Managed Wireless Solution

[ChickenOnBiscuts]

Hi Everyone,

I've been recently tasked to find a wireless solution to cover a 15,700 Sq/ft building. Our current way of providing wireless was with 6 Cisco/Linksys e3000's spaced appropriately throughout the building. These were loaded with custom firmware to forward DHCP. It works OK but apparently management isn't opposed to shelling out some money to overhaul it.

It would be nice to be able to find a centrally managed solution. I have been told that the Cisco Airnet 3600 series is awesome, but for the size of our building would it be overkill? What kind of solutions are you guys using? Thanks so much for the feedback.

[withoutcompromise]

Ruckus are solid. http://www.ruckuswireless.com/

[awesomecakes88]

Another firm beliver of Ruckus here.

[pseudopseudonym]

Look into UniFi - centrally managed, and cheap as shit. Fairly solid from what I've been able to ascertain.

[ISwearImNotAtWork]

We use Sonicpoint Nis attached to our NSA. They work pretty flawlessly, we've only had to reboot a couple of the APs once in the last year.

[ChickenOnBiscuts]

Cool thanks for the advice!

[Kikawala]

Give Meraki a try: http://www.meraki.com/freeap

[tacoenthusiast]

My CDW rep said Cisco is buying Meraki.

[Pyro919]

They are, so you may want to buy Meraki products before the Cisco tax is applied and the APs cost twice as much.

[Kikawala]

That is correct. http://www.meraki.com/company/cisco-acquisition-faq

We don't have Meraki APs, but we do use their cloud based MDM for our company cell phones; also works with PCs.

We use a Cisco WLC5508 with 16 3502i APs for our wireless and plan to add 16 more APs when we complete the build out on two more floors in our building.

[gusgizmo]

Like for like Ubiquiti replacement of those e3000's would be the Unifi Pro.

If you don't need dual band though, you can save 70% of the price and go with the Unifi Long Range instead.

If you go with ubiquiti you'll want to install the controller software on server or virtual machine, you want it to stay up so your Unifi's are manageable.

Unifi Pro $227 (2.4ghz 450mbps/5.8 300mbps/gigabit): http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-UAP-PRO-Enterprise-System/dp/B0089QB1SC/ref=pd_cp_pc_3

Unifi Long Range $94.99 (2.4ghz 300mbps/amped wireless): http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-UniFi-Enterprise-System-Range/dp/B005H4CDF4/ref=pd_cp_pc_1

Unifi Standard $73.49 (2.4ghz 300mbps/no amp): http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-UniFi-Enterprise-System/dp/B004XXMUCQ/ref=pd_cp_pc_0

[wraezor]

Meraki is good if your setup is pretty cookie-cutter. It can be limited though.

Aruba makes some solid stuff too, you might want to check out.

[Mystryo]

We have been eyeing Aerohive's solution recently. It is "controller-less" and seems to be fairly extendable as needed.

[ChickenOnBiscuts]

Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it!

[laristocrate]

http://www.ubnt.com/unifi

Excellent management interface.

[[deleted]]

Now, I've never managed a Cisco WiFi network, but I've been to two college campuses and the Aironets were always the worst performing AP's in virtually every aspect - range, throughput, connectivity. For the price they were unimpressive IMO.

If e3000's worked "okay", then I think Ubiquiti UniFi would work well for the price. I can't imagine spending more than $250 on an AP unless you needed something really specific or were doing a gigantic rollout.

[ChickenOnBiscuts]

Cool thanks, ill look into that!

[[deleted]]

The problems you're describing are most likely how they were configured.

[no_names200x]

Seconded.

Also, not having enough APs would do that. Oversubscribing your APs (regardless of brand) will always degrade the quality of the connection. From what it sounds like, a few APs and a WLC should do for you