Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Reviews

I use it both at my home office, and we just installed it for one of our clients with about 11 different units in their building. We have been pretty impressed with it.

It has improved our organization immensely. We were using:

1. Not enough access points at one of my clients. They did not have enough.
2. They were using Ubiquiti, which was getting overloaded with traffic. Therefore, it has been a big speed improvement, as well as in coverage.

I find it very easy to manage because of the cloud management, so I can update all my buildings at once and see all of my clients from one spot. That is probably one of my favorite features, as well as it has good security with its Layer 7 protections. It has a lot of overall functionality.

At this price point, I would not mind seeing a four-way channel, instead of a 3x3 or a 4x4, like they do in the Cisco Aironet system with their other brand. For the same price point in this other Cisco brand, it is a lot cheaper, and you can get a slightly better throughput than you can with these. It does not have the cloud-base. This would be something that I would like to see, and they do have it in their bigger units, just not at the price point we were at for the MR 42s.

So far, there have not been any issues. 

The only ones that we did have were with some wiring in the building. 

The products were fine. The only time they have gone down is when they first had to do firmware updates. It has only been three weeks, but so far, they have worked very well.

I have not had any issues with scalability. If we need any more, it is literally just plug and play. It will immediately go in the network, because it is cloud-based. Everything from the network is on the cloud, so it just pushes right into the new device.

I have not yet talked to technical support. 

I talk to our rep if I have any questions because I have a direct Cisco rep.

We had Ubiquiti UniFi and the standard APs. They were not the ACs; they were the standard APs. Their coverage was always rough. We had a lot of dropouts due to speed issues, and this particular client of mine was putting in a new system in their building, and we knew this was going to push the WiFi really hard. Therefore, we knew we would have to upgrade it when we put the system in.

It was very straightforward. I did all the setup on it.

If you are wondering if Meraki can work for you, contact one of their representatives because they will do onsite trials where you can set up their system. If it does not work, you can send it back to them for no charge.

We were looking at improving the system that we currently had with Ubiquiti. We also did consider Ruckus and Cisco (the standard Cisco units). 

The reason I went with Meraki was mainly for its ease of setup and control of multiple locations, which this client has. It will allow me to integrate another system very quickly, as we continue expanding for them. Being an offsite vendor, and having remote access into it, the simplicity of that made a big difference in choosing their system.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: The device needs to hold up to what they are telling me it can do. I want to see good throughput from it, as well as that it has security and protection. 

Usability is a big one. How simple it is, easy it is to set up, use, and for the client to understand. Finally, it would be the technical support. They have to have a good technical support base.

I haven't deployed it for myself. I have deployed it for customers. I work for a systems integrator.

We use it for Branch-type of installations where you have a small branch. You just need to manage it via the internet. You don't need a controller-type of environment there, for a small office-type of deployment.

It's a cheaper resource that helps manage a company's WiFi network.

The solution's ease of use is great.

The ease of management has been great.

The initial setup is easy.

The product has been very stable over the years. 

Technical support is okay.

The pricing is reasonable. 

Meraki is still very much a small office type of solution. It is not a fit for large enterprise networks, as it doesn't have tunneling functionalities. 

If you are configuring Meraki as a RADIUS client, you have to add individual 100 or whatever devices on the site as a RADIUS client. There is no RADIUS proxy option. Therefore, it is pretty much still a good use case for small networks, however, it's not a great use case for larger networks. 

The product needs to offer role-based access. 

I've been using the solution for more than ten years now. It's been a decade or so. I have quite a bit of experience with it.

The solution is very stable. As long as your internet links are stable, Meraki works perfectly fine. There are no bugs or glitches. it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

Meraki is not a very scalable solution. It has its own limitations on the number of devices you can deploy. I would say it's not a very scalable solution.

I've contacted technical support a couple of times. They were okay. I didn't have any issues with them; they are fine.

I've used Cisco EROs, Cisco Meraki, Catalyst 9800, Aruba, and Instant Aruba, controller-based.

The initial setup is not complex or difficult. It's very straightforward. 

The pricing is okay. However, they don't have a perpetual license option. Regardless of what type of functionality a customer is looking for, they have to go for subscription-based licensing.

I'm a Cisco partner.

Meraki is a public cloud. With Meraki, you don't have a private cloud solution.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

We are a Cisco reseller and the Meraki Wireless LAN is one of the products that we provide to our clients.

From a security perspective, this product has several advantages.

The user interface needs to be improved.

We would like to see the DNS Proxy and some additional security enhancements in the future.

We were using Cisco Wireless and are now migrating to Cisco Meraki.

Having a good price is important when we are providing quotations for projects.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We provide use cases for hospital systems and enterprise solutions where customers connect to Wi-Fi for office purposes. We also provide guest solutions.

The single dashboard of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is the most valuable feature for me.

In terms of improvement, the time taken to update to the cloud can be made better. There is a small delay, so if there is a way to make it real-time, exactly like a real-time update, that would be the best option. Log monitoring and log view features can also be improved upon.

I have been using this solution for more than eight years. 

It is not a very stable solution.

It is a super scalable solution. There are no limitations to the number of devices you can add.

