What needs improvement with Aruba Wireless?

One of the issues with Aruba Wireless is that when twenty or more people connect to the same access point, the device works too slowly. The density of the access point needs to be increased to better manage this load.

The pricing could be better, especially with potential discounts for partners.

The vendor should include multiple additional protocols for basic applications and advanced tech that are absent in Aruba Wireless. Overall, the product needs further development by introducing new tech features.

The support should be faster.

It would be helpful if they would release training materials and updates to enhance their offerings. When it comes to switching, there can be occasional variations, such as with the cooler switches. Also, there might be technical issues with the code that could lead to variations in performance. To enhance the system, more work on integration would be beneficial.

There has been a recent decrease in the level of support. When issues arise, we often require additional support, and this aspect should be enhanced.

The solution could be improved on the security side.

The Return Material Authorization procedure is time-consuming and needs improvement.

The solution's GUI for configuration could be better.

Aruba Wireless is a little bit complex to use and operate. So, it can be an area for improvement.

Hi, in Aruba software needs to be provided, so that placement of Aruba access points is given so that we get the maximum out of the WiFi devices in the setup.

I would like to see the management improve.

I want to have a virtual controller, so I would like to see integration with other vendors of the LAN network. We need security features to recognize the traffic source and to apply Zero Trust security.

We have an issue with the integration of Aruba Wireless with our LDAP servers.

I don't have any access in the Aruba dashboard. I need more access. I only install the hardware and the software part for the client. However, there are no admin privileges, which is an issue. You need to contact them and make a special request. They should allow everybody to fiddle with their settings if they bought the solution.

Aruba Wireless could improve the dashboard. It is not straightforward or intuitive to use and could be more user-friendly. For IT employees the dashboards are fine but when it comes to the end-user it is difficult. The Mobility Controller dashboard is not meant for non-IT employees.

The solution can be improved by simplifying the configuration. I would like to see a more user-friendly GUI that is not so easily confused when configuring clusters or even a single node when people are not paying attention to what layer they are configuring, whether it be at the mobility master level or at the node level. I would like to see more analytics that can help us pinpoint the cause of reduced performance related to the airtime and number of SSIDs being used.

What needs improvement in Aruba Wireless is its access point, in particular, it should have more flexibility. Aruba Wireless has Campus AP, Instant AP, and Unified AP, but it would be better if the product has a generic access point that you can manage over the cloud, on-premise, etc. Another area for improvement in Aruba Wireless is scalability. In terms of what additional features I'd like to see in the product, I'm unsure if it's already on the roadmap, but if possible, it would be good to have an SD-WAN functionality on the AP in Aruba Wireless.

We're using the Aruba Sensor, but sometimes the sensor isn't talking to AirWave or the AP. If something happens, we need to receive an email directly from the sensor, but the controller doesn't know. If there's something like the high channel utilization from the sensor we send to the controller, the controller can change the channel because they're all in the same environment. Also, the controller can not do active/standby mode. It only works in active/active. I haven't seen any option for active/standby because we want to put one in the backup center. However, with the active/active mode, the traffic must go to the primary and the backup center. I would like it if Aruba had a mobile app so I wouldn't need to log in on my laptop. They should also simplify the solution, so there aren't so many layers. It would be nice if the solution double-checked your configurations. For example, it could warn you if a configuration change in one layer conflicts with your current settings.

Because it's cloud-based, it takes time for the floor maps and the heat map to load. I understand the reason for this but it would be nice if once you click on the flop map, instead of waiting sometimes 20 or 30 seconds, it would come up a lot quicker.

The stability and management could be improved.

The price could be better. In the next release, I would like to have more analytics features.

One area for improvement in Aruba Wireless is its dashboard or interface because in some cases, it's not as easy to use as it should be, but overall, it's okay. Pricing for the product is also on the higher side. Another area for improvement in Aruba Wireless is technical support because it's hard to reach when issues arise and the speed of answer could be faster. Other areas for improvement in the product include integration and configuration.

