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Looking at new access points. I have an office that has no IT support. Looking to switch from Cisco 2800 to something like a meraki or Aruba. They are moving to an all wireless office. What APs do you use, and how do you like them? I like the Aruba wireless, but what else is out there that I should look at?

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Any particular reason for all wireless? Ubiquiti gear is pretty damn good for the price and with Cloud key you can manage from anywhere.

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CEOs decision

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How many people in the office. CEOs don’t know what they don’t know and they don’t know this may be a horrible idea.

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Pretty much all the office are all wireless. It was like this before I got here. Currently around 7 people, but I believe will be more, I am guessing 20 people.

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All wireless except the servers you mean?

Ubiquity / Unifi - I personally opted for TP Link EAPs at home over Ubiquiti, but they seem very similar

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7-20 people on Wifi may be an issue depending on the LOB apps they may need to run. ANd when Sally decides to stream music, Joe is streaming porn and Windows updates kick off it may be an issue.

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Correct. Just for the end users. We have one cisco 2800 ap in the remote office, but when they move it will be more. I moved one office, and got more cisco APs, and it was my first time doing it. It was not a pleasant experience. Meraki I hear is on the expensive side, so looking for something that will be simple configuration.

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@rockn ​ Yeah, fortunately, it’s basic office workers, no developers or anything. Our main office is all wireless with almost 100 people on it, not too many issues with it.

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As @rockn ​ said, all Wi-Fi is great for flexibility, however speeds are not like physically wired and the speeds are shared, so while a 1300MBps link can support multiple clients, their transfers are queued, they will always have some access but speed is prioritised and queued

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@rod-it ​ I definitely agree, but it kind of is what it is. The way our offices are setup, it would be difficult run cables if we wanted to. It’s pretty much an all open office, so desks are all over the place.

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You need to run them to put in an AP, a switch instead would not be too much more effort - but its your business and or someone else’s choice

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I would suggest Unifi equipment, including APs, a switch, and a Cloud key. Also, find you a service provider in the area to install them. Then, in case they have an issue, They have local help to call on short notice. I’d suggest a Cloud key with a POE switch in the closet for ‘possible future expansion’ like printers or local storage, etc, and two access points minimum for redundancy. Then you can manage remotely if needed, call in help when lightning strikes, and not worry about going on vacation.

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Even an open office requires power. Data wiring could follow the same path the power wiring takes.

I know its not your decision, just make sure the CEO is properly educated on the downfalls of all wireless so the issues can’t be pushed back solely on yourself.

CYA.

I would also use the Ubiquiti Unifi line. If you haven’t purchased your other gear yet I would look at doing the complete network using Unifi for single pain of glass management. They also do Routers and Switches in addition to the AP’s.

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Thanks for the Aruba mention! Just a couple of questions about your network:

  • Are you planning on supporting a traditional network or have you looked into mesh?
  • How many users are usually connecting?

If you want to take a look in the meantime, here’s a list of all our access points: https://www.arubanetworks.com/products/networking/access-points/

And we have a really great product selection wizard, so you can put in all of your requirements and get a recommendation: https://www.arubanetworks.com/smb-product-wizard/

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We use SonicWall SonicPoint. Works hand in hand with our firewall.

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“I have an office that has no IT support” - Makes me wonder what the CEO is basing the decision on…I always thought the rule of thumb was that cable is always your first choice and wifi is your last choice. Apart from the vastly superior bandwidth and reliability of cable over wifi, what is the CEO’s awareness around the security considerations of using wifi instead of cable?

That aside, I’ve found Meraki are very easy to manage, but they have limited config options and are $$$ for licensing. Ubiquiti with cloudkey is a solid choice.

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So, the whole wireless decisions were made before I started working at the company. The remote offices were currently hardwired, and one remote office moved to a new office that is all open like our current office. We suggested hardwired but were shot down and had to go all wireless. I ended up putting cisco 2800s in that office, but the setup was awful trying to do remotely, so im not trying to repeat that. This other remote office is going to also mimic our other two offices being completely open with moveable desks and such. Our HQ office has been wireless for 4 years so, nothing I can do about it. The offices are really not setup in a way to be running hundreds of cables across the office to every desk. If you saw it you would understand. Meraki is my first choice of access points, but the price tag is hefty. I am going to check our ubiquiti.

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Meraki will give you a lot more in terms of monitoring and troubleshooting, but it’s priced accordingly. Each AP having a dedicated scanning radio and the bundled tools are a great fit for what you are being tasked to do. Meraki presales and post sales support has been great for me.

Aruba is great, and with the number of clients may be lower cost. In many deployments I find that the slightly lower coverage area, the need to purchase mounts, and the need for a controller at each site can bring pricing in line with or above Meraki. Aruba pre sales and post sales support has been decent for me.

Firewall vendor APs (SonicWall, Sophos, etc.) keep getting better, but they are primarily positioned to provide ease of basic management. SonicWall partners seem to favour Aruba once client needs expand beyond what they feel Sonicpoint can handle. Others vendors partners seem less consistent. Multiple APs, critical use, or advanced features tend to be my moving on points from these devices.

Ubiqui is tough. I’ve have had enough fail that spares become a must. I like to have a scanning AP in each area so that adds devices, and coverage for some units in office environments may add more again(ironic given outdoor records). If you are paying for wiring the added APs quickly stop being cheap. Support has confirmed I have encountered an issue or pointed me in the right direction but has never resolved an issue I have had.

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Sounds like you’d like ease of management on the APs, so I’m going to recommend our DAP series AP.

They can be managed stand-alone or you can setup AP Array. AP Array is used to create up to 32 APs on a local network to be organized into a single group in order to increase ease of management.