Networking-Forums.com

Professional Discussions => Wireless => Topic started by: deanwebb on March 21, 2018, 09:25:39 AM

Title: Wireless Solutions
Post by: deanwebb on March 21, 2018, 09:25:39 AM
Meraki, Cisco 5500s, Aruba, Huawei... what are you using, what do you see out there?

I see lots of Cisco, increasing Meraki, and Aruba guys that make sad faces if a third-party product doesn't work as well with their gear as it does with Cisco...
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: icecream-guy on March 21, 2018, 12:31:39 PM
Quote from: deanwebb on March 21, 2018, 09:25:39 AM
Meraki, Cisco 5500s, Aruba, Huawei... what are you using, what do you see out there?

I see lots of Cisco, increasing Meraki, and Aruba guys that make sad faces if a third-party product doesn't work as well with their gear as it does with Cisco...

100% Cisco at my place,  good thing it's not a security product so I don't have to touch it.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: deanwebb on March 21, 2018, 12:54:20 PM
^ :lol:

Cisco is certainly what I'm most familiar with, but I feel like Meraki will be overtaking it. I'm seeing more than one big firm discussing a shift to Meraki.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: Nerm on March 22, 2018, 07:58:56 PM
We are about 80% Meraki for wireless globally at this point. My Meraki feelings are very love/hate right now so just depends on which day you catch me on lol.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: deanwebb on March 22, 2018, 08:03:19 PM
Quote from: Nerm on March 22, 2018, 07:58:56 PM
We are about 80% Meraki for wireless globally at this point. My Meraki feelings are very love/hate right now so just depends on which day you catch me on lol.

Well... what do you love and what do you hate?
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: wintermute000 on March 22, 2018, 08:35:31 PM
40% Cisco 40% Aruba 20% Meraki
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: SimonV on March 23, 2018, 06:13:39 AM
100% Cisco at the last few jobs. It works very well and I like it.
At home I'm running Ruckus and also liking it. I kind of like the underdogs.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: Nerm on March 23, 2018, 02:39:36 PM
Quote from: deanwebb on March 22, 2018, 08:03:19 PM
Quote from: Nerm on March 22, 2018, 07:58:56 PM
We are about 80% Meraki for wireless globally at this point. My Meraki feelings are very love/hate right now so just depends on which day you catch me on lol.

Well... what do you love and what do you hate?

Honestly for wireless only it is a lot more love than hate. It is the non-wireless products like their firewalls and switches where most of my hate comes from. I should probably make a separate thread outlying my adventures and what I love/hate about the entire Meraki platform. That is if anyone is interested.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: deanwebb on March 23, 2018, 03:36:06 PM
Quote from: Nerm on March 23, 2018, 02:39:36 PM
Quote from: deanwebb on March 22, 2018, 08:03:19 PM
Quote from: Nerm on March 22, 2018, 07:58:56 PM
We are about 80% Meraki for wireless globally at this point. My Meraki feelings are very love/hate right now so just depends on which day you catch me on lol.

Well... what do you love and what do you hate?

Honestly for wireless only it is a lot more love than hate. It is the non-wireless products like their firewalls and switches where most of my hate comes from. I should probably make a separate thread outlying my adventures and what I love/hate about the entire Meraki platform. That is if anyone is interested.

Yes, please do!
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: Dieselboy on June 11, 2018, 05:56:44 AM
Meraki is good but too expensive for small medium business i feel. If you have a tough year and decide you're going to risk not having support, then unfortunately the meraki's no longer work whatsoever...

The Cisco mobility express stuff has come a long way but still very buggy.

I have a 2504 WLC which I am happy with but has also had its fair share of bugs. I'm running a somewhat old and specific version as it's stable.

I've made a note to make my own wireless deployment using free tools. It's low in the priority list so if I come up with something i'll post back.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: deanwebb on June 14, 2018, 10:46:46 AM
Quote from: Dieselboy on June 11, 2018, 05:56:44 AM
Meraki is good but too expensive for small medium business i feel. If you have a tough year and decide you're going to risk not having support, then unfortunately the meraki's no longer work whatsoever...

I've got some friends in the biz that have actually popped their Merakis out of support and got openwrt running on them. It works. :problem?:
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: LynK on June 19, 2018, 09:45:32 AM
100% cisco currently

I have used: aerohive, meraki, motorola, ubiquiti

For office space I would use aerohive/meraki. For anything else I would just stick with cisco, and maybe aruba.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: mmcgurty on June 19, 2018, 12:50:33 PM
100% Cisco at corporate locations and 100% at non-corporate locations.  However, non-corporate locations use Meraki gateways for wireless guest   Internet access.  We don't do Meraki wireless except for like 4 AP's in the entire company for very specific use cases.  From my perspective, Cisco wireless seems to occupy a large amount of admin time for upgrades, tweaks, and testing, etc. (I am not a wireless networking guy).  The Meraki hardware I installed and since installation it has been set it and forget it.   It is deployed in a very wireless unfriendly area (NYC).  The only time we ever had issues with it is when the hardware behind it was down and the local desktop support couldn't tell what was wrong.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: wintermute000 on June 23, 2018, 04:40:24 AM
yeah its getting to the point where its only the 'phone home over internet' and 'pay or it stops' factors that prevent Meraki from being used for 80% of scenarios (make that 95% if it just bog standard corporate + guest wireless in office) over traditional complicated cumbersome AireOS.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: deanwebb on June 25, 2018, 08:35:55 AM
Quote from: wintermute000 on June 23, 2018, 04:40:24 AM
yeah its getting to the point where its only the 'phone home over internet' and 'pay or it stops' factors that prevent Meraki from being used for 80% of scenarios (make that 95% if it just bog standard corporate + guest wireless in office) over traditional complicated cumbersome AireOS.

Companies do like the ability to keep their gear working, should there be a snag in the contract re-negotiation process.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: Dieselboy on July 15, 2018, 01:55:29 AM
I think it would be better for Meraki if they could keep the devices running after license expiry, and simply block access to change the configuration of the devices. An attempt to update the config would display a message and a account manager would be prompted to call them for a discussion.. That then gets over the whole "ooh if I dont pay then the world turns upside down" fear.

Or at least keep it working as a basic device. Example, firewalls dont get malware or anything fancy. Just simple routing and nat or something.

I just think that stranding a customer isn't good customer service.
Title: Re: Wireless Solutions
Post by: deanwebb on July 15, 2018, 06:56:53 PM
Quote from: Dieselboy on July 15, 2018, 01:55:29 AM
I think it would be better for Meraki if they could keep the devices running after license expiry, and simply block access to change the configuration of the devices. An attempt to update the config would display a message and a account manager would be prompted to call them for a discussion.. That then gets over the whole "ooh if I dont pay then the world turns upside down" fear.

Or at least keep it working as a basic device. Example, firewalls dont get malware or anything fancy. Just simple routing and nat or something.

I just think that stranding a customer isn't good customer service.

I agree.