What do y'all use?
We've been through Araknis, Engenius, Luxul, and Apple. I'm looking for something with Cisco, we do high end residential and I want to sell brands that have been around for 30+ years
Posted Feb 11, 2019, 8:23 PM UTC
ubiquiti ! Very easy to configure and understand.
WiFi ubiquiti. Routing cisco meraki Switching cisco or hp
Luxul and Ubiquiti
Luxul is absolute garbage and I can't understand why so many AV companies use it. If I have explainable issues with Crestron equipment, and there's a Luxul network, my first troubleshooting step is to have the tech swap out the network with something else, and the explainable issues usually go away.
They are the Bose of the networking work, better networking through marketing. Every distro is picking them up and most of the guys I see installing them are buying from distros only.
I have had the same experiences when them, random issues pop up than go away. Swap out the network with something decent (Cisco SG series seems to be our go to these days) and everything works fine.
Currently when we install a network, we use 1 brand for all components.
Also price really isn’t a problem, however ease of install and training (techs) is. Our clients just want it to work and be reliable no matter the cost. What I can’t afford is the time away from programming / designing to go setup every network we sell because it is too complicated for techs
What issues have you had/found with Araknis? I’ve yet to have any.
Bottle necking, random network glitches (things that take hours of trouble shooting before you try swapping out the switch), and at one point it did t play well with Sonos or Crestron (they had a firmware update to fix it, but I remember having to go to 30+ jobs to upload firmware). The bottle necking is literally being limited to 20-30 down, then removing the switch and replacing with Luxul, we got 200-250 down.
Basically the majority of things from Snap AV suck, the only thing we don’t have issues with it Luma. Wattbox units fail left and right (we’ve replaced 10 various wattbox pieces in 2019), The Binary HdMI extenders constant failures, and their video switch was garbage (had to be rebooted often).
Same experience with WattBox here, twice even (600 series then 700 series). Also, I can't stand Araknis, I've had them fail on me too often, the interface was trash (though it is a bit better now), and the real killer for me is that there's no out-of-band management so if I make a mistake configuring in the wrong order (or the web interface ignores some of my changes) then I have to wipe it and start over. We also had several PoE related issues. Also, just a pet peeve and not a real complaint, but the reset process on those is silly.
We gave up on them quickly and now use Ubiquiti for most residential and Extreme for super-extremely-high-end resi or commercial. We mainly like Ubiquiti for the excellent management interface. For routers, we use MikroTik.
Edit: Also, had no problems with the Cisco SG-300s other than the web interface being a little painful, but it has a CLI that, after getting used to, works just fine. But it's not identical to classic Catalyst/IOS switches so a bit of initial relearning is necessary.
Wow, we have very different results from snap. I have many snap routers/ switches deployed on projects - 0 issues.
Watt box - 0 issues and have
I even have their new MoIP systems out there working with no calls ( only been 3 months though)
Do you use all chassis-style Wattboxes? Like OP, we've replaced dozens in the last two or three months due to failure (one or both rows of outlets completely dead, even though web interface shows they are on). We've been led to believe that the chassis ones do not have this problem and that's it's only the split units that commit suicide. They've still lost all my trust (especially since this is not the first time this has happened! We had to replace almost every 600-series we sold, it was ridiculous, and now the 700s are doing it too...)
90% of our units are the wp-700-12 units that do come with rack ears the other 10% is the full rack unit of the same model. At my own home I have full araknis network, 2 APs, router, 24 port switch and a 24 port PoE switch. I have 4 vlans running and have yet to have any issues with the equipment. I have crestron, sonos, and many other WiFi devices, 4K cameras ect so the switches get hammered all day long ... my switches are the 300 series so they are the older ones at that.
Interesting! The WattBox failures seem pretty universal from all the dealers we've talked to so watch out for that, but the Araknis experience seems to be pretty polarizing. Some teams love them and never had a problem, others hate them and have nothing but problems. I think a lot of it depends on backgrounds too (did they go from D-Link to Araknis or Cisco to Araknis, are there dedicated networking guys or just A/V guys, that kind of thing). Not trying to start a war, I'm actually glad that we have experiences from both sides on this one :)
It’s weird, that’s for sure. Snap has always been good with service which is a plus. Cheers
For us, depending on the project needs, it usually goes between Cisco ASA Security Appliances/Catalyst Switches/WLC's + AP's. -OR- the Ubiquiti Unifi line. Most projects these days don't need enterprise level and management. Additionally, the cost differential between Cisco and Ubiquiti is enormous, and the feature set for Ubiquity has swung the pendulum mostly over to Ubiquity these days.
I wont use anything from Snap with a power cord. Luxul unfortunately has become the darling child of the AV world.We use Mikrotik for routing / firewall. Switching architecture is always Cisco SG Series or Ruckus. WAPs are Ruckus where budget fits. Unifi is OK for smaller installs, but definitely prefer Ruckus.
You mean for Backbone (Including WiFi?). The Ubiquiti Unifi equipment is nice, reliable, easy, cheap and easy to control remotely
+1 for Ubiquiti, we even use in in light commercial. If the client can afford it I go with Cisco's small business line. I've been through the sales pitch for Arakanis and Luxul and I'd tend towards them for residential I think, but we don't do much in that space so I haven't put that to the test yet.
Tricky with updates and glitches though. I have it in my home and have sold it a few times but it’s one of the things that keeps me from sleeping well at night. Meraki is similar in system management concept but is rock solid — and obviously three to four times the price.
While I agree Meraki is good, i've never experienced any of the problems you described with UNIFI. Has been rock solid for us.