Archive for September, 2009

Meraki on the Road at Ingram Micro’s Partner Connections Summit

Last Thursday, Meraki participated in a great event: the Ingram Micro Partner Connections Summit in Denver, Colorado.

The most remarkable observation that could be made was the clear presence of a sense of optimism throughout the conference after a year of apprehension.   We spoke to a good portion of the 225 resellers at the event, and the majority were very excited about the remainder of 2009 and 2010 based on the uptick in the level of interest that they are seeing from their customers across their product lines.  They see wireless networking as a potential growth opportunity for them for 2010, and more specifically, Meraki’s cloud-managed Wireless LANs as a great opportunity to acquire new customers or offer an innovative new solution to existing customers.

A little bit more about the event… Ingram Micro, the event organizer and sponsor (and a distributor of Meraki), is a Fortune 100 company and the world’s largest technology distributor.  They distribute and market IT products from everyone from Apple to Cisco.

The Partner Connections Summit brings together hundreds of fast-growth channel partners and IT manufacturers to discuss emerging IT trends, train on new technologies and explore a variety of partner enablement tools available exclusively to Ingram Micro channel partners.  We truly enjoyed meeting so many IT Solution Providers focused on small and medium sized businesses, and we look forward to other Ingram Micro and similar channel events in the near future!

Check out some of the pictures from the show to see us in action…

John ready for action!

John ready for action!

Andy takes a breather...

Andy takes a breather...

Andy gives a product demo to a reseller

Andy gives a product demo to a reseller

-Posted by John Sampson

Meraki on the Road at Ingram Micro's Partner Connections Summit

Last Thursday, Meraki participated in a great event: the Ingram Micro Partner Connections Summit in Denver, Colorado.

The most remarkable observation that could be made was the clear presence of a sense of optimism throughout the conference after a year of apprehension.   We spoke to a good portion of the 225 resellers at the event, and the majority were very excited about the remainder of 2009 and 2010 based on the uptick in the level of interest that they are seeing from their customers across their product lines.  They see wireless networking as a potential growth opportunity for them for 2010, and more specifically, Meraki’s cloud-managed Wireless LANs as a great opportunity to acquire new customers or offer an innovative new solution to existing customers.

A little bit more about the event… Ingram Micro, the event organizer and sponsor (and a distributor of Meraki), is a Fortune 100 company and the world’s largest technology distributor.  They distribute and market IT products from everyone from Apple to Cisco.

The Partner Connections Summit brings together hundreds of fast-growth channel partners and IT manufacturers to discuss emerging IT trends, train on new technologies and explore a variety of partner enablement tools available exclusively to Ingram Micro channel partners.  We truly enjoyed meeting so many IT Solution Providers focused on small and medium sized businesses, and we look forward to other Ingram Micro and similar channel events in the near future!

Check out some of the pictures from the show to see us in action…

John ready for action!

John ready for action!

Andy takes a breather...

Andy takes a breather...

Andy gives a product demo to a reseller

Andy gives a product demo to a reseller

-Posted by John Sampson

The Myriad Uses of the MR58 Multi-Radio Ruggedized 802.11n Access Point

The Meraki MR58 is one of the industry’s first 802.11n outdoor access points and also one of the only economical multi-radio solutions.   It is a unique product, and we get a lot of questions from customers about how best to deploy it to take full advantage of its capabilities.  With 3 high speed 802.11n MIMO radios on 3 different frequencies the MR58 has unparalleled flexibility to replace old “single use” hardware platforms.

As the “Veg-O-matic” of access points (It slices, it dices, it minces, it juliennes, it makes French Fries!), the MR58 is a powerful tool for solving all kinds of network deployment challenges.

3 things to remember about the MR58

1. There are three radios in the MR58. One (R3) always operates in a 2.4Ghz channel. The other two (R1 and R2) always operate in different 5Ghz channels.
2. Channels are selected automatically. If the MR58 is a deployed as a repeater (is not connected directly to the Internet), it will find a strong uplink on any radio and hold that channel. The other radios will pick channels depending on the default settings in dashboard.
3. Each radio requires 2 antennas, or a dual-feed MIMO antenna. Both antennas should cover the same area and have the same strength/type. The best coverage and connection signal strength will come from having the same coverage area and orthogonal polarizations.

The MR58 with Various Antennas

The MR58 with Various Antennas

3 types of deployments that the MR58 is great for:

1.    High Client-Density Networks
When deployed as a gateway (with its own dedicated internet connection) the MR58 can move client traffic on all of its radios. With band steering enabled on Dashboard, client devices capable of 5 GHz operation will jump to those radios automatically. With all three radios aimed at the same coverage area, hundreds of users can connect simultaneously.  Even in a network with some MR58 repeaters, the additional bandwidth available in 5 GHz because of the third radio means that mesh connections will not distract in any way from providing full bandwidth to the user community.  For example, at a GigaOm conference earlier this year we had over 100 simultaneous user on a single device with zero hiccups.

