Alternative to Meraki APs

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Philj

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Can anyone suggest a good alternative to Meraki access points?

I have two MR26 APs at home (which are working fine) but their licences are due to expire soon. I don't really want to pay more cash to keep obsolete APs running. I'd much rather buy new hardware which don't need licences to work.

I've looked at Unifi but there always seem to be issues with the AP firmware - mainly users on the Unifi forum saying never to use the latest version etc.

I've also found the Cisco Small Business WAP571 which looks good for the price.

The main reason I use Meraki is because of the management portal and band steering - I think that's what it's called - where the AP has one SSID for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

Any help would be great.

Phil
 
In the affordable, centrally managed AP game you have 3 major players.

Ubiquiti UniFi
Open-Mesh
Mikrotik Routerboard (using capsman management)

Each have upsides and downsides. Research them each a little and you'll have questions for us. Explaining everything about them is a bit much for one post.

I would just like to say that I love my Open-Mesh setup, and it's not even the AC version they have out now.
 

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I have Ubiquiti at two customers of mine, and home, just setup and go, havent had any problems with them
 
I've used Ubiquiti APs for close to two dozen customers at this point as well as our office and my home and have had very few issues. I'd highly recommend them.

I don't love that Ubiquiti is a closed ecosystem and doesn't really have much in the way of API support, etc. (nor do their cameras conform to some standards but that's a different issue). That said, they still perform very well.

Get two AP AC Lite APs and call it a day.
 
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I have a few Ubiquiti AP AC Pros for wireless gear. I like them for the most part, I just don't trust their other hardware. I wouldn't call it "enterprise" either. They essentially have no support (in my experience) aside from their community forums. Just know what you're buying into.
 
+1 for Ubiquiti, I use an EdgeRouter and Unifi AP-pro in my house and love it. As long as you aren't doing anything crazy with configs (that you don't know how to do) it works great. Support is non-existent outside of the forums and community but it's pretty straight forward.
I did a home install a few weeks back with a USG, Ubiquiti Switch and 3 AP-Pro's and it was a dream, their software just keeps getting better.
 
JTKellyClark said:
I've used Ubiquiti APs for close to two dozen customers at this point as well as our office and my home and have had very few issues. I'd highly recommend them.

I don't love that Ubiquiti is a closed ecosystem and doesn't really have much in the way of API support, etc. (nor do their cameras conform to some standards but that's a different issue). That said, they still perform very well.

Get two AP AC Lite APs and call it a day.
Click to expand...

I agree with all of this. I hate that they don't follow standards, but there simply isn't anything else in the same price range that performs as well and has the same amount of features. I run Ruckus when it really matters, though.
 
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I have a Xclaim Xi2. It works beautifully and has an easy web interface with the current firmware. (They initially released it with just an interface using an app on an iphone or android phone, but it worked horribly, so they put in the web interface.)

https://www.amazon.com/Xclaim-Dual-...TF8&qid=1484930268&sr=8-1&keywords=xclaim+xi2

It is a bit pricier than the others, but it works very well and is built for small businesses.
 
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For all of the people that say there is no support for Ubiquiti.
I have used the chat feature in the Unifi Controller a few times and it was good. I got real people chatting with me, opened a ticket. I had a guy emailing me every few days to check on the progress of my issue.
I manage 2 unifi servers that I setup, one is on a cloudkey now after I migrated it. That one manages about 75 access points across 50 locations. The other one is at my office, on a Windows virtual machine and manages about 40 WAPs acroos 15-20 locations. I have had some issues with the Windows controller losing my config after an upgrade, and I had to copy the config from another C:\users\username\appdata folder to get it working again. I now make sure I backup the config before doing any maintenance. But it has been great. Some of these access points have been going for 5-6 years now with no complaints.
I have been hearing about open-mesh for a while, and will eventually get some setup for testing.
 
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+1 for Ubiquiti, i run 4 locations with WAP's without any problems.
 
Another vote for Ubiquiti. Haven't used anything that can touch them in the price/performance arena, and now that their feature set is gaining ground quickly, it's a no brainer.
 
scottatwittenberg said:
For all of the people that say there is no support for Ubiquiti.
I have used the chat feature in the Unifi Controller a few times and it was good. I got real people chatting with me, opened a ticket. I had a guy emailing me every few days to check on the progress of my issue.
I manage 2 unifi servers that I setup, one is on a cloudkey now after I migrated it. That one manages about 75 access points across 50 locations. The other one is at my office, on a Windows virtual machine and manages about 40 WAPs acroos 15-20 locations. I have had some issues with the Windows controller losing my config after an upgrade, and I had to copy the config from another C:\users\username\appdata folder to get it working again. I now make sure I backup the config before doing any maintenance. But it has been great. Some of these access points have been going for 5-6 years now with no complaints.
I have been hearing about open-mesh for a while, and will eventually get some setup for testing.
Click to expand...

i run my controller at work for about 20 locations, 60 or so APs with nary an issue... i have mine on an ubuntu server VM... 1GB ram and 30GB vhd and it couldn't be happier, uptimes probably in the years if it weren't for patching and upgrades...

much prefer it on linux over windows...
 
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