Do I need a zone director?

[jason_sparrow]

Hi all,

I am just about to install 2 X r600 aps in my house and was wondering if I needed to buy a done director console to fine tune the aps?

They will be used in a soho environment, however I would like to ensure roaming etc is fine tuned and I can get the best out of them.

If so, would I be able to use a single licence version as this is quite cheap?

http://www.wifigear.co.uk/ruckus-zone...

Would I need to renew the licence each year?

I'm new to the ruckus fold and so I have no clue as to what I need.

Thanks in advance.

[neil_neil_67001]

Sean - hence me proposing you open a new thread so we can discuss the merits...

[seanmuir]

Hi Neil,

I'm not here to open threads for discussion, so i am sorry I wont be doing that, but feel free yourself, I may even comment 🙂

What you should look at is whether or not the person that has opened the thread is happy with the responses he gets from the forum, and I think the factor that he has liked my comment adds some weight to that fact.

One thing I would recommend is that you think about the people in this forum, and not appear to play down what people say unless what they are saying is incorrect.

This forum is about giving advice, it is then up to the person who opened the thread whether or not they watt to take that advice.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink 🙂

[jason_sparrow]

Sorry guys, i didnt mean for things to get heated!!

I fully understand and fully appreciate everyones input.

I am also aware that I am 'playing with the big boys', and that my questions and sheer ignorance on this particular subject/product may come across the wrong way, but, after a few years of consumer grade, and a few weeks of a supposed 'enterprise' product, i felt that i had to do something (particularly as with the last upgrade, it went from bad to worse and i got into trouble with a few of my family!)

At this point in time, a ZD is out of my reach, whatever i like to think, and the reason for my asking was to see if i needed to put some money aside when available, to purchase one.

Admittedly, maybe i should have waited a few days to use the system first, but i was so pleased with the instant results i got, i maybe thought there was a need for a ZD for total control etc.

I mistakenly looked at a one year licence, rather than the product, so one i saw the price, it was at that point i thought maybe i dont really need one just yet, if at all.

So, with that in mind, i thank everyone for their help and ideas, as without them i would not have got this far!

Jason.

[john_d]

Jason, you've been asking great questions. Not long ago, I was in a really similar position, getting tired of hacking together my own home wifi network from various equipment considered "enterprise" or  "business grade" yet still caused weekly wifi related headaches.

When I got my Ruckus equipment, I too had to come to the realization that it doesn't actually take hours of tweaking anymore for these solid AP's to cover a house. I asked a lot of questions, read a lot of articles, and came up with this huge list of tweaks to try (from blacklisting channels to SmartRoam and even beyond). One day I just decided to try the default settings after upgrading a firmware, and found that -- hey! They seem to work just as well!

It sounds like your setup is currently working well for you. I wouldn't change anything for now. Us consumers don't have infinite wifi budgets -- you're much much better off saving the money you'd put towards a ZD and waiting for the next major thing to happen in wifi technology (for example, you decide to get a R710 for Wave 2 AC once you have some clients that support it)

I think we're all on the same page in that your setup does not require (and barely benefits from, for that matter) a ZoneDirector.

[jason_sparrow]

Thank you John.

In my mind, I think some of the original questions stemmed from the huge headaches i had from setting up the previous products.

I was expecting that i needed to do the same with the 600's, and I certainly did not realise that they would work pretty much straight from the box once i had set up the wifi networks.

Its taken me longer to make good the other AP holes and repaint!