Aruba Wireless Reviews

We're primarily using it for wireless users. It's actually to monitor use; we're using stand-alone wireless controllers in all our sites.

Before we used Aruba Wireless we had individual access points connected to our switches. We didn't actually have a centralized switch that could control all of our access points. Now, bringing the Aruba Wireless Controller into production, it's really giving us good visibility. All our access points are connected to one controller. Through that controller, we can actually handle each access point; we can disconnect or connect that access point, and then we can tell, or see, or allow how many users are, or should be, connected through that access point. These are the developments, or the functionalities, that wireless controllers provide for us.

The most important feature is all about the two wavelengths, the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz, and the access points which are connected to this wireless controller.

The perfect thing is that if we really want to know where a specific user is connected, it gives us the ability to see that and how that user is actually receiving. We can know the speed and their IP, their MAC address and, most of the time, how much bandwidth they're using per day. The wireless controller actually gives that functionality as well.

The other good thing is the dashboard. It tells us who is using most of the bandwidth, and how many APs are not in good range, or that do not actually have good security. It shows us which users are trying to hack or how many users are trying to use BitTorrent. So it gives us very good visibility into the user, so we know who we have or who we are providing internet or bandwidth for.

The speed could be better. I heard that Aruba is trying to shape the speed inside the wireless controller, but that has not been adopted yet. If they put some kind of mechanism inside the wireless controller for the speed such that, "Okay, this many users will have 20 by 20, 20 in the upload, 20 in the download. Just this many users. And this many users will have this type of speed or that type of speed." I think it would be very good if they actually bring that functionality inside the wireless controller.

I would also like to see stable firmware.

Every month Aruba has new firmware. I don't know if it's good or bad but it's not good in terms of production. We can't upgrade our firmware every month, especially an enterprise company, because if we upgrade our firmware based on the latest firmware that Aruba has, that firmware is not stable. They're not 100 percent sure about it.

My suggestion is, take your time, or invest in your knowledge. Bring on more engineers. Don't produce or broadcast firmware every month. Just have two or three firmware updates each year, and make them stable. Perfect. The way that Cisco does.

The amount of work that the controllers are handling is perfect. It's very good.

Tech support is pretty easy to work with, pretty fast. But when it comes to sending your logs to the Aruba guys, then it takes time. I had some crash logs the other day. I sent them and it took about three weeks for them to analyze the logs and then, in the end, they told me they really didn't know what was going on.

So the help desk, the first level of support is very good. But when it's going to the engineers to analyze logs, then it takes time.

The setup was a little bit complicated. It really depends on the person. If you really don't know and it's your first time that you are touching an Aruba device, then it takes a lot of time. You're not going to get it, if you have never actually touched an Aruba Wireless Controller. You have to have an experienced engineer with you to show you what to do: how to add an AP, how to proceed with all the other configurations. Once you have had your hands on it a couple of times, then it becomes easier.

It's not expensive. That is the reason we switched to Aruba.

Take the training at first and then implement it. Be sure to have full knowledge of your network, know how your network has been set up. And have a senior engineer or have one of the Aruba engineers so they can help you with the project that you have. Ask them how to actually implement Aruba into your network and they can advise you.

I give this solution a 10 out of 10. It's a new product, Aruba is somewhat new to the market but I think they are doing an excellent job. For a newbie type of product, it's not very easy to compete with the market, especially with the Cisco controller manager. But I think Aruba is on top, nowadays, in the market.

• Branch and campus access
• Guest and employee access
• Device onboarding and device access
• Guests are divided into groups. 

• Providing WiFi access to employees and guests.
• Traffic segregation
• WiFi roaming
• Digital branch 

• Superior WiFi access and RF management
• WiFi security via WiFi Firewall 
• Access control
• Integrations with other systems

• Needs integrated wired, which is not traditional HPE.
• The new 8400 failed at Lab, plus its integration with Aruba Central. 
• Needs a good enterprise story, including branches and campuses.

We use Aruba wireless APs to provide wireless services for a private high school campus which is located on a 60-acre campus in Rockford, IL, with an enrollment of nearly 900 students.

Increased productivity with mobile devices has improved by expanding wireless coverage throughout the building. While our building has been covered by the Aruba APs throughout the years, we are now replacing older APs to increase bandwidth to support an increase in the number of users with dedicated devices. Nowadays, the end-user devices require faster bandwidth from APs, and the newest APs obviously support faster standards and improved bandwidth connectivity.

We appreciate that the Instant models do not require a dedicated "controller" to manage the APs. This cost saving allowed us to purchase more APs in our initial order. We started out small and slowly added more APs as each annual budget allowed. We still have the possibility of adding a dedicated controller which affords us more options, but at this time we haven't needed it.

The web interface to manage the APs is intuitive and makes managing the system easy. 

Firmware updates are quick and do not require much downtime.

Customer service really needs to be improved. If the customer support was better, I would recommend it to others more than I do now. I say that even though we are upgrading to newer units this summer.

Stability of wireless services provided by the Aruba APs hasn't been an issue. If there have been any issues, they've been minor and have been resolved by firmware updates.

No issues with scalability. Scalability has been one of the easiest aspects of the Aruba Instant product line. As long as the models are compatible, you can simply connect it to your network and it will learn the settings from the other APs on the network and join the AP network. This is one of the best features of the Aruba Wireless Instant product line, besides the fact that you do not need a dedicated "controller."

The first level of technical support is frustrating, and I stated that technical support was the one area where Aruba Wireless needs improvement. Higher levels of support are better. Considering that you have to pay yearly for support, I expect a higher level of support. On a scale of one to 10, I'd give their first level of support a four. They have to improve.

