Access points buying advise

[Trip]

Ahh yes, got it. Corrected my post based on the right number.

 

[pauljbl]

I see you mention tplink omada. I take it that the ruckus will be a better setup than the tplink?

 

[Trip]

Yes. Omada pro-sumer code (more or less) on top of commodity hardware. Ruckus is enterprise code on top of proprietary engineering. Two completely different animals. That said, Omada seems to function well enough for certain micro to small SOHO type installs. But cost not withstanding, if given the choice, I'd of pick Ruckus every time.

 

[pauljbl]

What poe injectors would you recommend that can be bought cheap for the ruckus?

 

[Trip]

I would do gigabit, PoE+ (802.3at - 30W), from a reputable-enough company with at least ETL, if not UL, certification (that cuts out a lot of the cheapest, white-label hardware on Amazon). Something like a TP-Link TPE-115GI would be a good baseline.

 

[pauljbl]

What about 802.3af would that do?
Seen some ubiquity ones

 

[Trip]

Yes, they'll work and power the R5__ series at full power, no problem. However, if you do decide to go up to the higher-power R7__ series, or equivalent AP from anyone else, they'll require 802.3at for full-power operation. If they only negotiate at 802.3af, the AP will typically throttle its transmit power down to 50-75%, and in some cases will not power on at all. Just something to be aware of.

 

[coxhaus]

My Cisco WAP581 wireless APs now pass my iPhone roaming test. I turned off band steering and found a new setting WMF which was not in my old Cisco WAP371 APs.

Cisco now uses 802.3at for their APs. I think maybe if you don't have enough power then it may only run 1 radio. My old Cisco WAP371 APs had a problem with locking up the iPhone to where it had to be rebooted when I tried running them with 802.3af power.

 

[Trip]

@coxhaus - I can see how possibly disabling band steering could help with roaming effectiveness, but it's kind of weird that enabling WMF (Wireless Multicast Forwarding) would do the trick... perhaps Apple is using Bonjour or some other multicast-dependent protocol to assist in VoIP packet flow?

 

[pauljbl]

What is smartzone for ruckus?

 

[Trip]

The code base is very similar to that of ZoneDirector, but it's meant more for virtualized and/or larger-scale deployments. The following article is a few years old now, but still pretty relevant in terms of the differences between ZD and SZ:
https://robrobstation.com/2016/06/2...rector-vs-smartzone-wlan-architecture-review/

 

[pauljbl]

Do all Cisco access points require licenses and stop working when expired

 

[coxhaus]

Do all Cisco access points require licenses and stop working when expired

No licenses required for Cisco small business wireless APs like the WAP371, WAP571, or WAP581 APs.

 

[pauljbl]

Do the aironet models need licence's

 

[coxhaus]

I would think so but I don't know any more. I think there may be an aironet with built-in controler now. Maybe someone else knows?

 

[pauljbl]

@Trip
What do you think of a Cisco 2504 controller with some access points?

 

[Trip]

Not a bad option, if you can buy the hardware right, so as to avoid excessive licensing fees. For a controller-less option, Aironet has Mobility Express, which is an embedded controller, available in mostly all of their current-gen APs (18/28/38/4800 and 9000 series APs).

 

[pauljbl]

Not a bad option, if you can buy the hardware right, so as to avoid excessive licensing fees. For a controller-less option, Aironet has Mobility Express, which is an embedded controller, available in mostly all of their current-gen APs (18/28/38/4800 and 9000 series APs).

Do the mobility express come with licenses?

Do you think ruckus is better?

 

[Trip]

ME is free, and can be run from 1800 series and higher APs for up to 50 APs and 1000 clients. It's not as fully feature rich as WLC, in the same way Unleashed isn't as fully feature-rich as ZoneDirector, but the differences are growing ever more negligible, at least for most small/flat networks. I do find ME a bit more of pain to setup, and although Unleashed isn't quite as feature-rich, I find Unleashed easier to run. Fewer touches required; aka "just works" for often. Bang-for-the-buck with hardware itself, I also prefer Ruckus for their radio performance. You can likely buy as much performance from Cisco (performance slightly more?), but you'd need to be up in the 3800/4800/9200 ranges to approach it, and the cost to do so may be quite prohibitive. It's been a while since I checked current street pricing and/or eBay availability, so perhaps I stand corrected.

All that said, I am only one guy, so I'd encourage you do your research on the two systems via their websites, forums, white-papers, reddit/r/networking and /sysadmin, etc.

 

[pauljbl]

ME is free, and can be run from 1800 series and higher APs for up to 50 APs and 1000 clients. It's not as fully feature rich as WLC, in the same way Unleashed isn't as fully feature-rich as ZoneDirector, but the differences are growing ever more negligible, at least for most small/flat networks. I do find ME a bit more of pain to setup, and although Unleashed isn't quite as feature-rich, I find Unleashed easier to run. Fewer touches required; aka "just works" for often. Bang-for-the-buck with hardware itself, I also prefer Ruckus for their radio performance. You can likely buy as much performance from Cisco (performance slightly more?), but you'd need to be up in the 3800/4800/9200 ranges to approach it, and the cost to do so may be quite prohibitive. It's been a while since I checked current street pricing and/or eBay availability, so perhaps I stand corrected.

All that said, I am only one guy, so I'd encourage you do your research on the two systems via their websites, forums, white-papers, reddit/r/networking and /sysadmin, etc.

Yes the 3800 up are expensive
Do you know what are the access points that are for the 2504 controller. Wonder if that would work out cheaper?