2.    Large Area Networks
For good client coverage over spread out areas like a school/corporate campus or a city district, each of the radios can be put to specific use. One of the 5 GHz radios can be paired with directional antennas that specifically point toward the system gateway. The other 5 GHz radio should use the standard omni-directional antennas to provide a balance between good 5 GHz client coverage and strong meshing. The more MR58’s that can see each other on the “extra” 5 GHz radio, the better failover and localized interference rejection will work. Finally, the 2.4 GHz radio should be pointed at the area where clients are expected to be. This can be done with omni antennas, omni antennas designed with down-tilt for ground level coverage, or a weak sector antenna with aimed wide angle coverage.

3.    Long Distance Point to Point Bridges
A set of MR58s can be used to create a long distance “bridge” or a repeating series of long distance links. Using two high gain directional antennas, links of up to 20 Kilometers can be created. For links longer than 20 km or that require higher speeds (shorter, stronger paths), 2 sets of directional antennas can be used to create a full speed mesh relay.  The remaining radio can be used for client coverage, local mesh links, or an additional long distance link. Either the 2.4 GHz radio or the 5 GHz radios can be used for the creation of a long distance link. 2.4 GHz will work better at extreme distances (15-20Km); 5 GHz links have an advantage in environments that have a lot of 2.4Ghz noise, like cities or areas with overlapping networks of coverage.  For information on link distances, see our range calculator tool.

We hope that this MR58 “primer” is helpful in figuring out how to get the most out of your Meraki network!

-Posted by Morgan Teachworth

2009 Meraki Enterprise Customer Summit Wrap-Up

On Thursday, September 17, Meraki hosted a very successful Enterprise Customer Summit (ECS) at our headquarters in San Francisco.  The goal of ECS is to get direct, unfiltered feedback on our products from some of our key customers.  While these customers tend to be our biggest advocates, they are also our harshest critics!  We began by having the customers deliver short presentations about their Meraki deployments, which served not only to break the ice, but also to start the flow of feedback for Meraki—what’s going well, what could be improved, and what new features are interesting to our customers.  Next, we dove into a product session, during which we sanity-checked our immediate short-term roadmap and brainstormed our long-term roadmap.  Finally, during the marketing session, we explored messaging, lead generation, and go-to-market strategies that could help Meraki find the customers with the pain points (i.e. high cost and complexity of deploying or upgrading a wireless LAN solution) that Meraki solves very effectively.

Besides obtaining the feedback that we solicited, we left these discussions with 2 key takeaways:

·         We confirmed that wireless networking is no longer an amenity for companies and organizations; it is a mission-critical requirement for a variety of deployment areas (offices, campuses, warehouses, etc.) and a variety of users (employees, students, visitors, etc.).  Administrators need to provide reliable wireless connectivity as easily and affordably as possible.
·         By moving network infrastructure into the cloud, customers are able to spend less time maintaining and monitoring the network infrastructure, and more time helping the clients who use the network infrastructure.  This shift in focus has yielded tangible benefits in how IT departments allocate their time (and money).

At the end of an action-packed day, we received very positive comments from the ECS participants.  Here’s what one person said: “I love the chance to be included in these sorts of meetings. I was so encouraged to move from a great sales experience into a rich technology experience….We are excited to be a part of [Meraki’s future].”

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s ECS.  And thanks to all of our customers who have provided us with feedback over the years, either by “making a wish” or by contacting Meraki Technical Support.  Please keep the feedback coming!

-Posted by Jed Lau

OS Fingerprinting

Administrators can now identify which operating system their wireless clients are running without requiring any client software. This information can be useful when trying to debug a network or get a sense of what kind of clients are using a network.

Meraki APs identify clients using a technique called OS fingerprinting. Each OS, and sometimes version of an OS, has a unique DHCP fingerprint. By examining a client’s DHCP request, we can tell which OS it is running.

Meraki admins can see client information in a number of pages, including the client detail page.

OS Fingerprinting

– Posted by Hans Robertson

Posted in Product Blog | Comments Off on OS Fingerprinting

Band Steering

One of the main advantages of using multi-band access points like the MR14 or MR58 is that they can increase the total bandwidth available for clients on the network (e.g., 20MHz on 2.4 GHz and 40 MHz on 5 GHz). However, some devices that are 5 GHz capable (i.e. 802.11a/n clients) will connect with a 2.4 GHz radio even when a 5 GHz radio is available. Usually this is not desirable because there is less congestion on the 5 GHz band.

Meraki access points can now be configured to steer 5 GHz-capable wireless clients towards the 5 GHz band. These devices will connect at faster speeds and more clients will be able to connect to the network simultaneously.

Administrators can turn Band Steering on or off per SSID.
Band Steering

– Posted by Hans Robertson

Offline Mode

Many Meraki users rely on the Cloud Controller for various aspects of the user authentication process. For example, some networks use 802.1x (WPA-Enterprise) to authenticate against a hosted user database. Others rely on Meraki to host a splash page that must be viewed before login.

There may be times when a network cannot communicate with the Cloud Controller. This can happen in a few ways, for example, when the network’s Internet connection fails or if the Cloud Controller is temporarily unreachable.

Meraki now allows the administrator to configure what happens to new clients when the network is “disconnected.” In Open mode, new clients are allowed to access the network without signing in. In Closed mode, only clients on the white list (if any) can get on.

Disconnection behavior can be controlled per SSID.

In any case, clients that are already authenticated with the network continue to use the network without interruption.
Offline Mode

– Posted by Hans Robertson