The solution is now taking eight to 12 months to deliver the product. It takes too long to receive it right now. Depending on how you design the setup, it can get complicated.

The user interface could be improved in Aruba Wireless. This would make the setup easier.

I believe that Aruba's support could be improved.

I would like to see a faster web interface in the controller and more troubleshooting tools, including real-time troubleshooting tools.

They should have more support for implementing Aruba Wireless in Smart Cities and outdoor applications. The price of this product could be improved.

Aruba Wireless has room to improve the connection from one AP to another.

The pricing could always be better. Technical support needs work. It's hard to reach the right people you need to help you when you come face to face with issues. I can't say that they are missing any features at this time. There's nothing I can think of needing in the next release.

Aruba Wireless has already improved all that we need. There is a new version, 8.x, that provides a mobility controller. They probably upgraded their cloud servers. We have Mobility Manager. The idea is to have a mobility-based machine that can manage a controller around the company. For a more senior tool, a local application monitoring related to IoT vendors would be useful. Because the company is stable, they have good quality.

I would like to be able to customize Captive Portals.

There is so much licensing, you literally pay for every solution, add-on, or cool feature. Compared to others, we were in the middle with pricing, but as you start to invest more into features it will get very pricey.

The urgent areas of improvement would be customer support, better tuned default settings, and documentation. Aruba’s TAC support for us has been frustrating most of the time, as there is a clear language/dialect barrier when speaking or emailing a TAC representative. We’ve found that we have more emails (which equates to longer resolution time) than typically needed to cover certain questions and updates – as the TAC directions and instructions were either incomplete or we couldn’t understand what they were referencing. There have been occasions where a local Aruba rep, has had to step in for the TAC due to this problem. Out of the box the Aruba gear (at least with the IAP-225 APs) comes with all of the marketing promised higher throughput settings (which causes issues such as CCI) enabled such as (but not limited to): 80 Mhz channel width (which anybody rarely uses), all 2.4 Ghz channels enabled, and high transmit power turned on. Many of these settings are used rarely in most deployments, and will need to be tuned. Aruba should enable 40 Mhz channels, only enable channels 1,6,11 on 2.4 Ghz, and set the power lower – as this will give most deployments a better chance at succeeding. This would benefit those who just put them in and call it a day or have little to no knowledge on the inner-workings of RF. This isn't an Aruba only problem, many of the wireless vendors do this, and the community has asked for this to change – however, I felt it was worth noting. Aruba’s documentation is pretty good, however there are cases where something is recommended by a TAC or an Aruba engineer that cannot be found in their documentation for the product itself, or their best practices guides (often referred to as Validated Reference Designs – VRD). The things that we've had to change/rethink but weren't in the documentation are: cluster sizes, standard L2 VLAN, disabling L3 Mobility, and client match.

The solution needs to add features and enhance security.

Aruba Wireless can improve the assigning of access points. We have times that the nearest access point is not assigned but one far away. The integration between access points could improve.

Aruba Wireless could improve the interface, it does not have a smart web interface. Other solutions have smart web interfaces, such as Cisco Meraki.

They need to increase the number of routers on the controller. The VSSIP needs to have at least 25 access points. I just need them to increase the access points without the controller. Other than that, it has everything we need, and we do not need any new features. The downside is right now there is a shortage of hardware. It's hard to acquire switches and access points.

Aruba doesn't match some competitors in wireless signal strength. It isn't in the same class as Cisco Meraki, so I would use Cisco Meraki in situations where I need to cover a large open space. Meraki has more powerful signals going out. Coverage and penetration have been the biggest disappointments. You should be able to connect to a visible Wifi access point. Often, people 20 meters away from an Aruba external access point need to move closer to get into the coverage radius.

Configuration could be made easier with more bandwidth than they offer at the moment.

