Cisco Wireless WAN Reviews

We primarily use the solution for wireless connectivity for corporate. 

The solution has improved the customer experience, which has helped improve the organization. Customers can access the corporate network with ease and get the resources they need even if they are moving around the office. They easily connect to the WiFi without issue.

The SSID feature is quite good. 

It runs well, without issue.

Users can easily move around the office and stay connected. 

The solution is stable. It offers good performance. 

We can scale the product.

Cisco has a very good reputation and offers pretty good pricing. 

We would like to see additional data and security. We'd like to see them maintain integration between SD-WAN and Cisco ISE and for them to improve the security factor for the customer.

It can be complex to set up. 

They need to build a more comprehensive solution around the WLAN controller. 

I've been using the solution for more than ten years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

It's easily scalable. That's not a problem at all. 

Technical support is okay. They can solve issues, however, the response time can be long. 

Neutral

The initial setup is complex. You need to have a high skill set when dealing with Cisco. It's not meant to be done by non-technical users. 

The product does not require a lot of maintenance. It's very minimal.

While I can't remember the exact pricing, it's not overly expensive. 

We are a partner with Cisco for networking and security.

I'm working with the latest version of the solution. 

Cisco maintains a good relationship with its customers. They have a very good reputation on the market.

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We just deliver wireless coverage, general and specific, for auditoriums and stuff like that.

The most valuable aspect of the solution is its fast transition.

It’s a stable solution.

The product is scalable.

The implementations are easy.

There’s an easy onboarding process for non-native users.

When you have a question related to support, getting direct or faster access to someone technical would be ideal.

The pricing is a bit high.

I’ve used the solution for about 15 years.

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn’t crash or freeze. It’s reliable.

The product can scale quite well.

Perhaps we made the right decision as we knew beforehand how much we needed to use through bandwidth, number of users, and number of VPs. We did our homework. We knew which product type/model we had to buy and deploy. That ensures that scaling is easy.

We might have 2,000 to 3,000 users on the solution, depending on the day. They are mostly students.

We likely will expand usage. We're running the next wave of installing extra eight pieces for delivering more coverage, and in a way also more bandwidth or throughput.

Technical support should be faster and more accessible.

I've also used, for example, Aruba.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It’s not difficult to set up.

I’d rate the solution a two out of five in terms of ease of use with one being the easiest and five being difficult.

The first setup was done in-house. And over the years we had some external consultancy, however, the main setup was done in-house.

The licensing costs are a bit on the high side.

I’d rate the solution a 3.5 out of five in terms of how expensive it is, with five being the most expensive. The licensing of Cisco is pretty high, especially in comparison to other options, such as Aruba.

I’d advise those considering the solution to go onto the internet and find as much documentation about the solution as you can.

I’d rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use for the solution is providing internet access points for our customers, we are a Wi-Fi management service.

The network management is good. We use it to control access, channels, and phones and limit bandwidth.

They can provide more user-friendly control. It would be good to see an easier to manage common control line. An improved web UI could allow everything to be controlled from the website. 

I hope Cisco can improve the capacity to service a high density of users in a small area, as currently we have difficulties with this.

I've been using the solution for over five years. 

The solution is very stable. 

We have an access point that provides service for 20 to 25,000 customers, and we use ten staff for deployment and maintenance. 

We have local Cisco-authorized support here in Indonesia, and I would rate them an eight out of ten. 

Positive

We found the initial setup to be complex, sometimes we have difficulty providing wireless internet access, as it can be difficult to choose an access point that can handle a high density of users. 

We can complete a setup in one or two days for a building, but sometimes we have to implement an outdoor access point, which can take longer.  

I would rate the solution four out of five in terms of ROI.

I don't know the exact cost as I'm only on the technical side, but I do know this solution is very expensive. With one being the most expensive and five being affordable, I would give Cisco a two out of five. 

We have to pay for upgrades and for customer service. 

I rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

Cisco provides a good product, the stability and reliability are there but it's very expensive. Competitors deliver solutions that are more affordable and almost as good. 

We use Cisco Wireless WAN 9115s and 9130s. Two are controllers, and the rest, subordinates.

Cisco wireless is stable, easy to use, and simple to configure. They have an outstanding GUI.

You cannot go to different versions or different access points. 9115s cannot interact with 9120s, and 9130s can interact with 9115s. You can add or remove as many subordinates as you want. It's not an issue. It's completely logical.

Cisco support is fantastic. They're knowledgeable and responsive.

Setting up Cisco Wireless is extremely easy. I'm doing one right now, and it usually takes between 15 and 20 minutes.

I rate Cisco Wireless WAN nine out of 10. You need to read the documentation carefully when implementing it because you have to go through a step-by-step configuration. Upgrading can be done in two ways: HTTP from the desktop or TFTP. HTTP is extremely easy. You connect with a console cable and do it.