We did for a very brief time, it was a consumer "off-the-shelf" product to get us by in strategic locations in our building. It was not intended to be a long-term deployment.

Initial setup was straightforward. We followed the very basic instructions (connect to the new WiFi network, then go to a website, make some simple changes, save, reboot, done); updated the firmware, and we were on our way.

Pricing is competitive. Licensing is needed to maintain access to the latest firmware, which wasn't made clear originally when we started with Arbua (or things changed, I'm not sure which). I would just say, make sure you budget for it. In addition to the licensing, you do get "support," for what its worth.

No, we received guidance from others in our community and stuck with Aruba.

We currently utilize the Aruba Instant 205 and older Instant 105 models. I would give both models a rating of an eight out of 10. We will be upgrading this summer to move our Instant 105 models out of circulation and will be implementing three new Aruba product lines.

Make sure you get the maintenance licensing, don't skimp on the models. If you can buy a more powerful unit, get the more powerful unit, it will be supported longer and offer a longer ROI.

Our primary product is the Aruba Instant IAP-205-US Wireless Network AP, JW213A. We have 16 locations. Currently, 12 locations have Aruba wireless APs.  Within the next 4-6 weeks, all locations will have Aruba wireless APs. All locations except our main location use Aruba Central. Cloud Central gives us one management console where we can configure the same wireless networks for all locations.

Many of the devices (laptops, tablets, phones, inventory devices) throughout our organization require wireless capability. Our Aruba configuration gives us the flexibility to be wireless, keeping the same three wireless networks at all locations.

With our Aruba configuration, we have a robust, rock-solid, enterprise wireless environment, that is literally maintenance free.

Overall, the wireless networks that we have configured are the most valuable.

We have three wireless networks: One for employee use, one for guest use, and one for our warehouse use, which uses MAC authentication. These wireless networks just simply work, they do not fail.

The IAP-205 devices are very strong with great range. Very durable equipment; it always works.

The Aruba Central cloud portal needs a lot of work. It is complicated to navigate.

We have used this product for over six years. We have transitioned from a physical controller (model 620) for wireless, to the "instant" (virtual) controller, eliminating the physical controller.

Overall, I would rate our experience with Aruba Wireless products an eight out of 10.

The product is very durable, does not go down or fail. It rates a 10. The Aruba Central cloud portal needs work. Compared to the Cisco Meraki dashboard portal, the Meraki dashboard portal is a nine out of 10, while the Aruba Central cloud portal is a five at best.

Aruba Wireless' network is the primary connection method used for connectivity to the university network. We use a master/local setup of controllers. On each of the three campuses we have two local controllers supporting the wireless network.

Wireless affords people the ability to stay connected. Mobility allows people the freedom to move about and not rely on being tied to an Ethernet cable only.

Cost reduction in wiring would be one valuable feature. Another would be the freedom of not being tethered to a cable. Mobility is a major plus. It takes a little time to learn and understand the tree and leaf hierarchy but is easy to manage once understood.

Sometimes you are not able to get an engineer on the phone on first call. There have been instances of waiting for a callback.

I would rate this product at nine out of 10. Aruba provides great service when a call is placed for assistance. One drawback for me is the language barrier. Sometimes it is a little difficult to understand the technician on the phone.

It is our primary wireless solution. We use a HA paired controller in our main DC. We use the 7200 model. We provide a corporate and guest SSID.

Its manageability of APs is the most valuable feature: ease of adding APs and the ability to configure the APs on the fly. 

Also, their support engineers are great to work with.

I believe it would benefit from more reporting, other than just a dashboard. It needs some type of report builder so you can have PDFs to show upper management what is going on in the wireless network.

We had a small Cisco wireless environment originally and to upgrade or expand that environment it would have been a very expensive purchase. Also, instead of one controller that does everything we needed it to do, it would have taken two to three other devices with Cisco to make it work.

Enterprise wireless for employees includes multiple wireless controllers, ClearPass Policy Manager, and wireless access points.

ClearPass is user friendly for managing the entire solution.

ClearPass is a unique product that contains multiple solutions like BYOD, Guest, NAC, AAA, UEBA, etc. There is also quick support from Aruba TAC.

Access point mounting options.

None. The product is very stable.

None. Never seen a scalability issue.

Excellent.

None. Aruba Wireless was the first and has remained til today.

You need training on configuration of Aruba products since it deals with a vast range of technology apart from wireless.

A recent change is that ClearPass licensing is superb. It counts user-based instead of device-based, for BYOD on-boarding.

Cisco.

Excellent support and stable product.

The primary use of this system was to provide the best possible WiFi experience for students, faculty, staff, and guests of our campus. We had 88 APs throughout 14 buildings on campus. During the academic year, we could have hundreds of users connected to the APs at any given time. 

Compared to what we previously used to have, this product has enabled us to have more devices connected to our WiFi network. 

The feature that I love the most is being able to broadcast different SSIDs with different protocol requirements. 

AP signal strength and price. I know this is a competitive market, but APs should not cost so much if they do not cover a large area. 

The system was very good, but we needed to upgrade in order to adapt for our needs, and doing so with Aruba would have been more expensive. 

No issues.

We used a network vendor to work with us whenever we had an issue, so they took care of everything for us. 

With our previous system, we had to delete users who had not connected to our WiFi for a period of time. With this system, we did not have to worry about that. 

We used Cisco and switched because of the price. In order for us to get what we needed from them, it would have been too costly. 

Initial setup was very straightforward. We set up the switches and APs, then took it from there. 

Besides paying for the APs, you need to pay a license each year for their use. Therefore, watch out for that and do the best you can to keep costs down.

I can't remember, but we probably did.

It is a great product if it has what you are looking for.