Net-Ctrl

Thank you all for the continued input. I completely agree about print advertisements. The opportunities that I find more interesting are those that allow us to write an article about a product/sore point and solution etc, but if the market isn't reading the publication then it makes my decision much easier. EduGeek is a great way for us to speak to you all and hear about the problems you're faced with, and is something year-on-year we're very happy to support - i wish it was free though

Thank you for all the feedback, it really is appreciated. Print advertising is something I have steered away from to date, looks like i made the right decision

Morning all, I’m looking for some help and advice from the EduGeek community. I get inundated with opportunities for adverts, advertorials and Q+A sessions in a wide range of education publications. They all claim that they have a huge circulation of readers, specifically in the IT department. So I wondered, what, if any, magazines do you read at work? Any insights would be really appreciated Off the top of my head some of the ones we get offered regularly are: • Teach Secondary • Technology and Innovation • Education Executive • Independent Executive • Academy Guide Thanks, Josh

Have a go at the below.. The settings in points 1 – 4 can be changed in the Default AP Group (or any AP Group that contains all AP’s). The setting in point 5 can be changed in “Configure”, “Services” then the “Band Balancing” section. 1)Lower the TX power for all APs on both the 2.4 and 5ghz to half their TX power (-3db). – Because you have an AP in every you can afford to lower the transmit power of each AP to reduce interference they have with each other. 2)Ensure that channels 1, 5, 9 and 13 are the channels in use on 2.4ghz radio and all channels are available on the 5ghz. – default channels on the 2.4ghz radio are 1, 6 and 11. Using 1, 5, 9 and 13 will give your AP’s an extra channel to make use of. 3)Make sure 20MHz is on 2.4GHz and use 40MHz for 5ghz. – As a lot of channels are available on the 5ghz radio, you can essentially combine the channel width to make a higher possible data rate. (Using this will mean less available channels on the 5ghz range, but there is so many available on the 5ghz radio even combining them to be 40MHz wide will still leave you with 9 non-overlapping channels) 4)Change ChannelFly to turn off after APs uptime is 30 minutes – The AP’s will use the 30mins to select their best channel based on what is being used around them. After this the ChannelFly feature will be turned off. 5) Lower the percentage of client on the 2.4ghz radio to 15% (Configure/Services/Band Balancing) – Providing your clients are 5GHz capable, this feature will effectively force more clients onto the 5GHz range therefore making use of the cleaner spectrum and higher data rates. If there are particular Aps that still require full transmit power for better signal coverage, then put these APs in a separate AP group and modify the setting accordingly. Good luck with it all, I hope some of this helps

Hello, We have had a customer recently with a similar problem and we may be able to help, but first can you answer some questions to help us point you in the right direction: How many APs are you running? How many APs are in the area you're experiencing problems with? - are there also APs in rooms directly above/below this area? What types of wireless cards are in your netbooks?

There is a new Ruckus Wireless 11ac access point promotion running until 30th June 2015. This new offer will allow you to add 11ac to your Ruckus network for a greatly reduced price. Ruckus 11ac access points have more efficient silicon, more reliable connectivity and higher capacity performance, you really will see more from your network. Net-Ctrl is currently offering the entire range of Ruckus Wireless indoor 11ac access points at signification reductions. This is a great opportunity to upgrade your Ruckus network to the latest wireless technology available. Download the datasheet for more product information: ZoneFlex R500 -2x2:2, 2.4&5Ghz ZoneFlex R600 -3x3:3, 2.4&5Ghz ZoneFlex R700 -3x3:3, 2.4&5Ghz The difference between the R600 and R700 is that the R700 has a different antenna design, and is better suited for higher density deployments. Please be aware T&Cs do apply to this offer. Looking to upgrade your ZoneDirector? We're currently running a special price reduction on the 1100 and 3000 series units. Feel free to send me a PM for more information, or email [email protected]

