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We are currently looking for new AP devices to be use in our new office. We currently have some Dell Networking X1052P switches that provide 8 POE ports. Our internet is a 1000mbps parallel service. We were considering some open mesh solutions as we like the ability to manage the AP via mobile devices. I am interested in finding out what the community think of the open mesh devices or what will you recommend based on experience that will provide basically the same features.

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Can you give us more information on the size of your network, number of clients, use case for your users?

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Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO

Cheap, easy, fast, good. Can be managed from mobile phone.

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Ubiquiti all the way. We use the AC Lite AP’s here. Love em.

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I sound like a broken record, but UniFi would be my vote for sure.
They’re inexpensive, in almost every scenario as good or better than anything else, and can be managed from a mobile device if you have a controller set up.

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I use open mesh. I get nice reporting and everything is cloud managed. The one thing I found is that they don’t handle static IP’s so I do all that through reservations.

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Not a fan of Ubiquity, your are their beta tester, even with “products” that are currently sold you’d think they would be polished enough to sell - their not.
To configure them from Windows requires Java.
Can’t do all the config from the mobile app.

Anything “cloud managed” (read: security risk) or requiring a controller is just another single point of failure. If this isn’t a large deployment (less than 20 APs) then just configure them each individually.

APs I like are currently EnGenius and Cisco (real Cisco, not this Meraki nonsense)

I’m also open to other suggestions on business-class (meaning reliable, not needing a reboot every few days) and autonomous (meaning not the $$ grab of “needing” a controller) style APs.

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Meraki, if you have the budget.

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I struggled with Ubiquiti Unifi gear the first time I used it. Getting it connected and working was a pain and different then the Cisco stuff I had used in the past, but have loved the ease of admin and insight it gives. Someone mentioned getting their AC-Pro which I would agree with. It’s pretty good hardware that supports around 200 clients (so they claim). I also have one of their newer UniFi AP-AC-HD access points which supports MU‑MIMO and 500 clients but haven’t be able to really stress test it to see yet.

https://unifi-hd.ubnt.com/ THey do have a mobile app that lets you see what’s going on, who is connected, reboot hardware, etc. which is pretty nice.

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The one thing I’ll say about Legomans post is the SPOF point. It is a SPOF in that you can’t manage it, but it isn’t really a SPOF. The connections will still work if the controller goes down, you just lose management and monitoring abilities.
I had someone unplug the server the controller was on at one location occasionally and the wireless rocks on, I just couldn’t make any changes or see who was connected etc…

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You don’t need the controller for ubiquiti which really is a loose term for this. It’s actually management software and not a controller which means you use it for setup but it doesn’t have to run continually. The software they provide is rock solid and they are always coming out with new stuff. You can use the tried and true software and download the cutting edge beta. It does require java but it doesn’t require the web based cloud setup nor does it require a yearly subscription. I now have 60 Ubiquiti devices and have never had a major issue.

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And also to note is their wide range of products. The in-wall is awesome. A wireless in-wall POE device with one standard ethernet port and one POE passthrough port. 150 ft range. Great for a classroom and no I don’t work for them nor do I get kickbacks.

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I am also a big fan of Ubiquiti’s Pro series APs. The APs have been very reliable and the management software is easy to set up and use. Having used both the Linux and Windows management consoles, I find the Linux console to be much preferable to the Windows version.

The last time I used the Windows console a number of settings were tied to the local user account that ran the software. Having the console started by a different user resulted in a console that was disconnected from the APs. Like Jerry White said, this was more of an inconvenience than a problem, as the settings are flashed to the AP, and the AP continues to run with the last settings provided. However before I identified the specific problem, it was driving a less experienced tech nuts. He kept wanting to reset all the APs so they could bee seen by the console. The Linux console runs as a service and avoids this problem. I did not try setting up and running the Windows software with a service account as the interfaces were different and we preferred the Linux interface.

Installing the Linux management client is relatively painless. The link below covers the process.

http://linuxpitstop.com/install-and-setup-unifi-controller-on-ubuntu-linux-16-04/

The recommended resources for a Linux VM are also a bit overkill for SMB use. I now run the VM with one core, about 3 gb of ram and 12 gb of disk and have no problems with a slow management interface.

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You can run the controller as a service on windows too.
Works just fine every time I’ve done it.

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Hi Jose- sorry to be late to the party! If you’re still on the hunt for a new brand of APs, make sure to give Cambium Networks a look. We have the cnPilot Enterprise Indoor APs, which bring you affordable, enterprise-grade, high density 802.11ac Indoor Access Points delivering reliable, high-performance indoor WiFi. Of course, we’ve got other options, like the cnPilot Home and SMB APs, if that’s more what you’re looking for.

Linking to both below:

Let me know if you have any questions!

@trevor-cambium-networks

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