WAP recommendations

Forums › IT Pro and developers › WAP recommendations

networkn

19046 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5530

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Topic # 201376 16-Aug-2016 12:30

Hi.

For the past 5 years we have been using Engenius EAP350's for customers sites, they are priced OK, are generally reliable and have great range.

Lately we have been having some issues and are also considering the possibility of a switch to another brand that also offers centralized management of AP's across different sites and customers.

Cambium did a promo recently and I like their devices, but the regular price is nearly $80 more than the Cambium and it's hard to justify that to small customers.

Often these might go into Home Offices etc, and customers have given feedback they don't want Black ugly boxes with aerials stuck everywhere which is why the Engenius are good.

Cheers.

JaseNZ

1234 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 436

Subscriber

Reply # 1612427 16-Aug-2016 12:34

We use these which are fantastic and discreet. Price is up there but they do work really well.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=NETUBI1040&name=Ubiquiti-UAP-LR-UniFi-802.11bgn-2.4GHz-300Mbps-500

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding : Ice cream man , Ice cream man

networkn

19046 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5530

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1612432 16-Aug-2016 12:41

Mspec:

We use these which are fantastic and discreet. Price is up there but they do work really well.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=NETUBI1040&name=Ubiquiti-UAP-LR-UniFi-802.11bgn-2.4GHz-300Mbps-500

No centralized management (We are a reseller and have lots of clients and we want to be able to manage all devices via a web console or such).

I like the Unifi, but their management tools and support are seriously sh!te

Dynamic

2475 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 738

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1612434 16-Aug-2016 12:52

networkn: I like the Unifi, but their management tools and support are seriously sh!te

They are still our go-to device for SMB clients. The cheap CloudKey management appliance is much nicer than having to have a VM hanging around with the console (and we had java issues on our VM which was a PITA). I can comment very favourably on Snapper's local support for devices purchased from them, but have not had to go to Ubiquiti for anything.

We just have the one CloudKey with only 2 dozen UAPs on it. Larger sites could have a CloudKey per site.

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

sbiddle

27469 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6933

Moderator

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1612634 16-Aug-2016 18:20

One person supports this post

Xclaim by Ruckus. Ruckus quality without the price.

mdf

2118 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 641

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 1612706 16-Aug-2016 19:59

networkn:

Cambium did a promo recently and I like their devices, but the regular price is nearly $80 more than the Cambium and it's hard to justify that to small customers.

FWIW, if it's just price holding you back on the Cambium gear, it might be worth having a word to GoWifi about your current and prospective future requirements. Cambium seems to be in the new, start up, chasing market share phase and seem really responsive to requests. They donated the router for @michaelmurfy's review/Geekzone giveaway and offered me a discount on a very modest spend of Cambium gear.

networkn

19046 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5530

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1612752 16-Aug-2016 20:27

mdf:

networkn:

Cambium did a promo recently and I like their devices, but the regular price is nearly $80 more than the Cambium and it's hard to justify that to small customers.

FWIW, if it's just price holding you back on the Cambium gear, it might be worth having a word to GoWifi about your current and prospective future requirements. Cambium seems to be in the new, start up, chasing market share phase and seem really responsive to requests. They donated the router for @michaelmurfy's review/Geekzone giveaway and offered me a discount on a very modest spend of Cambium gear.

We are already a reseller for them, but the respective buy prices are still $80 apart. They are investigating a potential other option.

michaelmurfy

Mr Snotty
8288 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4255

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1612785 16-Aug-2016 20:49

The Cambium gear is very good so would recommend - but so are the Xclaim units. The Xclaim might be better due to it's managed service portal with a "click and deploy" type interface making it easy for anyone to change their network settings. The other one you can do is deploy a UniFi controller on a AWS/Sitehost/Linode instance and deploy UniFi AP's to the said cloud controller - is a really good solution if you're wanting central management (guide here). Use a free SSL certificate from Letsencrypt and even set up a reverse proxy (via NGINX or Apache) to make it a nicer solution.

I've set up a bunch of cloud controllers for UniFi products and never had any problems with them - can even do remote firmware updates etc with ease. I used to preconfigure units (by adopting them to the controller) before sending the units out to the customer to simply plug in to their network - can even give the customer RO access to their premises on the cloud controller to view stats, generate WiFi codes (for guest WiFi) etc.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
A quick guide to picking the right ISP | The Router Guide | Community UniFi Cloud Controller | Ubiquiti Edgerouter Tutorial

networkn

19046 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5530

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1612891 16-Aug-2016 23:03

sbiddle:

Xclaim by Ruckus. Ruckus quality without the price.

Sign up for the MSP portal and you and your customers (if you want) will have access.

Sadly, even more expensive than all the other options.

sbiddle

27469 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6933

Moderator

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1613376 17-Aug-2016 18:09

networkn:

sbiddle:

Xclaim by Ruckus. Ruckus quality without the price.

Sign up for the MSP portal and you and your customers (if you want) will have access.

Sadly, even more expensive than all the other options.

To what? Performance wise you won't come close with anything else except buying Ruckus itself. The MSP portal is also very cool.

Despite having (and still installing) a lot of UniFi kit I would never recommend it due to the ongoing performance and software issues.

richms

21820 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4564

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 1613379 17-Aug-2016 18:12

sbiddle:

To what? Performance wise you won't come close with anything else except buying Ruckus itself. The MSP portal is also very cool.

Despite having (and still installing) a lot of UniFi kit I would never recommend it due to the ongoing performance and software issues.

Glaciers are faster than the unifi development

Richard rich.ms

networkn

19046 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5530

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1613391 17-Aug-2016 18:42

sbiddle:

To what? Performance wise you won't come close with anything else except buying Ruckus itself. The MSP portal is also very cool.

Despite having (and still installing) a lot of UniFi kit I would never recommend it due to the ongoing performance and software issues.

Yeah I must admit to having reservations toward UniFi having had issues in the past, but last lot of software upgrades made our experience better.

Xclaim (XI3) are upward of $375 per AP! Whilst I am sure they are good, that's reasonably difficult to justify to SMB and Home Business users.

Do you have experience with the Cambium? Or Engenius? When you say performance, specifically what are you talking about? Range? Speeds?

darylblake

930 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 292

Trusted

Reply # 1613398 17-Aug-2016 18:59

Depending on what you want to spend.

Cheap Unifi AP AC Lite

Mid-range Id go for Xclaim XI-3 this will be in the $300~$400 range.

In the more expensive range I would probably look at Ruckus R500 or better. But this is about $800. If you like Cisco then you can get Meraki's but I don't think they are as good as Ruckus.

Remember, you get what you pay for. If you go cheap, you will have more problems.

vulcannz

393 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 107

Reply # 1614668 19-Aug-2016 21:50

Ruckus also tend to get far better coverage, so you spend more on buying multiple cheap APs where a single Ruckus will cover a large area.