There are some issues we occasionally have. However, they are easily remedied. Recently, HP acquired Aruba. There have been some changes in the licensing form. Platforms are changing. These kinds of things are slowly happening. However, it is not a problem. The issue is that the delivery timelines have increased. That is not only for Aruba, even for all the partners; it is increased. That is something which they need to improve. The hardware takes too long to be delivered.

Aruba is missing some features that are available in other solutions, such as the email notifications. It's a bit complex to configure the notification part. Mainly I'm talking about the rogue WiFi detection. This email notification is crucial for us, but it isn't possible to configure with the built-in software. You need something else, like an external system log collector or another Aruba software. These notifications are essential in hospitality for PCI compliance. My colleagues in famous luxury hotel chains need that report. One of the requirements for PCI compliance is rogue WiFi detection. When a rogue AP is discovered, they need a notification sent to a certain email. If there is no built-in feature, you need either to purchase an additional software to make sure that you are notified through that software. This feature is built into Ruckus.

The certification for licensing could be better.

The scope of improvement would go along with the technology's adoption into the market. Even though Wi-Fi 6 has been introduced, everyone is quite skeptical in the market in terms of the adoption part, as the platform network should be that strong to cater to that kind of bandwidth. While it may be great in the future, currently, the existing versions are incompatible with some of the networks which customers own. They could improve the seamless roaming, which is already there, however, needs some tweaking.

We would like to declare a specific number of devices that an employee or a user can use to access their Wi-Fi. Right now, it's a free for all. The other features that I would like to explore are alerting and auto reporting of users accessing the internet. I want proactive alerts on the usage of these applications because I have to go to Aruba Central every time to see what's going on.

The configuration of the virtual controller could be improved. When they reach a maximum of 100 the configuration is lost. In the next release, I would like the WiFi text included. Whether videos are online or in live sessions, it can take a long time to deliver videos in Aruba Wireless.

Sometimes the configuration is difficult. Aruba needs to offer an IT telephone in order to can catch all of the market. Cisco already has an IT telephone security product. Aruba does not. If Aruba offered an IP conference option it would be great.

What I'd like improved in Aruba Wireless is for it to be a full cloud solution. Making the setup more simple is another area for improvement for Aruba Wireless. There's a big solution for this, but it's not a huge enterprise solution, but Aruba Wireless has thousands of access points, so it's okay. Security still needs some work with Aruba Wireless, because you don't know which users are accessing, what each user is trying to do, what the applications are and the intentions behind the applications, so there are a lot of complexities behind the scene. The wireless access points from Aruba Wireless are not just access points, e.g. they form a platform that contains a lot of features such as cloud features, security features, even IoT, so I recommend to have these in all the product range, including small business solutions, so this is what I'd like to see in the next release.

Aruba needs to improve two things. One is security. These days, security is about more than just the endpoints — it's also about the devices connecting to the endpoints. They need to improve wireless intrusion detection and prevention. If Aruba can do something like that, I think it would be a game-changer. The second thing is the range. Before Aruba, we had Ruckus, which covers a larger area than Aruba.

An area for improvement I found in this solution is the configuration. Though it's currently an improved version, it could still be made easier, so technical people could benefit from being able to configure Aruba Wireless within a quicker amount of time.

The reliability could be improved.

The GUI dashboards should more user-friendly.

Many features are already in development. For example, Aruba Central, or the server to verify the type of equipment is connected to the network centrally. It's very useful and is a good solution for home or business, and it supports more than 200 pieces of equipment. We're not really missing any features at this time. They could work on energy consumption as this equipment needs a lot of energy. This is probably what needs to be improved in the future, as, currently, this type of equipment consumes more than 60 watts. I understand that it needs more power to work, however, there must be a way to lessen it in future releases.

The Help option within the GUI needs to be improved. It would be perfect to have it more descriptive about the functions and features it has. The online documentation resources could be made more readily available for troubleshooting than to be engaged with the support through email and calls. During the shipments, the firmware versions on the shipped outdoor APs, indoor APs, and controllers could be matched so that adaptation for the APs is easy. They should add more features available on Aruba Airwave to the GUI.

