Consumer vs Business wireless

[wolf-r1]

I am trying to grasp the difference between the devices, if there is one and cannot really see that there is much difference other than cost. We're a small business but are looking for reliable wireless. Mostly in terms of a decently powered access point, all routing and firewalling will be done elsewhere.

Point still remains that there doesn't appear to be a clear differentiation between consumer and business wireless. Is there one?

 

[claykin]

I am trying to grasp the difference between the devices, if there is one and cannot really see that there is much difference other than cost. We're a small business but are looking for reliable wireless. Mostly in terms of a decently powered access point, all routing and firewalling will be done elsewhere.

Point still remains that there doesn't appear to be a clear differentiation between consumer and business wireless. Is there one?

Not exactly sure what you're asking.

What devices are you looking @?

How many users?

Do you have competing wireless AP's very close to your office(s)?

You are a small business....OK. How many offices? How many square feet? Are the square feet all on one floor? If the floorplan is large and oddly shaped can you give us more details?

You said "all routing and firewalling will be done elsewhere.". Please explain.

Many "business" grade AP's are more robust and focused on reliability rather than trying to eek out best performance. If you have a SMB and only need 1 or 2 AP's, many users can get by using a couple Apple Airport Extreme's.

If you need something more robust or the ability for mobile users to transition AP's without temporarily losing their data connection you'll need something more "business" like.

Tell us what you were looking at and maybe we can help out.

 

[wolf-r1]

Finally figured out the office space and competing signals. We have one office that we're installing into. It's 8400 ft/2 much of it open with the exception of the side that the IT Dept is on. Halls and rooms with a lot of metal framed doors.

Via Inssider we've discovered 11 competing wireless infrastructure points however almost all of them are at -80dB or worse. 2.4Ghz band. We have no 5Ghz band capable machines to test with.

There will probably be around 20 continuous users supported.

As far as DHCP, routing, firewalling is concerned we have Cisco equipment that handles all but DHCP.

I like the idea of being able to transition tho I'm sure that will cost more.

Anything I missed here?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Point still remains that there doesn't appear to be a clear differentiation between consumer and business wireless. Is there one?

Quality of components in business is typically better
Support for business units is typically better
Features are matured in business models, whereas with home models there are often more "bugs and glitches" and broken features they hope to fix in future firmware upgrades
Richer firewall features
Ability to run multiple SSIDs and vlan them/client isolation in business models

Business models typically handle heavier loads much better. In a business you're more apt to have multiple laptops, and sometimes they're running heavy applications across the network or doing data exchanges/replication of their portable databases...so they're hitting the network hard with large transfers at once. Cheaper wireless gear will crumble..fall flat on its face. Good beefy robust business grade wireless access points will keep on doing their job nice and rock solid. I've seen this plenty of times myself...an office will have wireless problems and I'll take a look at their gear and fine home grade or sub 100 dollar per AP gear in place, I'll replace it with some nice HP ProCurve MSA based gear...and their wireless network becomes stable as can be and handle heavy loads without a hiccup.

Multiple access points are controlled by a centralized "controller" with higher end business grade hardware. It handles load balancing, seamless roaming, etc.

Business units often come in POE flavors for low impact installation.

 

[sfx2000]

I'll have to agree with Stonecat

* stability in the short term
* reliability in the longer term.
* better management options.
* better support from the OEM

In a multiple AP install, having centralized operations, admin, and management capabilities is very important.

If you're already a Cisco shop, take a look at their AP's - spendy in the short term, but they run forever.

 

[stevech]

Cisco and Aruba "own" the enterprise WiFi space.
They're an overkill for SOHO.