Here at Williams College, after months or re-evaluating the leading
unified wireless leaders, we decided to stay with Cisco's solution. At
the tail end of our decision, Cisco announced the 3500 series CleanAir
access points. After research and testing these units, we took the leap
of faith (not really, but moving from lwapp v.4x to capwap v.7x made me
nervous) and replaced all 820 lwapp 1000, 1242, 1252 and 1300 series ap,
with the 3500 series. There was much to consider interms of design, but
I would be delighted to talk offline. I can tell you this, we haven't
had a single complaint and have been thrilled with the decision. It's
been rock solid for us.
Todd Gould
Networks & Systems Administrator
Office for Information Technology
Williams College
Email:todd.m.go...@williams.edu <mailto:todd.m.go...@williams.edu>
Subject: Re: Any experiences with Cisco 3500-series CleanAir access
points?
From: "Voll, Toivo"
Reply-To: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:55:46 -0500
We switched over to the Cisco 3500 series from the 1142 series pretty
much as soon as they were available. The added cost vs. the ability to
troubleshoot wireless issues, especially in areas into which we can't
just physically go, such as residence halls, is well worth it. There
could definitely be WCS improvements in presenting the information and
logging it, but even so the new details on microwave ovens, cordless
phones etc. is very cool when someone calls and complains about wireless
being slow/down/spotty.
We have 321 3500s in service today and no problems (that we haven't seen
with the other models.)
Toivo Voll
Network Administrator
Information Technology Communications
University of South Florida
-----Original Message-----
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barron Hulver
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 14:18
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Any experiences with Cisco 3500-series CleanAir
access points?
Does anyone have any experiences with the Cisco 3500-series CleanAir
access points? We have a small project (about 40 access points) coming
up and I'm thinking about deploying these as a pilot instead of the
1142s that we would normally deploy. I've discussed this will one of my
people who handles our wireless deployments (Art Ripley) and he thinks
we should.
For background, we have most of the campus covered in wireless and a
couple of years ago we started deploying for performance instead of
coverage (more access points per square foot). We have nine Cisco WLCs
(a mix of 4404-100s and 5508s) and a mix of 1131 and 1142 access points.
We do not use WCS. Instead, we (Nathan Broome and I) have developed
our own wireless management software. This has worked well for us but
I'm wondering if I should move to an off-the-shelf package when
deploying the 3500s. Any thoughts on this?
I've arranged a meeting with our local Cisco sales office next week and
this will be one of the topics I want to discuss.
Thanks,
Barron
Barron Hulver
Director of Networking, Operations, and Systems
Center for Information Technology
Oberlin College
148 West College Street
Oberlin, OH 44074
440-775-8798
http://www2.oberlin.edu/staff/bhulver/
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