AP Recommendation for school

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ziph

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#31262 10-Mar-2009 22:49

Our school was recently approached with a proposal to implement a wireless network on the campus.
The hardware specced was 2 Ruckus AP's with a Ruckus AP/managment unit, This all came for the price of approx . +/- $10000 plus around $1000 a year maintainence.

Bear in mind it is a primary school of 13 classes plus library, office etc. I thought a cheaper/easier solution would be a single AP in each class plus one each in the office, library etc. each connected to the wired network and sharing a common SSID with channels set as to avoid interference. If this is a better setup (which it seems to be for the level of use it will get) what AP would anyone suggest. I don't mind paying a bit more for reliability.

Look forward to your suggestions

boby55

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#200498 10-Mar-2009 22:52

I have used the $120 Netgear Wireless AP (will get model number tomorow) and they run perfect, never had a problem

ziph

25 posts

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#200499 10-Mar-2009 22:57

Yeah, I have always used either Netgear or Dynalink at home, so I trust Netgear.

Another consideration is future proofing by using BGN routers, so keep that in mind with suggestions

Cheers

casper021

96 posts

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#200521 11-Mar-2009 08:07

I would say Ruckus or Aruba if you want any decent wireless coverage, We have been trying both of them with in our offices and I have to say they have a great performance. Just have a look at rukus website for their online presentations

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
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#200524 11-Mar-2009 08:43

+1 for Ruckus

May cost, but is impressive gear - I recently had 3 of their Zoneflex AP's with a Zone Director here for testing. We were told that 3 APs would cover our building.

They were wrong.

One did - and 200m up the road later I was still able to ping our servers.........

Long as one AP was setup as a master, the others (I set up all 3 to see how it worked) latched on and created a mesh without anything from me including updating their own firmware etc.

As for maintenance.... what maintenance ? They look after themselves

Regarding the pricing, what were you getting for that ? (Zone Director ? How many AP's ?)

Theres also MetroFlex AP's which dont require/use a Zone Director at half the price of the Zoneflex units but Im not sure what their setup is like and if they can be used in a mesh etc.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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cyril7

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#200538 11-Mar-2009 09:18

Ubiquity, I have used these in various formats, very flexible firmware, allround good performance, good pricing. Otherwise Netgear business grade stuff. You may well find depending on building layout that you dont need an AP for each room, this will both cut cost and reduce RF clutter.

Cyril

ziph

25 posts

Geek

#200550 11-Mar-2009 10:01

I think we may need an AP for each class as the school is a prefab layout for tyhe most part, with good size gaps between them.

Thanks for the suggestions of AP's, who are the distributors or resellers for those brands?

Cheers

cyril7

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#200552 11-Mar-2009 10:09

Hi, as I said you would be wise to spend sometime doing onsite testing to determine what level of coverage you can achieve with what density of APs, and you may be right, however I have found in many situations just like yours (ie spaced prefab layout) that one AP with sector antenna suitably placed will easily cover several rooms.

Netgears business grade stuff can be purchased from several places, I get mine from Ascent, as for Ubiquity seee gowifi.co.nz

Cheers
Cyril

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casper021

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#200556 11-Mar-2009 10:14

you can get Rukus and Aruba from a company called Zintel i think the guy's name is Chito give them a call and see what they can do for you

xpd

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#200571 11-Mar-2009 11:15

ANother supplier of Ruckus that we used was Spirit Wireless in Tauranga - speak to Peter Dalby and he'll be happy to help - mention you got the info from Gavin @ Quality Educaiton. :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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