The below is an extract from a forthcoming publication from MOBOTIX. I thought it could be relevant to some EduGeek members and wanted to share it with you all. The security of schools, colleges and universities and the safety of staff and students is one of the most important aspects of educational life. However, it is nearly impossible to deliver the necessary proactive approach within a limited budget. This short guide provides an overview of the key issues facing educational organisations as well as a look at how innovative technology can help reduce cost, improve security and provide flexibility for progressive adoption of CCTV. Protecting property, staff and students Schools, colleges and universities share a number of common security issues. Balancing the requirements of accessibility with control and monitoring is challenging. Academic institutions primary desire is to spend resources on education and avoid administrative costs. As such, there is a requirement to gain as much value from CAPEX and to also simplify processes around security and facility management. Education has benefited from ICT and although most campuses now have extensive data connectivity, the demand on these networks is growing and the additional burden of CCTV poses the potential for forcing expensive upgrades. In addition, campuses tend to have minimal facilities management teams which are often rolled into the ICT function. This means that CCTV needs to be simple and extremely reliable. Finally, campuses are typically not setup for a centralised security control room. The common practice of distributed sites, schools and departments means that a single security desk is impractical. Accessibility to CCTV, for example to validate a visitor prior to entry, needs to be flexible enough to meet campus environments that are quickly evolving. This means the ability to integrate with intercom, door entry, barriers and card readers at a local level is often a vital requirement. What are the common security problems faced by academic institutions that MOBOTIX can help solve? We need to cover wider areas like recreation rooms, cafeterias or lecture halls but don’t want to use dozens of cameras. MOBOTIX is the industry pioneer in high resolution hemispheric video which allows fewer cameras covering a wider area. The use of these fish-eye lenses and digital processing also solves the problems associated with legacy Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras through the use of a high resolution lens that captures an entire 360 degree scene which can be viewed, zoomed and studied in real time. However, this digital PTZ does not disrupt the on-going recording of the location. This allows a single hemispheric camera to cover large areas or even an entire room from a single ceiling vantage point without any break in coverage. MOBOTIX cameras are all over 3 megapixels in quality which means a single unit can provide enough detail to identify individuals with certainty. We want to be able to act quickly when we see an issue captured by the CCTV. For example, asking students loitering in certain areas to move along to lessons or warn vandals that we can see their actions. MOBOTIX cameras are unusually innovative in that they include built-in bi-direction audio capability to allow both local announcements and centralised messages to be played to any speaker connected to individual cameras. Each camera can also be linked to entry phones to allow visitors to communicate with facilities or reception staff who can remotely open doors. In some instances, campuses can setup contact points to help students and staff raise the alarm in the event of health or safety issue. Bi-directional audio can be seamlessly linked to existing intercoms, fire alarms and other audio systems without requiring complex third party equipment. Our school has a limited budget for CCTV and wants to avoid the cost and complexity of building a dedicated CCTV control room – what are our alternatives? MOBOTIX includes MxControlCenter, a licence free video management software, for recording and managing an unlimited number of clients, cameras and storage devices. Campuses can setup cameras to record video continuously, on schedule, on alarm and/or on motion detection. The software offers multiple search functions for recorded events with support for mobile devices. The inclusion of such powerful software allows even the smallest schools to benefit from simple to manage CCTV security. The software can be deployed on any Windows PC and with the right settings; any MxControlCenter can link to any camera allowing campuses to setup flexible monitoring and access control processes even out of hours for night watch staff using handheld smart devices. We want to cover external areas such as playing fields, car parks and our external perimeter but extending traditional fixed network connectivity out to these sites is prohibitively expensive. MOBOTIX CCTV cameras are IP65 rated which means they will work in every type of weather condition, temperature and humidity. In addition, each camera uses only 5w of power and includes built in support for mobile connectivity and internal storage. The MOBOTIX cameras can also be used over a wireless network. This means that with just the addition of power, campuses can extend CCTV coverage to a location without a fixed network. Instead, CCTV accessibility is delivered via low cost 802.11n based wireless networks or even 3G/4G where applicable. In addition, cameras can record video using internal flash memory and just send very low bitrate preview images over Wi-Fi to monitoring stations. The internal storage means that over a weeks’ worth of high resolution images are stored internally for later viewing in the event of a network link outage. Our campus network is already pretty stressed; how can we upgrade to high resolution CCTV without an expensive network upgrade? MOBOTIX use of distributed technology, built in storage and a highly efficient MxPEG video encoder means that the amount of traffic across the network is dramatically reduced. For example, in video motion recording, recordings will be made only when movement occurs in certain areas. An intelligent distributed CCTV solution will send images only when it needs to record them to its storage device. In contrast a traditional ’dumb‘ centralised system will be constantly sending images to the central location so that the software can make the decision to store it or disregard it. This means that with non-MOBOTIX CCTV there is always a network overhead, even when there is no movement. Schools that instead choose MOBOTIX can use its distributed technology to avoid having to upgrade the underlying network and instead setup quality and frame rates based on network availability. Net-Ctrl and MOBOTIX Net-Ctrl will be demonstrating the MOBOTIX solution on stand C73 at BETT 2015 along with a range of other great solutions. Net-Ctrl has been a MOBOTIX partner for a number of years. We house our own internal sales, support and installation teams to help you through your project. Over the past few months we have been working on a number of projects with MOBOTIX that have also taken advantage of the Netgenium IP solutions and the Aperio wireless lock. These combined with the MOBOTIX IP-CCTV portfolio create a highly integrated secure and intelligent building system. We would be more than happy to discuss any potential projects you may have and discuss the options available to you. Net-Ctrl also has the facility to loan any of the above technology to schools to put them through their paces. For more information please feel free to PM me.

