[TriLUG] Wi-Fi Router Recommendation

[Aaron Joyner]

If you can afford it, use what the professionals use.  I recently
switched from a long series of Linksys, DLink, and Netgear consumer
devices which frustrated me at every turn, to a really beautiful and
seamless experience from Aruba.  Specifically, the IAP-93US, operating
in "virtual controller" mode.  I don't have the time to properly
elaborate on it this moment (hopefully I'll find time this evening),
but the capabilities of this little device are truly stunning.  Some
of the highlights:
- multiple networks, trunked out separately via 802.11q if you wish
- seamless roaming: Clients connect to a virtual MAC, which is
tunneled to which ever AP is the master "virtual controller", and can
appear to come from any of the radios.  Thus, when you walk from one
AP to the next, the client doesn't have to decide to "reconnect", the
APs can hand you off from one to the next seamlessly.
- zero configuration: plug in another AP to the network, the virtual
controller sees it, upgrades it to the latest firmware, reboots it,
and smooshes the current config on to it.  From then on, it can fully
participate in the mesh.
- apparently much more reliable hardware, and "master election"
amongst any available node for who's the "virtual controller" at any
moment
- the ability to purchase next-day-air-replacement service for relatively cheap
- the ability to DoS rogue SSIDs that appear on the network
- myriad other cool security-oriented features, including monitoring
- automatically spend a configurable percentage of their "radio time"
in "monitor" mode, where they survey the radio spectrum in use, and
pick the "best" (eg. least-interfered-with) channels.
- tons of other awesome features

They're a few hundred bucks a pop (about $300 a pop), but if you the
dough to spend, a large enough coverage area to warrant it, and want
good coverage everywhere... you can't really beat it as a solution.

Note: it does not include a built-in switch, you'll probably want to
pare it with a reasonable managed switch and I personally use a
separate solution (eg. a linux box) as a router, so it doesn't
precisely fit your original request.

Aaron S. Joyner


On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 3:25 PM, Igor Partola <igor at igorpartola.com> wrote:
> This question seems to come up quite often...
>
> I have been using a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH2 for about a year now. It is a
> powerful single-band router and for the money I think it's a good value.
> There are several negatives:
>
> 1. I had to compile the kernel modules for ip6tables myself, as they did
> not come with the compatible version of DD-WRT. I hear OpenWRT has much
> better support for this.
>
> 2. The antennae are not removable, so you can't get higher gain ones.
>
> One the plus side are things like lots of RAM, easy DD-WRT installation (it
> ships with a Buffalo version of DD-WRT), and a USB port usable for both
> storage and printing.
>
> I have been curious about the MIKROTIK routers for a while as well. It
> seems as though they have a much more polished but still very open OS.
>
> Igor
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