Spec me a switch and wireless AP

GodAtum

GodAtum

GodAtum

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I was considering the NETGEAR GS728TP smart switch with POE and the NETGEAR WNDAP660 AP. However I recently saw the Ubiquiti US-24-250W, Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC and the Ubiquiti UniFi USG solutiom which looks interesting but I have never heard of Ubiquiti. Anyone had any experience with them?
 
We have about 30 Ubiquiti AP's at work, generally they're OK but we have had 3 that have died. They are so cheap I've never bothered returning them.

We have a few Listed Buildings and the Conservation Officer likes them because they're unobtrusive to look at.

They are not standard PoE, so you need the injector adaptor or an inline adaptor which converts standard PoE to suit. They are about £12 each.
 
I use Ubiquiti as well at work. Its cheap for a reason. If you just want wireless for a few computers it is fine. They will fail if you mess up the POE injectors. 2 years later we are planning on moving across to ruckus.
 
I like Ubiquiti's radios when you are doing WISP type stuff with them, or point-to-point bridges. I don't feel like the company are geared up to properly testing or supporting Wi-Fi interoperability with the thousands of different types of clients that could be connecting to your networks.

What's your use case? How many APs are you going to deploy? How many clients are you looking to connect?
 
The person above asks some good questions. How big a rollout is it and how many clients will be connecting?

I would like the look of using these at home or in small business but not convinced they will stand up against a big deployment.

For the record I work in Primary schools and most of them have a ruckus setup with a zone director, it is an awesome bit of kit. 30 devices hitting 1 ap and no drop outs... I'll have some of that! :D compare that to the old 3com system one of my schools have and it is night and day.
 
Caged said:
I like Ubiquiti's radios when you are doing WISP type stuff with them, or point-to-point bridges. I don't feel like the company are geared up to properly testing or supporting Wi-Fi interoperability with the thousands of different types of clients that could be connecting to your networks.

What's your use case? How many APs are you going to deploy? How many clients are you looking to connect?
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@Caged, you used to be quite hot on the Cisco small business APs... Still the case, or have you changed your mind?
 
Another Ruckus user here, had it since 2011, no AP failures yet, easy to set up and will handle dozens of clients without a hitch. If you are going for AC then wait for wave 2.
 
rotor said:
@Caged, you used to be quite hot on the Cisco small business APs... Still the case, or have you changed your mind?
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For the £180 or whatever they cost each I think you'll struggle to find a better option for smaller deployments.

If you have a bit more cash to spend and want more control over your radio profiles, need good client device troubleshooting or have ropey old Symbol terminals that you absolutely have to keep online then Aerohive are great. The new AP130 is reasonably affordable as well.
 
Caged said:
For the £180 or whatever they cost each I think you'll struggle to find a better option for smaller deployments.

If you have a bit more cash to spend and want more control over your radio profiles, need good client device troubleshooting or have ropey old Symbol terminals that you absolutely have to keep online then Aerohive are great. The new AP130 is reasonably affordable as well.
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Thanks! Aerohive looks nice, but a LOT more expensive, and is like Meraki in that it relies on the online management?
 
Sort of. Meraki is cloud controlled, Aerohive is cloud managed.

If you stop renewing your Aerohive license then you lose access to the portal but the devices will keep doing whatever their config is telling them to do. If your Meraki license expires the devices turn into paperweights.

Worth knowing depending on how efficient your accounts payable people are.
 
@Caged, one more question: Unifi AP AC vs Cisco WAP371? (I am happy to run the Unifi controller in a VM, that's not an issue).
 
Not personally used the Cisco AC product, but I haven't heard great things about the UniFi either. Ubiquiti seem to be more than competent a PtP or PtMP radios for WISPs, but Wi-Fi isn't their strong point.
 
For a small deployment I'd vouch for Meraki's (haven't used them in a bigger/mission critical environment tho).

I've got an Aerohive (Free AP) and a Meraki and I must say I'm much more impressed with the Meraki. This is saying something as I was a big supporter of Aerhive :) Wireless signal strength and the web interface features are better with the Meraki, and MDM is included.

Also, comparing the Free AP from both companies, Cisco give you 3 year support which is awesome.
 
We use them for point to point links, but not for general wireless.

Support is largely community based as well
 
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