The network times for protocol synchronization can be improved. Sometimes it's complicated, and we need to tweak it to coordinate or synchronize it to the clock at the network access point. I have some issues with the introductory domain with the frequency that we use. For example, it's very common to have a box with a frequency channel with the introductory domains in Mexico. The access points have some issues in this release; I think it's version eight. Sometimes the documentation is confusing. You have to figure out a lot of different placements on your own because of the outdated information.

I believe more security options are needed.

Perhaps Aruba should publish some best practices for deploying its solution in different industries.

Their documentation needs to be improved. Aruba's documentation is poor.

Currently, the stability of the code is the basic underlying problem for us. They had an 8.6 release that came out two weeks ago, but we had to migrate twice because the code wasn't stable. We can't get things to work the same way. Version 8 was a big change for them. They made a change so that it is forced to be a managed hierarchical system. It means that you make changes at the top, and it pushes them downstream. There are a lot of problems with the 8.6 version code. I ran into four bugs in one week and was informed that we should just move onto the next one because all of those fixes have taken place. The feedback loop for fixes is not always really relayed back to you. I don't have a lot of strong things to say about version 8.6. When we had version 6, the controller was pretty much rock solid. We had no problems. We made a heavy investment to migrate a lot of stuff to take advantage of things like WPA3, Wi-Fi 6, and all that kind of stuff, and we haven't been able to turn those features on because we are not confident that they are going to work just yet. So, right now, we're still very much stumbling through the version 8.6 code and just trying to make sure that it is safe before we turn on some of those features. In terms of the marketplace, they are one of the top three leaders. In some respects, one of the things that they focus on is wireless. Therefore, there are some things that should be beyond reproach, as far as I'm concerned. In terms of the stability of the code, there are always going to be bugs, but the core stability of the code needs to be there. When it is not stable, that's a real problem for me because you lose a lot of confidence in the products.

When we connect to Wi-Fi devices it could be easier because sometimes, it takes a lot of time to complete. It is not as easy as some other products to configure, including setting policies. Otherwise, everything is fine.

The solution is quite expensive. If they could make the cost a bit lower, that would be helpful. It's pricey compared to, for example, D-Link or TP-Link. Other commonly used products offer more competitive pricing. The solution should offer more simplified tools. There needs to be better visibility on the day-to-day monitoring. It would be ideal if they had cloud services whereby you could manage everything from the cloud. This may be on the most current version, however, on older versions, they don't offer this. Even if you deployed on-premises, you should be able to control everything from the cloud.

Better integration with equipment from other vendors would ease the deployment process in some cases. It is also helpful because certain vendors concentrate more heavily on a certain side of the industry. For example, one may focus on security but neglect availability. Being able to integrate gives a better overall solution. Security is something that can be improved.

When I compare Aruba with Juniper Mist, Juniper is the more an AI-driven management solution. It is more of a modern solution, I think. Aruba needs to be more competitive with Juniper.

Most of the access points don't include the chargers. If you want to increase your coverage, then you need to have a charger. When our customers ask about access points, we always recommend Aruba; however, when we tell them that they need to buy the chargers separately, they become upset, saying: "We already bought Aruba access points, the chargers should come with it". This is my main concern. In the last five years, I've installed nearly 300 Aruba access points and most of my customers have complained about the chargers. If this problem was addressed, I wouldn't have any other complaints.

Better integration between the controller and the ClearPass portal would be a nice change. Currently, they're separated, but if they could be combined and managed in one portal it would be much better.

Improvements to the GUI, such as being able to search in the Mobility Master, would be nice. It is hard to find and provision APs when you have a substantial install base.

Aruba Wireless is among the leaders in the market. We are not talking about basic access points. As a leader, they keep ahead of the field.

