Any Meraki wireless experts out there?
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I have one of their AP's I got free from the Webinar and I plan on subscribing at the end of the term...other than that, don't know a lot...I do know my way around the control panel page...it is quite nice...
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I have a few on my team what do you have questions about?
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Is there a specific issue you're having?
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Nothing specific, no. Basically, I want to install wi-fi at work. I've had a quote from an IT supplier we occasionally use but they've messed me around and also, as Scott always says, never trust the advice of a reseller. My usual preferred IT supplier will sell me the units but doesn't normally get involved with Meraki, they're HP and Netgear only. So I'm just after general advice as I may be installing it myself. I'm off to bed now, but I'll post the full story in the morning if anyone is interested and would like to help me spec it up.
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Do you need wifi that you constantly have to pay for? Generally, I find to be a no in a SMB scenario. I like the flexibility if the gear, but I can get similar with Ubiquiti or others and not have reciting costs.
Now for some of their more advanced features they are a great choice in hotel and pay for access locations.
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I just think they look cool. I love the dashboard and everyone seems happy with them.
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Do you have multiple sites to take care of? Are you looking to minimize your involvement with wireless networking? Are you looking for more visibility into your wireless networks than just a list of clients? if so, Meraki may be for you.
How many users are you looking at?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I just think they look cool. I love the dashboard and everyone seems happy with them.
They are nice gear and the interface is slick. The price though, wow. It's moderately high to acquire and super high to keep. It's easily four or five times the cost of its primary competition.
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Meraki is especially good when you are integrating them top to bottom. You'll get better value if you are using Meraki System Manager (free), Meraki firewalls, Meraki switches, etc. All one interface for everything.
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@alexntg said:
Do you have multiple sites to take care of? Are you looking to minimize your involvement with wireless networking? Are you looking for more visibility into your wireless networks than just a list of clients? if so, Meraki may be for you.
How many users are you looking at?
Single site. Definitely looking to minimize my involvement. Not many concurrent users at all. We have around a dozen homeworkers who require wifi access for their laptops and phones when they come in to the office. Around half a dozen internal users who are mainly wired but will use their laptops and ipads in meetings. And we're planning on issuing iPods to around ten shopfloor workers for access to our ERP system.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Meraki is especially good when you are integrating them top to bottom. You'll get better value if you are using Meraki System Manager (free), Meraki firewalls, Meraki switches, etc. All one interface for everything.
All our mobile devices (laptops, phones, iPads) are managed using System Manager, which I love. That's part of the reasoning for going with Meraki - they deserve some money from me.
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@scottalanmiller said:
The price though, wow. It's moderately high to acquire and super high to keep. It's easily four or five times the cost of its primary competition.
Blimey! Are you sure? I've been quoted for a Netgear ProSafe Starter Kit and the price is only slightly lower than Meraki over a 3 year period. The subs for each Meraki AP is less than $100 per year.
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Our IT supplier did a survey, which involved placing a Netgear AP in a couple of locations and wandering around with a laptop running inSSIDer recording the results. Based on this, they quoted for 6 APs in the office and 4 in the factory, plus a couple of PoE Netgear switches as none of our existing switches are PoE. All MR18s. The total cost, including installation and 3 year subs was around $14k.
The office is around 12,000 sq ft over two floors, the factory is 45 sq ft on a single floor.
I've done my own survey, but I'm not sure how to interpret the results. I placed a single MR16 AP (the one they gave me for free) in the middle of the factory, about four feet off the ground. The signal varied between -36dBm nearby to -50dBm at the far end of the factory behind some racking filled with cardboard boxes. This was on 2.5GHz. At 5GHz the results were significantly worse, dropping below -60dBm on the edges of the factory.
The office performed much worse. I placed the unit upstairs. Directly below it downstairs I got -45 at 2.5GHz and -63 at 5GHz. At the far end of the office, behind a couple of walls, I got -76.
What kind of dBm should I be expecting to avoid problems? My initial thought is 10 units seems overkill?
I'm also not sure about the logic of replacing one of our existing 24 port switches with a new PoE one, when I could buy an 8 port one for peanuts and attach it to the existing one? Alternatively, has anyone used PoE Injectors instead?
Finally, as I mentioned above, I reached out to our preferred IT supplier who will supply Meraki through a distributor but I've been told that Meraki will only supply at reduced "bid" pricing if I have a conference call via webex with them. Is this normal? It seems a bit weird.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@scottalanmiller said:
The price though, wow. It's moderately high to acquire and super high to keep. It's easily four or five times the cost of its primary competition.
Blimey! Are you sure? I've been quoted for a Netgear ProSafe Starter Kit and the price is only slightly lower than Meraki over a 3 year period. The subs for each Meraki AP is less than $100 per year.
$100 per year is crazy! What price are you getting on Netgear ProSafe? Here it is cheaper to acquire and free after you buy it. I've never seen Prosafe come to a fraction of the Meraki costs.
But if you really want value, Ubiquiti is the obvious answer. Lower than ProSafe in price, higher in quality and performance. I switched from Prosafe to Ubiquiti for home and in most network recommendations.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Finally, as I mentioned above, I reached out to our preferred IT supplier who will supply Meraki through a distributor but I've been told that Meraki will only supply at reduced "bid" pricing if I have a conference call via webex with them. Is this normal? It seems a bit weird.
Everything with them is super weird.
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And don't look at three year pricing, you normally assume five to ten years on APs. The Merakis will continue to escalate in price while Prosafe and Ubiquiti remain free to own until they die.
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Let's go Meraki MR12 versus Ubiquiti's base model.
Base price:
Meraki $400
Ubiquiti $90Price for Five Years License:
Meraki: $450
Ubiquiti: FreeFull Price After Five Years:
Meraki: $850
Ubiquiti: $90That is nearly 1,000% more for the Meraki over just part of its lifespan!!
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Additionally, there is the UniFi AP Pro that has 5ghz as well as the new Model that support 802.11ac. The UniFi AP is not $90 either. A three pack box of them is $180 (I think) while I generally see the UAP (base model) for $70.
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@scottalanmiller said:
What price are you getting on Netgear ProSafe? Here it is cheaper to acquire and free after you buy it. I've never seen Prosafe come to a fraction of the Meraki costs.
http://www.uk.insight.com/en-gb/productinfo/wireless-networking/0003120178-00000001
Insight generally offer the lowest price here.@scottalanmiller said:
But if you really want value, Ubiquiti is the obvious answer. Lower than ProSafe in price, higher in quality and performance.
Sounds good. The big suppliers here in the UK don't appear to sell Ubiquiti. I'm not sure how popular it is here. I know nothing about them. How do you manage them? Do you not need any controller? Is the base model a similar spec and quality to an MR12?
@scottalanmiller said:
you normally assume five to ten years on APs
Ten years? Really? It seems to be that there's too much development in wireless to last ten years. I'm expecting much faster transfer rates in 5 years time, never mind 10.
Anyway, the purpose of my thread wasn't to ask 'should I buy Meraki or something else', it was to get help spec'ing out the correct Meraki solution.
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I'm going to get Netgear. You guys have killed my Meraki buzz
My questions are still applicable though.....
