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DoD is starting to pickup Aruba equipment.

I don't know if that's good or bad :-?

Roland

DOD are picking it up because when they ask for: IDS, Center control, easy and cheap AP's you get "Wireless Switches". They do all that is asked, just, not as well as if you go with like - Cisco 1200's and Roving planet from managment, IDS like Airmag or AirD.
As much as I will knok it. Aruba made it so that our DOD can get wireless!! That works! I'm just n the chrenches with the bugs in there system.

The future is looking good for all CWNP's!! Alot to do..

That is an excellent point. Aruba and Cisco have done a good job getting the certifications that open their products up to DoD.

It also should be noted that Cisco's controller is just as loaded (if not more loaded) with bugs as Aruba's is. Both companies have a lot of work to do before their controllers run as smoothly as standalone APs. You do pay a price for all of those added features.

Ben, which controllers to you favor? Just trying to get a sense on where most users are finding the ease of configuration and feature set to manage the WLAN. Your experience as a teacher has given you a chance to chat with various students from all the major WLAN vendors to make a fairly unbiased assessment.


Thanks

Hey Traversing_RF

Do you have any thoughts on Aruba 802.16 ? I'm just coming into this game and playing catch-up.

Roland

If you have thoughts on Aruba's 802.16, you should call Don LeBeau (Aruba CEO) because his company sure doesn't seem to have any plans on it.

As far as APs go, I like Proxim. They are relatively inexpensive compared to other enterprise vendors, they stay up with all of the latest security and QoS protocols and I've found them very easy to configure and manage. Plus, now you can get a software upgrade to mesh in case you need wireless backhaul.

Proxim does have a controller, but I have not used it. Among controllers, I'd say none of them that I have seen can match the reliability of standalone APs from Cisco, Proxim and Symbol. If you need an answer, I guess I'd say Aruba (only seen Extreme's old model, Symbol's old model, Aruba and Cisco). They have a few nice extra security features and their design of doing a WLAN overlay (no major changes to the existing LAN) is something that a lot of folks seem to find attractive.