Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Ex: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] neighbors 'jamming' 2.4GHz spectrum

I am not a lawyer nor a law enforcement officer so I encourage people to consult one for situations like this. That said, experience suggests to me that it would indeed be legal to prohibit the use of interfering devices on campus (network connected or not) by campus community members who are

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Android Rogue Hunting App

This is not a novel idea, but your torso attenuates enough signal to make a good "opposite" directional antenna. Hold the device close to your chest and do a slow 360. Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network Services askIT! Merrimack College 978-837-3532 rand.h...@merrimack.edu If I

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Android Rogue Hunting App

We've had great success with Wifi Analyzer . It has a great beeping "geiger counter" feature that scares kids as you're roaming the hallways :-) Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network Services askIT!

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Performance improvements from hallway to in-room

Random data point: we replaced 375 dorm APs this summer and 3 had tape over the LED Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network Services askIT! Merrimack College 978-837-3532 rand.h...@merrimack.edu If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and

Hotpots in the age of unlimited data plans

So, is anyone else getting killed by hotspot interference? Last year was so pleasant! Most clients moved to 5Ghz (away from interfering 2.4Ghz printers). Now interference is back in the form of iPhone hotspots. I bet 2-3% of the iPhones on our campus are hot. ...a bunch of Mrs. O'Leary's cows

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] 2.4GHz - educating end users about interference

My primary use for this would be to calm down the haters. I'd put it on the support website and when we can document an interference problem direct impacted parties to it. Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network Services askIT! Merrimack College 978-837-3532 rand.h...@merrimack.edu

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cloud managed infrastructure

Lee's is about as good an analysis as you can get: "Put another less cynical way, the cloud stuff works well when IT resources (or patience) are thin as it takes a few major headaches out of the equation. But there is no free lunch- the hidden costs of cloud managed is less features (this is good

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cisco LWAP Advice

+1 Meraki We just broke 700 APs and have had very few problems over 5 years--none of them show-stoppers. Lee's got it right, test drive everything. If you want knobs and reporting go somewhere else. If you want hands-off manageability look at Meraki. Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] AW: [WIRELESS-LAN] To provide (wireless) service, or not to provide (wireless) service...

Brian, All I'm seeing is a suggested solution--use cellular rather than 802.11. Have you been given a problem statement? That is, what problem is being solved by using cellular? Carrier X caught the ear of someone here a few years ago and we went through this exercise. Like you, I immediately

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Meraki Evaluation

I had more user connectivity complaints with the new system than we’d ever had with the old gear I might attribute that to band steering. Dual-band clients in older lightly covered areas will suffer. Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network Services askIT! Merrimack College

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Meraki Evaluation

. On Oct 27, 2014, at 2:47 PM, Hall, Rand ha...@merrimack.edu wrote: […] We recently blindly updated the firmware before school started and appear to be paying a price. That price is at least two-fold, APs regularly stop accepting connections until rebooted (not cool) and reverting to previous

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Meraki Evaluation

Jeremy, We've deployed 475+ APs over the last three years and been *very *happy until recently. The lack of transparency is becoming problematic. Non-firmware dependent (cloud) features often come and go without warning or documentation. Firmware release notes are unavailable. We recently blindly

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] HP Printers / WiFi Direct

+1 We have been absolutely plagued by interference this year. It's always been manageable in the past...but not this year. The proliferation of devices is mind-boggling. I have an idea that the only way to clean the air in the residences is to turn off the power. The stuff running off batteries,

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] 802.11AC Future Infrastructure

+1 This has been the case for us for years. 95%+ of our traffic is not local. Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network Services askIT! Merrimack College 978-837-3532 rand.h...@merrimack.edu If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Social media credentials for guest access?

Lee, We're on the same wavelength--I can see the allure for commercial applications. Higher ed uses will lean more toward attribution. We tried Facebook authentication for about 20 seconds before coming to the conclusion that our target population would be overly skeptical about what we might do

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] nice article Wireless LANs face huge scaling challenges

Pretty good sums up our challenges... Pretty much hits everything on the head that we are dealing with here too. It's pretty sobering to note that that article is more than five years old. Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network Services askIT! Merrimack College 978-837-3532

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Dual Band USB adapters

I suggested a USB adapter for the first time yesterday! An expensive alternative to asking your neighbor to turn off their bleating HP printer...but that was the option chosen. You might want to survey the area to verify your hypothesis. My guess would be that you have more 18 year old printers

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Reducing unnecessary interference...

Welcome to the Club, Jeff! Phase 1 of your initiation is complete. I think everyone in the room wants to know how to solve the interference education problem. For something so critical to their perception of happiness, you'd think students would pay attention to messaging related to fast

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Anyone tried Ubiquiti UniFi campus wifi?

If you're willing to consider Ubiquiti you should take a look at Cisco's Meraki stuff. You may be able to get some trade-in value for your old Cisco stuff to stay with Cisco. It might make replacing your whole wireless network within reach. We have a 450 AP Meraki installation that's great. We

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] [Off-Topic] Computer Labs

In a day when all students have a computer, we're still providing plenty of labs. Students want them because, we know the college computers will work when we need to write a paper. It's almost like they treat their PCs like disposable burners or something :-) Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Non-802.1x devices on wireless...

This is an excellent practice. Many of our people have no idea which network they are on and often wonder why the network is crappy. We see clients regularly using both our 802.1x and open networks. Just like other areas of life, one unprotected connection can haunt you for life ;-) Our penicillin

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Policy

Thanks for the reminder that we technically have no authority over the radio spectrum, even in our own campuses. The key word here is technically. This is (yet) another case where we should let the lawyers be the lawyers. Don't let the FCC spook you. Go talk to your general counsel. You have

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Distributed WiFi model - Thin vs Thick debate revisited

Yes, I think there's a mistaken impression about the Aerohives and Merakis out there. Some of it is FUD from the big iron vendors. Some of it is old-timers like me questioning the over-hyped magic cloud. The stuff works. Anyone looking to move off their current solution should take a look. It's

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Rogue device / client device location

We've been able to do a reasonably good job with Wifi Analyzerhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzerhl=enon an Android. Fire up the Signal meter and wander around. Once you narrow it down to your 4 rooms just stick your phone against each door. The doors leak more

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Meraki Wireless Access Points

Merrimack moved from Cisco to Meraki about 18 months ago. We have around 350 APs in our deployment and are very happy. You might need to do some manual channel management if the Merakis are going to be deployed in Cisco airspace. No big deal. Rand Rand P. Hall Director, Network Services

Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] wireless printers in dorms

This is our experience. Students are printing via USB and don't realize that wireless is enabled. Many students don't pay attention to our many communication efforts. To win the war for those who do, we dedicate bodies to hunt them down, do one-on-one education, offer to find/read the docs and

Don't do it! (was: What about WLAN in the Dorms? )

Philippe brings up some good points. We, however, aren't ready to bite the $350,000 bullet for a redundant system purely for convenience. We are starting to feel some pressure to do something, though. Like everyone else (I imagine), we get beat up for not having wireless in the dorms. We have a