ZD9.9 and 7962APs?

[martin_kane]

Any hope that 7962 APs will, one day, be compatible with version 9.9?

[paul_mancine]

Michael -

Thank you for your replies.

My main concern, however, is what does a customer, like us, do in this type of situation? It seems to be that we aren't being provided with any viable alternative from Ruckus or than "buy more and pitch the old ones".

I can understand the reasoning for why a certain model AP may be dropped from support. Technology moves on. However, when, as a customer, we've invested a LOT of money in Ruckus and implemented Ruckus in various other locations (we are Public School who does tech support for other area schools - thus, we've recommended and installed Ruckus at multiple districts), to be told that half our AP's will stop working if we upgrade to the latest release isn't acceptable. There should be some sort of 'upgrade' or migration path that we could follow to exchange no longer supported APs. At a very minimum, our current support contract should be credited back to us since it is now worthless (minus saving us shipping costs).

To add to our frustration - we are mixed AP environment. So, we currently have 50+ 7962 AP's and nearly 30 of the new R700 AP's. Thus, in our current situation, we can't upgrade our new AP's since it will break our 50 older models.

Anyhow, I have call into Ruckus and was suppose to hear back from a sales rep as far as options. I have yet to get that call. I am certainly hoping that Ruckus just doesn't think that a Public School (or anyone in that matter) should just have to upgrade 50+ AP's in order to have things upgraded and working. If so, then they should be crediting back all the worthless support contacts, like ours.

Any viable solutions would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Paul

[martin_kane]

+1 I'm afraid. Surely there is some way that our 7962s can happily remain transmitting and receiving their data, and we can upgrade our ZD and 7982s!? We prepaid 3 years of upgrades this year, so would be pleased to have some pathway from here...

[minh_long]

Paul and Martin,

Let me correct my earlier post.

Your APs won't just stop working altogether, you just won't get new features after 8/31/2014.

You still get software updates and maintenance releases for the 7962 until 8/31/2015.

Also, plenty of people keep their networks running on older releases.

ML

[martin_kane]

Is there some way to software-upgrade our 7982s and our Zone Director - neither of which have reached End-of-Life - and still have our 7962s function? Because, at the moment, if I upgrade the Zone Director I am threatened that my 7962s WILL stop working.

I'd be happy for the new features not to transmit to the 7962s, but all indications are that they will die if I upgrade the rest of the system to 9.9.

[michael_brado]

Hi Martin,

Your 7962s and 7982s can co-exist on ZoneFlex 9.8 release, with many new
features since the 7962s were introduced. But, to continue using both models,
you must stay on 9.8 versions of firmware. That is the AP hw limitation.

If your company has been waiting for new AP models, R500, R600, or T300 with
sector, narrow-band, or external antennas, which require 9.9 firmware, then you
need to consider a migration plan.

But like Minh stated above, 9.8 updates for 7962 will be available thru 8/31/15
at least. Keep in touch with your VAR or Ruckus account team.