Need Advice from Network Managers - Managed Wireless

[remixedcat]

Tested a Cisco Meraki MR34, top of the line AP and here's my results!
http://remixedcat.blogspot.com/2015/02/cisco-meraki-mr34-review.html

 

[bpgt64]

How do you standardize your testing? Is that a suite or just a set of commands from iperf or..

 

[remixedcat]

I use PRTG for the graphs and monitoring and LAN Speed test for the traffic generation.

 

[Nick Lowe]

Update at last! Sadly not yet for the Aerohive.
Aerohive data incoming soon if I can get time. The Aerohive AP does not work with guest wireless either, and their support just didn't help us at all. However, the Aerohive AP has become the perfect bandaid for our network of dumb standalone AP's. Wherever we put it in place of one of our broken, it's a total champ, broadcasts to any device within a nice range, and just does its job for plain old wireless. Needless to say, even though we're not buying any Aerohive kit because of its inherent problems with VLANing, it's actually a good old blunt instrument to get a job done.

If you have time, would you mind explaining specifically what you mean by 'inherent problems with VLANing'?

Being candid and perhaps a bit cheeky, I honestly suspect that the issue that you had in this area is likely to have been one of configuration not an issue in the AP's firmware.

Aerohive's community forums are usually a good place to get a second opinion on any niggles:
https://community.aerohive.com/aerohive

Did you post there at all?

 

[remixedcat]

Often with VLANs its touchy with a lot of aps and I did hear on spiceworks a lot of people have issues with aerohive and VLANs.

 

[Nick Lowe]

Often with VLANs its touchy with a lot of aps and I did hear on spiceworks a lot of people have issues with aerohive and VLANs.

That's typically where things are misconfigured though...

Can you be more specific?

 

[remixedcat]

Do you work for Aerohive?

 

[Nick Lowe]

Do you work for Aerohive?

Nope, definitely not.

I have no hidden intentions here, just genuinely curious what wasn't working, what they were trying to do etc

 

[remixedcat]

hahha ok...

 

[RCoon]

If you have time, would you mind explaining specifically what you mean by 'inherent problems with VLANing'?

Being candid and perhaps a bit cheeky, I honestly suspect that the issue that you had in this area is likely to have been one of configuration not an issue in the AP's firmware.

Aerohive's community forums are usually a good place to get a second opinion on any niggles:
https://community.aerohive.com/aerohive

Did you post there at all?

No, didn't post there, because the VLANing that was potentially misconfigured, worked for all other 5 AP manufacturers, and works flawlessly for our entire network. Also, the fact that we have to spend a large amount of time figuring out these kinks, is a negative point towards Aerohive from the word go. When your competitors work within 10 minutes, and your company's configuration takes hours (and an on-site visit from an engineer who ALSO can't fix the problem), its probably time to rethink your configuration strategy.

We didn't go with Aerohive in the end because we dislike cloud based systems as a concept. We use office365 and frequently get disconnections at least once a month for 10 mins or so because a datacentre choked.

Their throughput was relatively average, and so was pricing. Aerohive never really attempted to compete, and frankly, they couldn't compete against the bare brute strength of Aruba, the cost efficiency of UniFi, or the sweet spot price/performance of Ruckus.

 

[remixedcat]

Yeah if you go to my blog @Nick Lowe Aruba and Cisco meraki were the top 2 in throughput followed by airtight networks, xirrus was king for RF management and configuration options, Meraki is the easiest and most stable. Cisco Meraki and Aruba were the easiest with vlans.

 

[OneMoar]

cloud based network management is a stupid idea for too many reasons to list in this thread
and honestly growing a bit tired with with remixedcat pushing meraki in every single networking thread... I wonder how much cisco pays him ...
the unifi is most likely atheros AR7240 or broadcom BCM4706 cpu's both are mips and operate at about 400 to 600Mhz good for about 200MB/s total thoughput

 

[RCoon]

I wonder how much cisco pays him

They don't pay her anything

And I believe the Unifi gear is indeed typically Broadcom based.

 

[remixedcat]

well if you have to manage several locations it's much better as well as for initial provisioning with meraki. I do not work for Cisco.

and if you're serious about your biz you gotta be serious about your gear.

Also have you, personally tested as many brands/models of access points as me? @OneMoar

annnnd not just used at a friend's house or a random restaurant or whatever these have to be in your control and you behind the wheel...

 

[OneMoar]

well if you have to manage several locations it's much better as well as for initial provisioning with meraki. I do not work for Cisco.

and if you're serious about your biz you gotta be serious about your gear.

Until you lose your link to cisco's licensing server then your entire network is useless. or your wan connection drops out and it tries to phone home. DRM on a mission critical network .. HELLNO...

 

[remixedcat]

well to a lot of people it's worth paying for.... it's basically paying someone else to host your controller so you don't have to purchase or lease your own servers and such. If you think of it that way you'd understand more.