The area that has the most room for improvement is upgrades. What we have seen many times now is that new releases tend to have bugs. Sometimes the bugs are a little bad and cause some undesirable issues. The new code in the upgrades or something leads to conflicts. I would say testing releases before making them available is one of the areas which Aruba needs to improve most with the wireless product. More comprehensive testing is required for a better, more reliable end-user experience. It is not necessarily testing more often, it is just for new releases. The testing they need to do is to work more closely with different environments and take notice of where issues tend to occur. They should have some idea of what environments are experiencing issues more often by now because of which companies are reporting the issues. They can make compensations for testing in those environments. I do not have any new features that the product requires off the top of my head. I think that more than improving the product, there are management portfolios and other peripheral things that could be better integrated. But just doing better testing is the main improvement that they need to make.

Perhaps one of the things that I think Aruba can improve on is developing their current information channels. Aruba has a lot of information available about their products and to find the information you need is not always so easy. It is more complicated than it should be. I think that they are great and do have a lot of information available — probably all the information that any user really needs to do things themselves. They are doing things well and trying to do things in the right way. They should just improve more on the organization and searchability of the information to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

You have to use the command line for a lot of commands but then get back to the GUI for the main actions. A lot of the access point commands are in the command line interface, versus being in the GUI. Some control systems have the ability to right-click to go to the common line. I would like to see that incorporated onto the interface.

Analytics and big data.

* They should provide usage guides and solutions to frequent problems. * A telephone line dedicated to technical support for not-so-skilled users.

* They should simplify the configuration flow. * Additional detailed reporting for client traffic would be a great addition.

What I would like to have with these kinds of devices is the most enhanced security. For example, if I could apply security from wireless devices, that would be great. I would also like more enhanced reports on user adoption, who is getting what bandwidth. That is the kind of report I should be getting.

The management system would be better if it were more polished, if it had a better interface like, for example, Meraki.

I would like to see more security features. Also, it should have more than one, maybe five, access points. Wherever we go, we should get the same speed continuously, without disconnecting.

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.

* 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.

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

Some additional reporting features about the clients would be nice when not combined with the AirWave management package.

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

Larger network for Aruba users and partners. I would have liked to see more manufacturer driven events and outings to drive brand recognition and familiarity.

Aruba has been an excellent solution. However, I am aiding in transitioning my organization to a different wireless solution due to the cost. We need to expand our network and the cost of new APs and an upgraded controller have proved to be prohibitive compared to similar solutions on the market.

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.

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.

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.

MAC authentication against an external Radius server while using 802.1X. This feature will help the L2 devices to authenticate via external Radius servers. As L2 devices cannot do 802.1x. This feature is available in Cisco WLC, named for its MAC Filtering.

Access point mounting options.

An area of this product that could use improvement would be the troubleshooting. At times I had to engage Aruba Support which ran some pretty complicated troubleshooting commands. I would not have been able to do with existing CLI documentation.

There is plenty of room for improvement. Reliability of a flawless upgrade after the 4.x releases is rare. There is a lot of manual intervention required lately due to random bugs. If you have a mix of APs using different firmware, it takes nothing short but an act of god to upgrade successfully. The product’s performance got worse with newer releases as well. It seems like they are adding more frivolous features and sacrificing stability and speed. The latest design of their APs removes the console port and requires purchasing an expensive proprietary cable just to access the console.

The ability for newer devices to easily communicate with older style APs. I wish the APs had the ability to enter in notes about a specific AP. For example, AP Mac address goes to classroom 123.

The ceiling grid mount clips have room for improvement.

My biggest issue is the logging. It is hard to read when troubleshooting issues.

The price point is pretty high compared to Ubiquiti and other equipment.

The ARM functionality does not always seem to perform how I would like. In some cases, I have had to manually assign channels to avoid channel confusion. Overall, it is a small task to worry about.

Price.

* Point-to-point deployment products * More varieties in Outdoor Access Points