Any cheaper wireless solution?

alexwong26 · ‎08-06-2007

Hi all,

I have to provide a cisco solution to my customers with the following requirements for the controller/Wireless Switches,

1/ 2FastE to Catalyst2950 backbone, at least 6 POE ports

2/ support at least 12 managed access points (4AP in 1st Floor; 6AP in other floor)

3/ provide various authentication methods Web Portal, VPN, MAC filtering, external LDAP service and 802.1X to the users.

4/ relay DHCP request to server; use the same IP subnet or VLAN for wireless and wired users.

5/ A managment software must be included.

My solution is quite expensive

AP : Cisco Airnet 1130AG

Controller : 4402 (with an 24 port POE switch)

software: Wireless Control System V1.0 with Server 2003 license.

I am sure there is a cheaper solution, please advice.

ericgarnel · ‎08-06-2007

You can combine the controller & switch with the

3750 that has both; search for WS-C3750G-24WS on cisco.com. It supports up to 25 APs & as 24 10/100/1000 PoE ports+2 1Gb sfp slots. The controller can provide options #3 & # 4 on the controller itself.

The WCS is not 100% necessary for operations. It does provide the ability to manage multiple controllers and template configs & location services (with the loc appliance). You can manage the wifi network just fine with just the controller.

The wireless & wired can be on the same subnet/vlan if desired, although I've never tried the auth on the controller for wired side. wired side traffic is not coming thru an lwapp connection as is the traffic from the AP.

alexwong26 · ‎08-06-2007

Thanks Eric,

Indeed, the customer have required that the system will have GUI for system administrator to centralise manage all AP and switches. You are right WCS is not 100% necessary in this case, but I have no idea what to recommend.

In addition, the system required to have fail-over feature between wireless switch controllers; that is --- once the primary/active wireless switch controller is failed, the managed access points atttached to it shall re-register themselves to a backup controller automatically. I was wondering whether I should recommend two 3750G to him or not.

Headache, but you eased my pains. :)

Alex

ericgarnel · ‎08-07-2007

You could use either a 4402 or the same 3750 as mentioned in my earlier post for the failover.

The 3750 is a nice switch that has a lot to offer: layer 3 svcs,stackable,PoE,Gb ports,SFP module expansion. If I did not have a bunch of 4402 controllers already, I would have gone with the 3750+WLC.

goldtechcco · ‎08-08-2007

Hi,friends.

see you question about"provide various authentication methods Web Portal, VPN, MAC filtering, external LDAP service and 802.1X to the users".what is the web portal about wireless authentication methods.can say more about it.

now ,your customers is very like our company,but we haven't WCS.

dennischolmes · ‎08-09-2007

Alex,

Try using the 4402-12 which is much cheaper. You could also use the 500 series controller or the 2106 controller. Both of these offer much more affordable costs per AP. The 500 series is not managed by WCS but by the Cisco Configuration Assistant. If using WCS and a 2106 or 4400 series please make sure to update your code on the controller to at least 4.0 code and WCS to 4.0 or better.

andre_mixed · ‎08-11-2007

Try using Linksys Products... They are part of Cisco anyway... Their products aren't as expensive as Cisco products because they were designed to work in SOHO environments... Tech support (whenever its not indian) from Linksys is excellent.