Most of my customers are demanding a wireless connectivity that seamless and  great mobility for their users. Because modern workplace now requires great collaboration and great collaboration comes from great mobility.

Cisco Wireless LAN has improved a lot of my customers organization. The best part of using wireless solution is the mobility, where my customers can work together like anywhere and anytime. They way they are working also changing after using wireless solution.

Cisco Wireless Solution comes with WiFi 6 capability that provide higher bandwidth and less usage of battery for endpoint. The visibility on the solution also comes in place when it is integrated with Cisco DNA Center. Day 2 operation is much easier because the solution provide wider visibility and analytics.

Apart from the features and benefits that Cisco Wireless LAN Solution has been given, some areas are still need to be improved. For example on part of onboarding the AP. For customer who has old version WLC (AireOS version) and want to migrate their AP to new WLC (IOS XE version) sometime requires extra effort because of DTLS certificate issue or no valid ap manager. 

Working on Cisco Gold Partner as Systems Engineer give me more than 6 years already in delivering Cisco Wireless LAN Solution. From the era of Aironet untill now becoming era of Catalyst Wireless.

Cisco Wireless LAN Solution is stable if you choose the recommended version of firmware.

Cisco Wireless LAN scalability is good. The smallest of WLC can handle up to 250 APs and the highest WLC can handle up to 6000 APs.

Cisco TAC is helpful when assisting us during troubleshooting the issue, one thing that can be improved also from Cisco Wireless Solution is to auto capture the logs and everything that need to be analyzed during troubleshooting for particular user since troubleshooting wireless need to analyze on live session.

Positive

The initial setup is less complex than it used to be and has definitely improved. There's still a way to go. Depending on the customer, deployment can take from two weeks to three months.

We implement the solutions with our implementation team.

Licensing on Cisco Wireless Solution comes in 3 types of subscriptions, DNA Essential, DNA Advantage and DNA Premier. Those 3 types licensing actually has a component which perpetual based. But at first time of buying the solution, Cisco enforced the customers to buy initial license that come with minimum of 3 years subscriptions. After 3 years passed, customer can still use the network even the license is not being renewed because there is a part on the license that perpetual. Digging deeper on to the part of subscriptions license, actually most of the features are can only use if the customer has DNA Center. So if the customer doesn't have DNA Center then mostly those features is unable to use.

Cisco Wireless LAN solutions is good enough to deliver the wireless experience for my customers, but sometimes we need to adjust or tune the configuration before get the best experience. Since Cisco is already has AI capability, I hope that in the future, the configuration will be adjusted with the baseline of customer environment. Suppose that there is learning curve process for 1 week, after that the solution will provide a report that configuration need to be fixed according to the customer environment and according to Cisco Best Practice. This report need to be evaluated by IT Admin and if it is approved, then schedule a downtime in the out of office hour for implementing the configuration.

We use Cisco Wireless WAN for our internal and guests users. We have recently migrated to the newest version of the solution.

The Cisco solution is good, the new GUI looks good and we are seeing more telemetry from it.

The new platform of Cisco Wireless WAN I did not like, there weren't many features available. The online platform has more options.

We found ourselves needing to integrate Cisco Wireless WAN with another Cisco product, called Cisco DNA, to try and receive more assurance on the data. It's another piece of hardware that you're putting onto your network. It could have been a cloud solution. Before Cisco, we used to have Cisco Prime which used to give us more in-depth analytics, such as heat maps of someone complaining about wireless access in a specific area. You could drill down into that, but you don't receive that information from the Cisco controller. We will receive the information if we implemented the DNAC solution, but it is another solution that we're implementing from Cisco. A competitor could probably do it in a better way reducing the need for multiple solutions.

Overall Cisco Wireless WAN could improve by giving more granular reporting and alerts back on issues and not having to integrate other tools onto the same platform. However, the platform is new, the interface is continually developing. Hopefully, they can improve quickly.

I have been using Cisco Wireless WAN for approximately 10 years.

I found the new version of Cisco Wireless WAN initially seemed to be quite buggy. However, the stability is good overall.

This model of Cisco Wireless WAN has good scalability. You can have ten of thousands of people using it.

We have approximately 4,000 users of this solution globally. The solution is used hourly.

The technical support from Cisco Wireless WAN is good. However, they were better before.

As people were transitioning to this Cisco Wireless WAN hardware, there wasn't as much available information online about different issues people might come across.

When determining if the implementation is going to be difficult it would depend on the topology of the sites. We're a global company, and on some of the sites where it was a standalone controller, it was straightforward to implement. However, on a different site when we were using the physical appliance, as a virtual wireless anchor that was in our own cloud, integrating that wasn't seamless.

We had help from the vendor when we were doing the implementation.

