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Hello all,

We are looking to change out our wireless technology and I would love any of your insight! We are currently running 6 Dell Sonicpoints (mostly 8510’s) controlled from our pair of NSA 4500 firewalls/UTM’s. Our current setup has terrible performance, but we won’t get into that. It would take strong convincing for us to use Sonicwall again.

We would want a/c access points and assume we would need several more access points, due to the layout of our 1 story building (~130,000sf). I would assume about 250 devices maximum would be connected. We want a central controller (HW or SW), which does NOT need to be a Firewall/UTM device. There are a few spots in the building with signal contention from our neighbor businesses.

Any suggestions appreciated! Thanks!

@Cisco

11 Spice ups
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we use the unifi APs, and the controller software is free.

you can install the controller software on your own server, or host it on amazon, several options.

we replaced 12 year old cisco APs with unifi, and have been more than happy with the performance of the unifi’s, plus you cannot beat what you get for the price.

11 Spice ups
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Unifi is the way to go… I have deployed plenty and never had any issues.

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Depends…

Mostly budget -

All of the mentioned AP’s will do the job, be stable for the most part and scalable.

Another thing to consider, are you “set it and forget it” kinda guy or “tweaking signal” (not twerking :)) every day?

Last but not least - is someone else going to come and install this or are you doing it?

4 Spice ups
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Before choosing a product, I would consider investing in software or hiring someone to do some combination of active, passive and predictive site surveys of your environment. With the data from a survey you can make an informed decision and have a good idea of how many APs you will need and how to configure them and where to place them.

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Thanks for the reply!

As far as budget, we have one but are not pinching pennies. So middle of the road is my guess. Our zero informative, no research ballpark guess budget was around $30k

I don’t mind “tweaking signal”, etc. on occasion, but every day - umm, nope - too busy!

I will not be physically pulling the network drops, but I will be be doing the install unless there is some glaring reason I should not. :slight_smile:

Also, we already own a couple POE switches, so do not ‘need’ an additional if not required.

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We do have a site survey, I just did not want to post the report. :slight_smile:

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Aruba 105 and 205 Instant Access Points Here. One of the access points acts as the controller.

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I can only speak of our setup. We have a 300 mbps connection going through a sonicwall nsa 3600 rated at 500 mbps. We use a rucus system. We have about 750 users at a time, about 400 in one building, 250 in another building, and another hundred in a separate location. The access points are just about plug and play and coverage is excellent. It was not cheap but I love it. I tried a Ubiquiti system and found the access points I tried just could not handle the connections and coverage was poor.

Our buildings have many reinforces rebar concrete and the ruckus has handled it with no special tuning automatically. I am impressed.

5 Spice ups
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For ease of installation, administration, monitoring and top notch 24/7 phone support, you can’t go wrong with Meraki. I have installed dozens of wireless Meraki networks up to several hundred AP’s. Feel free to ask any questions.

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If you can live with the limitations of Ubiquiti, they are very stable, good performance, and very cheap. They are however limited to 4 SSIDs, have somewhat limited mesh abilities, and mediocre analytics. If you just need wireless connectivity, they are hard to beat.

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My budget pick as always is ubiquity - really really great

My “have no limits” customer support that want everything and icing on the cake, money no object, is Meraki

Both have been stable and both worked well in prospective environments.

It is hard to recommend “one” without knowing even more, such as roaming, and, voip, congestion, clients, density and other small details.

All in all, decision will fall on you, so try to request a demo and see what you like since you have to live with these in the future.

  • I would not exclude Ruckus from this decision either just yet.

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All three are good choices depending on your needs.

Ubiquiti is a cost sensitive work horse that will do an excellent job without breaking the bank, but has fewer bells and whistles. One item to note is not all APs are are POE 802.3af, Some are passive POE which won’t work with regular POE switches. So watch that when you make your selctions.

Ruckus and Meraki are high end very feature rich, with a price tag to match.

All 3 are respected proven vendors in this space. Just depends on the features you wish to have implemented since it sounds like budget is not an issue for you.

Ubiquiti has been my goto for years now.

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Is there a specific reason that you are not looking at a controller based solution instead of a cloud based solution. I have a Cisco 2504 WLC and use it with Cisco 3702 APs. It is a great setup and has not had any downtime since the day it was installed.

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Ubiquiti is great - I’ve used it before. Last I looked at it, there wasn’t a cloud-based solution (something I wanted because of multiple campuses), but it’s a piece of cake to use.

If you’re concerned about wireless security (beyond the standard precautions you should always take), AirTight is a really good product with built-in WIPS. Much cheaper than Meraki.

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Dan, I’d suggest also looking at ADTRAN. For your AP need, their Bluesocket line includes 802.11ac enterprise-class products that offer a cloud architecture, allowing for easy installation and management, and backed by great support. If you are looking to offload the management of the wireless network, they also offer their ProCloud service, which takes the headache off your hands. If you have any questions please let me know!

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Budget constraints Ubiquiti

Reliable with Support incase something goes wrong Aruba. (though I have had some issues with their support it was on a licensing issue not a technical issue )

Ubiquiti has a new AP - Access Point U6 Lite - Ubiquiti Store United States AC but cheap as long as you aren’t going to be running high density might be a winner at $89.

@Aruba

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Cisco either way. For that scale of install, the Cisco Meraki is right up your alley, except for one restriction: you must purchase an annual management subscription to use them, that’s they only fly in the ointment. You could go with Cisco’s Aironet at the higher end of the spectrum if you have the budget and want bulletproof service and support. On the low end of the spectrum, there’s the Cisco Small Business WAP371 which does 802.11b/g/n/ac and can be managed in clusters without any separate subscribed service or management device/pc.

@Cisco

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I just have to ask, are you running Dell SonicPoints? I hate those things.

Anyway, I would go with Unifi especially if you are using them in a harsh environment as the price makes them affordable to replace.

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Cisco Aironet. Always forgotten and easily the best of the bunch.

No ongoing licencing, rock solid AC performance (yes I have tested it) and rock solid hardware with a firmware and feature-set that the others can only dream of. No they are not as pretty as Meraki but by comparison Meraki is more limited, feature-wise. The features they have are easier to get to granted so if you go for Meraki make sure they have the exact features you need.

I’m at well over 100 Aironet AP’s deployed in the last few years and I have yet to have a single AP fail and have only had to reboot two AP’s, just one time each.

Buy from a Tier 1 re-seller and negotiate the price especially if it’s the end of a trading quarter!

3 Spice ups