The customer service team is awesome. Each time we call, we're connected with a new engineer who can quickly assess our issue and provide helpful guidance. However, Meraki should follow Cisco's approach, which would be more helpful for us.

Neutral

I would rate my experience a seven out of ten. It was easy.

It's a must-try, completely cloud-managed solution. It can be used for non-critical environments.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We use this solution to provide wireless connectivity.

The interface makes it easy to manage.

The price of Meraki Wireless should be reduced to make it more affordable.

When we are using SSID roaming, it is not flexible in terms of which AP it connects to. It will not switch to the closet one, but rather, it will maintain a connection with the first one that it had connected to. This has a negative effect on signal quality because as we move around the building and the signal from the original access point gets weaker, it remains connected to it.

We have been using the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN for more than one year.

The stability is good.

Scaling has not been an issue.

We have been in contact with technical support and they have made suggestions to deal with problems that we have had.

The pricing is based on a subscription and is a bit high at the moment.

I am currently searching for solutions that perform similarly to Cisco Meraki, but are most cost-effective. If in the future, the price of Meraki remains as high, then we will be choosing another product.

In summary, I find that this is a really good product and I recommend it. However, improvements with the cost and signal roaming would make it better.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

I'm an Associate Engineer and as part of my work is that I look after a number of companies where I recommend and install different network equipment. Anything from the SonicWall networks, Fortinet, you name it, depending on what the client requirements are. I would prefer high-end and that could mean Ubiquiti, Mojo, and Cisco. In terms of the version I would choose, it really depends on the client's requirements. We deal with small, medium and enterprise size companies. 

From an organizational perspective, Meraki has made a difference because it's simple to manage with High level of detail and troubleshooting access, when there's a problem. 

The most valuable feature would have to be the cloud management with high level of detail and ability to be able to use all the information to troubleshoot issues remotely before having someone onsite.

The product is fine as it is. Having been in the IT industry for nearly 20 years, there's nothing that jumps out at me. The product is improving all the time. It could be slightly cheaper but it's fine. It's actually a very good product. 

I've been working with Cisco for 10 years. Meraki is more recent, maybe three or four years.

The product is very stable. 

It's not exactly the cheapest solution in terms of scalability, but it's very good. A lot of my clients have to look at other alternatives because of the cost and it's likely that in the end, they take Mojo even though I don't like that product as much. If I were going to choose an alternative to Cisco it would be Ubiquiti but it all comes down to cost.

Cisco provide good support and there have been times when we've needed it. 

We can deploy on-premises or on the cloud, but it's usually cloud. The amount of time it takes to deploy is really dependent on the client and the size of the company. 

I would suggest that sometimes it might be better to spend more money on better equipment that will perform a lot better, so if you have the funds go for it, but if not, then you have to work within your budget. 

I would rate this product a seven out of 10. 

We use it for wireless and our network. All our switches and our APs are Meraki.

We are using its latest version. The device is on-prem, but everything is on the cloud. Meraki has its own cloud.

It is easy to set up. You can do everything on the GUI. You don't need to trace cables. You don't need to connect to the switch. Everything is there, right in front of you.

They're great. If there's anything that they need to change, it is just simplifying the site to which you go to make changes on the admin side.

I have been using this solution for five years.

It is very stable.

I can add or remove without any issues. So, scalability is no issue. It is being extensively used in the organization at the moment.

I have never contacted their support. It has always been great.

We used to have just the plain Cisco, and we just switched to Meraki. We switched because in the past, for you to trace or change VLANs and all that, you actually needed to log into the actual switch and make the changes there. You had to run a lot of commands and all that, but with Meraki, you could just go to their portal and make the changes there. Everything is kind of right in front of you. So, it makes things so much easier.

It is easy to set up. It took weeks because we had to install it, but the setup itself only took an hour or two.

It was done in-house. In terms of maintenance, it is very lightweight. I'm the admin for it. We do have other IT staff, but they don't really have to do much.

I would advise others to go and get it now. If you don't have it, get it.

I would rate it a nine out of 10 for the ease of use.

With Cisco Meraki, I've tried motherboard, switches, and wireless, and everything is good. If you want to complete visibility, then you are required just a firewall and switches, and wireless. 

The solution offers good features and good performance. It's quite stable. We have never faced challenges just from our ID access point.

You can scale the solution easily.

The problem with the solution is that if you go for firewall, then there is no SSL encryption available. If you are talking about deep packet inspection, that is not available. If you want SSL encryption, then you have to integrate with Cisco Umbrella. 

If they could work on the Meraki firewall hardware, and add SSL decryption as well as more application control and deep packet inspection, that would be ideal. 

Also in Cisco Meraki access points, MAC filtering is not available. If they could add that feature, that would be great.

I've been using the solution for two or three years at this point. It's been a while. 

The stability is very good. There are no bugs. There are no glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

This is a cloud-based product and the best thing about a cloud-based product is if you have a cloud controller and access point, then you don't have to worry about that key for licenses. If you've got 70 access points, you can register there. If you have 1,000 and 2,0000, you can also register there. There is no need to change any controller hardware as that is a cloud-based product, which makes it fully scalable. You can add to it and still maintain a single point of management. 

This is a pure cloud-based solution and everything is managed by the cloud.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.