Sounds like a lot of fun for you If it's just between Ruckus and Fortinet, and budgets allow for Ruckus, then it should be an easy choice for everyone involved. Ruckus have made their name based on their wireless solutions and wireless technology, and they really are great at WiFi (again not just saying this as Ruckus reseller ) If you have any questions about Ruckus or anything i could do to help, please feel free to ask or PM me

I'm not just saying this because we're a Ruckus reseller..but Ruckus all day long, especially at that density. Ruckus is renowned for it's great wireless solution. We never come up against Fortinets wireless solution. The other players we come up against a lot are the likes of MERU, Aerohive, Aruba and Meraki. Are you already involved with a Ruckus reseller? If so they should be able to provide you with some free demo kit to use, so you can see how good it really is.

No problem, not the complete answer at the moment, but hopefully we can work with you and help you get nearer to where you want to be. Any questions, please drop me a PM and i will pass them onto the best person to answer.

Hi @tj2419 I have asked one of the wireless engineers to take a quick look at this for you, he is on the road at the moment so his reply was pretty brief, but he said the following: You will be unable to edit the Zero IT File. WPAD will not be a great solution either as it's ideally suited for a windows environment with IE, and its not really suitable for BYOD. He suggested the best method is to not use a proxy but a transparent gateway and radius account as this will retain user auditing and filtering. He is pretty maxed out with wireless projects at the moment, but if you wanted to discuss this in greater detail send me a PM and i will try and book in a call so you both discuss your project in more detail. I hope this all helps a little

If you have multiple sites that you want to manage you could consider the Ruckus virtual Smart Cell Gateway (vSCG). It's designed for these sort of deployments, it will allow you to centrally manage all your sites without needing access to the ZoneDirectors for WLAN uptime. You also have the ability to run it in a public or private cloud. This is a solution I personally haven't dealt with that much, for some additional reading it's worth visiting the Ruckus vSCG product page. Alternatively, I can ask someone here that will know about it to drop you an email

MERU sponsor the wireless forum on here, may be worth seeing if you can send them a PM. I'm not too sure who manages their account, but would be worth a shot. Alternatively, speak to your reseller and they should be able to point you in the right direction. I'm sorry i cant be of more help, if it was Ruckus, we could have given it a shot. I'll speak to one of the wireless engineers when he's in today and see if he has any suggestions, if so i'll send them over.

Ruckus have got some good offers running on their 11ac access points. If you're already engaged with a Ruckus partner make sure they're quoting you on these as they should work out cheaper than buying the older 11n Aps. If there's anything we could do to assist, please feel free to send me a PM

What wireless solution are you using?

