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Currently have lame Netgear wireless routers, need to improve Wireless throughout whole Building with Security and manageable options. Looking for a not to expensive device that can cover a 33,284 Sq. Ft. Building in range.

Any suggestions, comments or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

11 Spice ups
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Get a bunch of basic wireless 802.11n routers and flash em with DD-WRT.

2 Spice ups
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I’d suggest Meraki but that depends on your definition of not too expensive.

Your building composition and layout is going to affect your coverage. I have 5 Intermec AP’s in one 40,000 sq ft warehouse but one Meraki MR-16 covering 40,000 sq ft of manufacturing. Once we get into the office areas I can get about 10,000 with an MR-12 horizontally but the steel and concrete floors cause havoc with the signal.

There’s alternatives to Meraki, someone else will be along shortly…

4 Spice ups
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depending on how many access points you’d need, I’d go with the Cisco Wireless Management System, just a rock solid wireless system. It’s not cheap but you get what you pay for, so if you can afford it in the budget, I’d go this way. Also if a guest system is necessary, the Cisco guest network is secure, easy to configure, and easy to deploy. This is not the cisco (Linksys) home crap this is their commercial product. We use it and cover 12 buildings and 600 or so users, with a fiber backbone and have very little trouble at all.

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Limey wrote:

I’d suggest Meraki but that depends on your definition of not too expensive.

Your building composition and layout is going to affect your coverage. I have 5 Intermec AP’s in one 40,000 sq ft warehouse but one Meraki MR-16 covering 40,000 sq ft of manufacturing. Once we get into the office areas I can get about 10,000 with an MR-12 horizontally but the steel and concrete floors cause havoc with the signal.

There’s alternatives to Meraki, someone else will be along shortly…

I currently have some netgear equipment that I am looking into upgrading to Meraki. You may want to go to http://www.meraki.com/freeap if you attend one webinar they will send you one of their basic devices for free, which you can use for testing, or they have program where you barrow a piece of equipment to test it.

3 Spice ups
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I would suggest 2 of these D-Link routers since you said fairly cheap. They are rock solid, I have these set up in 2 of our offices, both are 15,000 square feet, and have about 60 users in each building. You can set up two and link them together if you wish to do it that way.

http://www.staples.com/D-Link-DIR-655-Xtreme-N-Gigabit-Router/product_365091

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Cisco is solid, but for the cost, is it really the best solution for the question asked? I’m evaluting Meraki, as well. But also look at Ubiquiti UniFi - features vs. price points: http://www.ubnt.com/unifi .

5 Spice ups
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I agree they can be costly but they’re the industry network standard for a reason. At the end of the day, any money that you save on equipment when purchasing lower end hardware will surely be replaced in man hours tracing down problems with the network later on. Nothing saying that some lower end products can’t do the job just fine most of the time, but man hours can add up quick if there are problems and users can’t get to their network resources necessary to do their job. I’ve been down both roads and would still use industry standard hardware wherever possible because of the reliability factor. Just my .02 cents worth.

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Ruckus! www.ruckuswireless.com

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Definitely the Meraki’s! Wish i had found them sooner.

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Those are the two, Ruckus and Ubiquity.

Meraki can also handle multiple SSID’s, including guest network segregation.

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I would go with Ubiquity. They are rock solid and dirt cheap at the same time. Very easy to manage and only cost $90 for an enterprise grade AP with management software. I have over 20 of them deployed and have no issues with them!

5 Spice ups
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Angie.ca wrote:

…need to improve Wireless throughout whole Building with Security and manageable options…

+1 to Meraki, has great manageability and meshing options:

Ubiquiti is solid as well:

These are a world away from Netgear and typical consumer devices.

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what kind of firewall do you have? We have Sonicpoints that integrate with SonicWall firewalls. Were very easy to set up and i have been happy with them.

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You might consider Aruba Instant. Here’s a How-to on creating secure employee and guest Wi-Fi using Aruba Instant APs.

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/4757

For more information on Aruba Instant go here http://www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/instant-wlan/

Kevin

3 Spice ups
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I’ve used the system from Bluesocket

Really impressed with the quality of coverage, ease of installation and use. Ours were installed in several sites across 3 countries; some inside the buildings, a couple with antennae outside for wifi across large open space. It provides multiple access levels including a guest access for Internet connection; these can be for as little as 1 hour.

A really rock solid solution.

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We’ve been pleased with the products from EnGenius.

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+1 for Ubiquiti Networks. http://www.ubnt.com/

We have some of the Unifi products and have had great success. Simple and cost-effective.

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Another vote for Aruba. It’s a little intimidating once you see how much control you have over every aspect of wifi, but the wizards make it very simple and it just plain works. I have 3 Vlan’d SSIDs broadcasting from all of my APs. I have 4 SSIDs covering 23,000 sq ft of office space.

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+1 for Meraki

I just got done evaluationg for the past 30 days 3 Meraki APs. I’m looking to expand our wireless into some single level apartment buildings. We need conveage for staff (we offer independent, assisted living and long term care for seniors) and would like to offer access to our residents as well.

Meraki fit the bill nicely. No physical controler, great coverage, features and the informaiton you get is very nice. Ability to deply a mesh network without having a homerun CAT5 to every AP is nice.

We’re also looking to replace our Meru system.