We have one person that does the maintenance and patching of the solution.

The price of Cisco Wireless WAN could improve upon pricing, it is expensive. We purchased the hardware through a vendor that Cisco used and we received approximately 75 percent off.

We are on a three-year license with Cisco Wireless WAN.

We evaluated the Cisco Meraki solution before we made the decision to choose the on-premise solution. One reason we choose the on-premise solution is we were already using one. When choosing which one is better, it is difficult because I did not use Cisco Meraki extensively to determine which one is best.

Since we have recently migrated to the new version of the Cisco Wireless WAN platform the interface has changed and I'm still getting used to it.

I would recommend Cisco Wireless WAN. However, that's because my exposure is to Cisco Wireless. I'm probably a little bit biased. Overall, it's a fairly good solution.

Whether this solution is suitable or not for a company depends on their deployment, if they were a Greenfield-sized company or a Brownfield-sized company I would have different tips. It does fully depend on the scenario. My key advice is with a wireless solution is for them to do a wireless survey first before purchasing.

I rate Cisco Wireless WAN an eight out of ten.

I use the solution for wireless and mobile users, data sharing and file and print servers. We use the solution for conducting nearly all our services. 

Our most valuable feature involves the 802.11ac, which operates at a very high level and has updated technology. That's why we use the product, whose features we find to be very reliable.

We found the initial setup to be a bit complex due to the CLI commands. It's a little bit difficult and requires us to move and to convert. Certain CLI commands we are forced to undertake.

The solution should also enable Bluetooth Low Energy devices, which serve the purpose of maintaining and managing one's tracking system. 

The new product, 802.11ax BLE, enables features for tracking devices. It can be used for antivirus protection or in the event of any risk. It is a new technology and allows one to see where things are moving. The 802.11ax incorporates the features of the Cisco 9115ax model. The feature is very good. 

I've been using Cisco Wireless WAN for more than 10 years.

The current product, 2800, we have been using in excess of two years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable. Meetings can be scaled with ease.

We do have plans to increase the usage of Cisco Wireless WAN. 20 is the upper limit for the number of access points that we plan to purchase for deployment in our company. 

Customer and technical support are very good. 

In the past we used D-Link Access Point and it was not very good. However, it is very good when we convert this new technology in respect of the Cisco 2800 Series. With the 2800 model there have been no issues save for the one involving compliance testing of the Cambium product for the POC. After two or three months it ceased to work properly. It is not a good product. We tested the Cambium product, as well.

The CLI command complicated things a bit and required of us to move and convert and to undertake certain CLI commands. 

We deployed with the assistance of a consultant. Our experience with them was very good. 

The local vendors helped us to deploy all our infrastructure and it is good that they did so. They are very friendly and their personnel is very knowledgeable.

The pricing is good. It is neither on the high nor low side. I consider it to be moderate. While other vendors provide the same, I find this model to be reasonably priced.

The solution is good and very easy to deploy, manage and configure. We have encountered no issues in this regard. 

We now plan to convert the 802.11ac to 802.11.ax. We intend to purchase a new access point to meet the technology challenges. We are now planning to move all access points to a new access point involving 802.11.ax technology.

The number of users making use of the solution depends on the employee count. I would say that perhaps 200 users are connected daily with the access point that we have. For the moment we have a very small area. In every department we have in excess of 100 to 150 users connected to one access point. This works fine. But, depending on the user size and the type of Wireless Card the user may possess, certain users experience some difficulties due to the Wireless Card's age and its lack of compatibility. As such, it is the user size which would account for certain issues, not the product size.

My advice to others is that the product and its performance are very good and scalable. Cisco is very good and the product is nice to deploy and to work with. One can use it with freedom from any latency. Overall, the product is very good and established and the company has been working for some time to make improvements to it. This and the reputation involved are why I use the product. 

I rate Cisco Wireless WAN as a ten out of ten. 

Cisco Wireless access points are highly stable with a wide coverage area. 

I have used Cisco Wireless WAN for seven years.

Cisco Wireless WAN is highly scalable. We have around 200 users. If we need more Wi-Fi coverage, we can purchase more equipment and add another access point. 

Cisco support is fast and helpful. 

It isn't complex if you have experience with Cisco equipment. You have to make room on the access point and ensure it is controlled. It might be difficult for a new user. The setup is large, and there are a lot of configuration options.  It takes about two days to configure all the access points. You need to set up the equipment, make the SSID, and configure the traffic settings for the access point.

Though Cisco Wireless is expensive, we don't need to purchase a lot of equipment. Two or three access points can cover an area of about 2,000 meters.

Cisco Wireless WAN is expensive. We have a three-year license.

I rate Cisco Wireless WAN nine out of 10. I recommend it if you're looking for a stable wireless solution with a wide coverage area.