Hello there is a brief table that review Ruckus' Dynamic Pre-Shared Key and how it compares to other solutions here: SecureHotspot | Ruckus Wireless, Inc. There is also a pretty good datasheet about BYOD and DPSK here: http://theruckusroom.typepad.com/files/byod-with-ruckus-0712-3.pdf Hope that helps a little on the Ruckus front

If loan kit was of interest we can supply 11n or 11ac Ruckus devices with a ZoneDirector for you to try in your own environment, we usually work on a two week trial basis. It's definitely the best way to figure out which solution is right for you and your school.

Hi @Tech01 , if you're not already engaged with a Ruckus Wireless partner let me know and we can look at providing some advice with your deployment, we can also discuss how it differes to the Meraki solution. We can run you off some free predictive heat maps if you have some site plans available, so you have a better idea of your predicted signal, coverage etc with Ruckus, it will also give you a better idea of your AP count. As a company we're one of Ruckus' top tier partners, there's not many of us at that level. If you would like to discuss Ruckus with us further, please let me know

Sounds like a nice set-up. These offers are supposed to be available until the end of June 2015, so you've got time on your side

Hello, I just wanted to quickly make you all aware that Ruckus have released two brand new promotions that provide some brilliant discounts. Promotion 1 - Discounted Ruckus 11ac Access Points. Last week Ruckus expanded their 11ac product line to include two brand new access points, the R500 and R600. We're currently able to supply these Aps and the R700 in packs of 10 at a great discounted price. Promotion 2 - Discounted ZoneDirectors and AP Licenses You can now purchase a range of ZoneDirectors and AP license upgrades at a special price. These can be purchased on their own, so you could upgrade your 1000 series ZoneDirector, or if you have a ZD that is no longer supported. Alternatively, you could use this promotion along with the AC promotion above to start off a new wireless system. For more information on either of these promotions, or if you have any questions, please feel free to ask or PM me

Ruckus Wireless has announced the expansion of its line of Smart 802.11ac ZoneFlex™ access points (APs) with the launch of four new models. These include the new Ruckus ZoneFlex R500 (2x2:2) and ZoneFlex R600(3x3:3) indoor dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) mid-range models, and two new Ruckus ZoneFlex T300 Series outdoor 802.11ac APs, the ZoneFlex T300e omnidirectional model, which includes support for optional external 5 GHz antennas, and the ZoneFlex T301s 120 degree sectorized beam model with a sector adaptive antenna. They all feature Ruckus BeamFlex+ technology, which provides a stronger device signal by adapting to a mobile device’s orientation and location. BeamFlex+ can enhance the user experience by helping to ensure a consistent wireless signal. Without it, changing client device orientation can cause up to a 2.5x performance difference. For example, this can mean a change from 25 Mbps to 10 Mbps. BeamFlex+ eliminates this variability and is designed to ensure optimum performance for any client device orientation. They also feature ChannelFly™ dynamic channel management technology for predictive channel selection based on real-time capacity analysis of all RF channels. The new outdoor ZoneFlex T300 Series APs also feature the industry’s smallest and lightest form factors. You can find out a bit more about the launches from the Ruckus press release on our website, where you will also be able to download datasheets.

Hi @stevenlong1985 i'm sure i can find it for you Could you PM me the best email address for you, and i will pass it on. Thanks, Josh

Just as a delayed thought...would the APs you're receiving the high PHY rates with be the 7363 APS you're having problems with? If so, have you tried swapping the APs with some in a different area of the school? This would let us review whether it is the area, or the AP that is causing you a headache.

Hi @Quackers PHY Errors ( Physical Layer Errors) are collisions of data in the air. The high number you've received suggests a high level of interference in that area this could be down to, hidden node issues, large number of legacy 802.11b clients around the AP (with hidden node issue), or even a bad WNIC causing Layer1 or 2 issues in the air leading to the collisions. The best starting point is to look at the AP that you're having lots of problems with, check the area, look at AP mounting placement and review whether to change the AP channel, perhaps move the AP to a new location and check your results again. If you're still having problems it could be down to a client issue. If it continues to cause you problems it's best to get a wireless consultant in to review your network. We can offer this service if it was of interest at the end of your investigation.

If you were interested we can set you up with a free Kaspersky trial so you can play around with it in your own environment. Feel free to PM me for more information