What kind of equipment for coding school of 100+ people (Netgear vs Ruckus vs...)

[heythisisdave]

You really need an enterprise router like pfsense on a x86 box with intel/marvel NICs or a mikrotik CCR. Both will perform QoS for internet very well, fast and give you a lot more control such as being able to combine per user, bandwidth limits and priorities all at the same time. RouterOS can also be installed on x86 so you dont need to buy a routerboard but you will need to check hardware compatibility.

Currently the popular dual core ARM consumer routers will only perform either bandwidth or priority based QoS but not both which means you cant use bandwidth control for users and at the same time prioritise VOIP and web over other things.

The mikrotik CCR can be used with a script to auto generate and remove QoS rules per user (but you must use some kind of user authentication such as RADIUS, hotspot, PPPOE) and can handle thousands of users with thousands of QoS rules to handle each of them very fast.

Try to see if Ruckus has APs with cloud based load balancing where the APs load balance users per AP in a small area which may make the investment worth it if they do even if they lack range. Alternatively if you want range mikrotik routerboard 9xx series have very high transmit power that will give you range and you can use standard or better antennas with them if you like.

What do you think about a box like this: http://store.netgate.com/ADI/RCC-VE-2440.aspx

I have one of these in the mail and was thinking about trying to use that with pfSense to do the QOS/Bandwidth stuff with the R7000s in AP mode.

 

[netwrks]

Looks interesting, although I have never used one. Only one way to find out, I guess..

 

[heythisisdave]

Just put it in today (the Netgate 2440 running pfSense + 2 R7000s as APs). Seems to be working OK and getting more stable speeds throughout the campus but we're currently not in session so there are only staff around. Will report back when we get up and running and see how things are going. Also have a call with a Ruckus VAR to do a site survey.

Thanks for the all the info and suggestions - much appreciated!

 

[System Error Message]

It looks good but its a bit much for a dual core atom. There are newer boxes that are about the same price with 4 or 8 core atom CPUs but you dont need much for 300Mb/s. I suggest you measure your internet throughput needs by adding download and upload together and i think that a dual core atom would be pushing it in terms of bandwidth if you include firewall, user control and QoS. Having PCIe/miniPCIe for wireless only matters if you placed the pfsense box in a location where wifi is needed and that recycling even a core2duo would be faster still for pfsense. I also suggest looking at an alternative such as a recent i3 with hard drive for pfsense can also be used for cache to help with your limited internet bandwidth. If you already have the device than go with it since it would be free as long as it can cope with all your settings and bandwidth needs and you could add some hard drives for the purpose of cache to reduce your internet bandwidth usage assuming most of your traffic is http. With hard drive you can cache big downloads too such as IDEs and SDKs.

I still think 75 per AP is still too much that you may benefit by adding lower cost APs such as other consumer AC routers (except from dlink) or even the $80 dual band AC wifi APs that are POE capable that mikrotik have and spreading them in a way to spread the load.

 

[thiggins]

Just put it in today (the Netgate 2440 running pfSense + 2 R7000s as APs). Seems to be working OK and getting more stable speeds throughout the campus but we're currently not in session so there are only staff around. Will report back when we get up and running and see how things are going. Also have a call with a Ruckus VAR to do a site survey.

Thanks for reporting back.

 

[coxhaus]

You might want to look at Untangle as I believe it is used in a lot of schools. They have a free version you can setup and use on a PC. Untangle will have more capability than any consumer router. With 75 or more people odds are you will need more than a consumer grade router.