SonicPoint vs. Ruckus

[drjones]

Client is a country club, several thousand square feet of area they want to cover with WiFi signal.
What are your thoughts & experiences on going with a Ruckus controller + Ruckus WAPs vs. SonicWall + SonicPoints?

Reliability, ease of management, etc?
Thanks

 

[HCHTech]

Nice opportunity. I would pick the solution that a) you are most comfortable with, and b) you have the most available support for. If you go the Sonicwall route and buy the support (which the client is paying for), then they will remote in and make it work if you get stuck. Something to think about. Don't forget to build in an annual service fee of your own for managing the setup - covers your time for installing the upgraded firmware when it comes due, etc.

 

[drjones]

Cool...I didn't know SonicWall offered support like that.
Here's the full situation;
I'm in the process of dissolving my relationship with the company I've been subcontracting jobs like this to and am looking to other vendors for projects like these. The company I've been using is a Ruckus partner.

WIth them, we've deployed Ruckus systems at some other pretty large facilities; controllers and 6+ WAPs, and I gotta say the setup is dead reliable. Just flawless. However I like the thought of the Sonicwall being an all-in-one solution; the firewall acts as a controller for the SonicPoints.

And yes, virtually all my clients are on some sort of MSP agreement but thanks for mentioning it.

 

[fencepost]

One thing I ran into with an inherited Ruckus - unless you have an active support agreement with them, you can't download updates past a fairly narrow window (3 months?). Also, if the equipment was installed by a partner, at the very least you'll have to jump through hoops to get any kind of agreement, because what they really want you to do is go back to the company that installed and was supporting the equipment.

Basically if you put the Ruckus in, expect Ruckus corporate to work hard to keep you involved with that subcontractor.

 

[drjones]

Is there a cost involved with becoming a Ruckus partner?

 

[dipper]

One thing I ran into with an inherited Ruckus - unless you have an active support agreement with them, you can't download updates past a fairly narrow window (3 months?). Also, if the equipment was installed by a partner, at the very least you'll have to jump through hoops to get any kind of agreement, because what they really want you to do is go back to the company that installed and was supporting the equipment.

Basically if you put the Ruckus in, expect Ruckus corporate to work hard to keep you involved with that subcontractor.

The trick is to become a partner and login using your partner ID - you can download update via that login. I did that at the end of last year. I had issues with a client with no support and downloaded the updates fine. I happened to ring Ruckus support with an issue and at first they were a bit confused with how I was downloading the updates!

 

[dipper]

Is there a cost involved with becoming a Ruckus partner?

No not here in Australia - I presume it is the same in other parts of the world!

 

[fencepost]

The trick is to become a partner

I'll take a look into what's required for that - there are some cases where their equipment might make sense, though I think I'd be inclined more towards more Ubiquiti equipment.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What are the clients needs? What is their budget?

I used to do Sonicwalls a while ago...they do have a good feature for super secure access....called "WiFiSec"...basically an IPSec VPN client just to join the wireless. Makes it super secure.
Good performance, stable, high price.

Honestly for a country club....(and what we actually do use at quite a few club clients of ours) you don't need that. I'd go for good performance at a good price. I can't speak for Ruckus....but for quite a few years we've gotten to be big fans of Ubiquiti. Great performance and features for an incredibly low price. You want hardware that gives you good flexibility for coverage...multiple buildings, point to points probably to create a CAN (campus area network),

 

[marley1]

i do bunch of country clubs.

i would be doing meraki or ruckus
just have 10 ruckus unleashed for installation

my country club clients are very high end, you want the true roaming.

Sonicwall will be okay if you are comfortale, i pulled a bunch out on a job, have 5-6 floating around if you want em

 

[drjones]

i do bunch of country clubs.

i would be doing meraki or ruckus
just have 10 ruckus unleashed for installation

my country club clients are very high end, you want the true roaming.

Sonicwall will be okay if you are comfortale, i pulled a bunch out on a job, have 5-6 floating around if you want em

Thanks for the offer. What model are they and why did you pull them out?

 

[TechSource]

What are the clients needs? What is their budget?

I used to do Sonicwalls a while ago...they do have a good feature for super secure access....called "WiFiSec"...basically an IPSec VPN client just to join the wireless. Makes it super secure.
Good performance, stable, high price.

Honestly for a country club....(and what we actually do use at quite a few club clients of ours) you don't need that. I'd go for good performance at a good price. I can't speak for Ruckus....but for quite a few years we've gotten to be big fans of Ubiquiti. Great performance and features for an incredibly low price. You want hardware that gives you good flexibility for coverage...multiple buildings, point to points probably to create a CAN (campus area network),

I agree with YeOld.. Ubiquiti is the way to go if they don't need high end security or that style. For this environment they may benefit from the guest portal that ubiquity has included with the unifi controller.

Sonicpoints have another issue they need to be on their own network or have a complicating VLAN setup since it sets the sonicpoints based on broadcasts.

 

[HCHTech]

have 5-6 floating around if you want em

If you sell any at all, you can often get credit for the old unit when you purchase a new one. You don't even need to send it back, you just give them the serial number and they put it on their blacklist so it can't be activated again, then give you a nice credit on the new purchase. Limitations apply (only certain units can be upgraded only certain timeframes apply) - it's something to look into before you 86 them.