4:4 MU-MIMO Grandstream GWN7630 PoE+ powered 802.11ac wave 2 access points for less than 100$ with some cheapish Mediatek MT7615 chipset, plus some free on premise wifi controller with some basic features. So, why not just buy it? I just cannot find anyone somehow bigger campus installation for those. It seems everyone is scared about using them because of "propaganda/paranoia" from the bigger vendors? Perhaps some tried in this forum and could tell about his or her experience with TP-Link´s or Grandstream´s "business" access points? Regards

Aruba provides the pricelists on its homepage, e.g.: - http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/contract/Dec_2015_PriceList.xls - http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/contract/March2015_Services_Pricelist.xls Depending which software feature you want to use licensing + support can cost some real $$$.

1. eduroam 2. internal 802.1x SSID 3. unencrypted SSID plus access to our VPN servers, only 4. different non-campuswide/local SSID+PSK for OU1 for professorships 5. different non-campuswide/local SSID+PSK for OU2 for professorships 6. reserved SSID+PSK for conference 7. reserved SSID+PSK for conference 8. reserved SSID+PSK for conference Well my next Wifi devices have to support more concurrent SSIDs. Performance losses are negligible.

So, HP once bought: - Colubris WLAN which was the HP MSM line. So that one will be dead, right? i.e. no new products - H3C WLAN/WAN/LAN. I couldn´t find an new H3C/Comware based WLAN products. So H3C based wifi is also dead, right? - Aruba. That seems to be the future at HP for WLAN? But what about licensing? It seems the Aruba controllers have different license types? For the H3C/Colubris devies I had 1 license type for all features. Has anyone compared the pricing between H3C, MSM and Aruba wifi? Update: I found Aruba´s pricing list myself: - http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/contract/Dec_2015_PriceList.xls - http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/contract/March2015_Services_Pricelist.xls

Interesting, could you please tell us a little more abouth that new switch (or send a PM)? Update: Do you have one of these? http://netgear.com.cn/business/products/switches/managed/m6100.aspx http://support.netgear.cn/china/newstyle/datesheet/switch/M6100.pdf pricing would be interesting, too.

Hm, first of all H3C S5500-28F-EI is not the same as 3Com 5500. H3C S5500-EI series is running Comware version 5 OS, 3Com 5500 is running Comware 3. I think the "3Com 5500" is a "H3C S5600" If you want link aggregation, use the same configuration for it on both switches. static-static, dynamic-dynamic 1. Log into the switch and delete the config file and turn it off an on again. For Comware 5, it won´t let you "reboot" while there is no config saved. 2. First you create the "interface bridge-aggregation NUMBER", then you can put it on the "interface gigabit" with "port link-aggregation group NUMBER". After that you to the "interface bridge-aggregation NUMBER" back and configure the VLAN you want. It can be untagged or tagged, so a trunk or hybrid, depending on your wishes. Btw, download the manual for it. There are examples given. 3. I never activated arp detection for aggregated links. Turn it off 4. Yes please disable it. For H3C S5500-EI switch you can find the manual here: http://www.h3c.com/portal/download.do?id=1661027 For H3C S5600 you cand find a manual here: http://h17007.www1.hp.com/device_help/H3C-Manuals/5600/5600-Configuration-Guidel(R1702).pdf

Well, indeed. But why did/do we buy DAC? Only it is cheaper than optics. 2 pieces of chinese optices + 10m OM3 fiber cable is cheaper than HP X242...

I bought 50 pieces of 10GBase SR SFP+ optics for 39$ each (plus shipping) shipped directly from China recently after I read about the vendor on webhostingtalk forum. So instead of buying HP DAC´s I buy compatible optics...

Interesting, do you have some sources for me?

Talking about HP Procurve 5400 / 8200 There are 3 different hardware versions with of course different performance. V3 has recently been released. 5400 / 8200 V1 5400 / 8200 V2 5400R ZL2 == ~ V3

Beware, the V1910 has a ARP table limit of 256 == more than 256 concurrent network devices / IPs will NOT work on the whole switch. - If you do not need routing: Take a look at HP ProCurve Switch 2530-48G, 52-Port, managed (J9775A) With 4 pieces of 1000BaseSX SFP compatible optics, it will be still under 1000,-€ with VAT. - If you need routing: Take a look at a "HP renew"ed HP E4800 / HP A5500-EI

For cheap layer 3 switches, go for a used/refurbished 3com 4800G, this has been relabled by HP to an E4800. (Hint: try to get one with a white HP label on it, as with that one you get HP`s lifetime warranty. Without you get nothing...) The H3C S5500-EI is the same model. HP relabeled them to HP A5500-EI. Take a look at the release notes for routing support. It it´s only about learning protocols, you could also take http://www.mikrotik.com/ or http://mininet.org/

HP V1910, 3Com 2928/2952, H3C S5120-SI, HP A5120-SI switches do have a software limit of 256 ARP entries. Those will not be the right choice for you.

SDN is still in the beginning. It will take years, till ready to use SDN controllers will be available at normal costs HP has Procurve line of switches and H3C based switches. That quote you are talking about, which HP switches have been offered? (I wouldn´t buy every switch from them anymore) Procurve OS based switches support Openflow 1.0 only, the latest Comware OS 7 based H3C switches support Openflow 1.3. But this is still quite useless without any ready to use SDN controller. Google and Co have manpower to get those working. And yes I´d prefer Juniper over HP/H3C, although "thanks" to public tenderism we once were forced to purchase HP/H3C. Interesting, I once contacted our local Juniper contact for getting a quote. The prices were way higher than HP, unfortunately. Which switches have been offered on HP site? Well, well HP´s lifetime warranty. Nice, but software support is much more important. I had "several" tickets with HP support. One even ran over 1,5 year. At the end it wasn´t recognized as security bug. HP later published a new topic within its knowledge base. Guess what they say now: "not supported". I like HP for its routing support, but you get what you paid for, that´s all. Btw, you don´t get lifetime support on latest Comware 7 switches, you have to buy carepacks as well. We get >>60% on HP EMEA list prices on HP A series of switches. If HP wants the deal,... Let´s talk about money. What do you have? Just look at HP´s 10GB SFP+ optics. Even with mentioned discount, we would have to pay ~500,-€ incl. VAT for one 10GB SFP+ SR optic. Needless to mention that I pay 39,-$ (+shipping, + customs duty/VAT, for one compatible SFP+ module with correct coding while directly importing that one from China... So does it matter? What features do you want? What network design? Layer 3 routed access? MPLS at the edge? VPLS at the edge (layer 2 tunnel from each port to another port in your network, wouldn´t that be nice)? How many clients/devices do you have? How many switches (core, distribution, access) are we talking about?

So they decided to go commercial:

I disabled the arp limit, too. Take a look at HP´s homepage: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=4218345&prodTypeId=12883&objectID=c03661151 In my cases the ports were access ports with Comware´s loopback-detection options enabled. No sign of broadcast storm.