Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN Reviews

We are a reseller, and because we're doing mostly refreshes, we have its latest version.

Its interface is not as daunting as others, which makes customers a bit more at ease.

For Meraki, the ease of deployment and management is most valuable.

Meraki leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to the technical capabilities in terms of throughput, spectrum, management, higher-level functions, etc.

I have been using this solution for eight years or so.

Its stability is a five out of 10.

Its scalability is a five out of 10. 

I would probably rate them a six out of 10.

Meraki is probably the most straightforward. 

For its deployment and maintenance, just one engineer is required for a medium-sized company.

The return on the investment with Meraki isn't from scalability, rollout, or saving in hardware costs or software costs. The save is either in terms of the ability to keep the number of technicians that you hire or in terms of being able to outsource it all together to an organization that specializes in it. The higher costs of Meraki are offset by the cost of the people you may have to bring in, depending on your Wi-Fi airspace.

I would advise knowing your use case and matching it to the technology.

I would rate it a six out of 10. It provides ease of management to customers, but it is not for throughput and availability. 

We sent everybody home because of the new variant. People were trying to be safe, so we decided if you want to connect to our network, use this solution.

The solution is deployed on a private cloud. The cloud provider is Microsoft Azure.

Instead of having to go the old-fashioned dinosaur way and look for the computers, you could just look in the cloud, find the computer, and change the IP address. That helped so much. I was like, "This is the Mac address. Find it up there, change the IP address from A to B," and then we could continue doing work from there.

You can monitor traffic so you can see if the network is having issues or laggy or what people are doing. You can point them out and say, "Stop doing that." If you're trying to identify one of the switches or pinpoint a computer or pinpoint something, you could find it just like that and change the IP address. It's easiest to do it that way.

Documentation could be improved, but everything else has been spot-on.

I have been using this solution for a couple of years.

There have been no issues with stability. The solution is being used every day in my organization.

The solution doesn't require a lot of maintenance. It's easy to do. If you go on the cloud, you can just push the updates from there.

The solution is scalable. There are 200-300 users in our organization. There are plans to increase usage in the future.

Implementation was straightforward. It took a couple of months to set up, implement, and start using.

For initial setup, you have to do the access once and then you have to go to the cloud to make sure they connect.

We used a consultant from Cisco.

I would rate this solution 10 out of 10. 

It makes life easier. You don't have to go cabling. It saves time. It saves man hours. It's just better. My advice is to use this solution instead of using the old-fashioned one. It will save you headaches.

We installed approximately 20 Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN in our headquarters and we have a remote site, a satellite office, which has about seven more installed.

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is an on-premise solution, but it uses the Meraki cloud portal. We have to register the WAP with the cloud.

In our Satellite office, we have approximately 30 users and guests. We have a guest network that runs through the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN and a corporate network that runs through it. Our headquarters network hasn't been used as much, everybody's working remotely over the last year and a half because of COVID. Prior to the pandemic, we would have up to 300 people in the headquarters and guests.

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN has helped our organization because we are able to be connected to the network while moving around. For example, I am able to take a presentation from one conference room and walk across the building and present it in another conference room without losing connection. This is pretty good for us.

The most valuable features in Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN are that we were able to see all the registered users for each particular WAP, which is a big help. The roaming allows us to have continuous wireless throughout the building. The signal can carry over from one WAP to another. Which is probably the most important feature.

We're are not fully utilizing the features of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN to know a more in-depth analysis of what areas need to be improved. However, the security could improve. It would be a benefit to be able to lock out particular clients that are trying to connect from outside the building.

In an upcoming release, it would be a benefit to have a security dashboard that could show additional information. In addition to our Meraki solution, we have a Cisco product called ISE, Identification Security Engine, and we can detect non-compliant or non-corporate addresses from our network. Instead of using a second product, the Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN should be able to isolate the non-specified MAC addresses into the network.

I have been using Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN for approximately three and a half years.

The stability of the network is very good. I think we had oversaturated our HQ environment, where we had too many devices in a particular location. We actually had to change some of our configurations because it was causing some connectivity competition between WAPs trying to connect. We had to remove a WAP to allow better connectivity.  

Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN is scalable. If we needed to expand, it's easy to add another WAP for a new location.

As we come back into the office, in January, we'll start out with approximately 100 users. We're going into a hybrid mode and we will not have as many users as we did, prior to COVID. We had upwards of 300 people connecting and that's mostly everybody with their mobiles or laptops that come into the office. At our highest, it is approximately 300 users but starting in January, we'll probably have approximately 100 to 200.

We do not have plans to expand our usage at this time. However, if we open up a new office then we will most likely expand usage.

We have contacted Cisco's technical support a couple of times and they're very responsive. I would give them a thumbs up.

We used the previous version of Meraki at our old headquarters. The only reason we switched was that we wanted a newer product in a new office. In terms of our office move, we decided to buy all new equipment and that's the only reason we switched.

The installation is straightforward. The wireless portion of the installation took approximately one week. This included  mounting and bringing activating the network.

We used a consulting group for the completion of our network completion in our building. I followed along with them, it wasn't too complex. My experience with the constant was very good.

We have three system administrators, one being myself, and my two coworkers. We're all capable of managing the Meraki environment.

We are on a SmartNet contract. All of our Cisco products are licensed under one contract. I do not think there are any additional costs.

We did not evaluate any other options when we switched over to the newer version of  Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN.

My advice to other thinking about implementing this solution is to look at other products that are out there. I don't want to say stuck, but we are using all-Cisco products at the time and there are probably products that may be less expensive that could do the same job. We're in contract with Cisco and this is why we went with the newer version of Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN when we needed a new solution. If anyone was looking for a wireless solution, look at different manufacturers.

I never rate anything at 10 because there's always room for improvement.

I rate Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN an eight out of ten.

My primary use of this solution is to provide WiFi to users and guests.

The most valuable feature is that the solution is friendly to manage.

An area for improvement would be that Meraki doesn't work well in a warehouse environment. The device is too sensitive to other wireless devices, which provokes noise and can require a reboot to erase this. In addition, the cost of the product could be better.

I've been using this solution for three years.

The stability of this product is good.

This solution has good scalability.

Cisco's technical support is good.

Previously, I used TP-Link, but it's designed for use in the home, so I switched to Cisco, which is a better product for the office.

The initial setup is easy.

I used a partner team to implement, which took around thirty minutes.

My yearly license costs $200.

This is a good solution for the office but not for warehouses. I would give this solution a rating of eight out of ten.

I do not know which version we are using. 

I find Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN to be more secure and easy to use. It is easy to control. 

With the solution, we have a little mesh and wire LAN, and the performance is awesome.

The price can always be better. 

There should be better Spanish-language technical support. 

I am wholly in agreement that the solution is stable. 

I agree wholeheartedly that the solution is scalable. 

For the moment, we do not have plans to increase the usage. 

There should be better Spanish-language support. 

The solution's setup was easy.

The previous deployment took, perhaps, two weeks. 

We were assisted by the main controller and several partners. 

Our experience with them was positive. We found them to be helpful. 

There was an engineer who was responsible for configuring the solution and a technician for connecting the cables in the wall. 

I have not seen a return on our investment. 

As is always the case, the price could be better, although I do not recall exactly how much this comes out to. I do know that I make tri-annual purchases of the solution. The fee is once every three years. 

We did not use another solution prior to Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN. We considered Fortinet as an alternative, but felt Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN offered better wifi and was a superior routing solution. 

I am a customer. 

There are, perhaps, 25 or 30 people making use of the solution in our organization. 

The solution is trustworthy. I find it easy and secure. 

I rate Cisco Meraki Wireless LAN as an eight out of ten. 

It's for our head offices, remote offices branches. The solution is primarily used for giving access to our users, including controlling their access and granting access.

The solution is easy to use. With the cloud dashboard, it's easy to control the APs and other items. It has controlling, content filtering, and other options. A lot of things are there. It has a lot of great features.

The solution is stable.

The scalability is good.

I am new to this solution. At the moment, I am not the right person or in a position to suggest something new or point out something that's lacking. I time to use it properly and see the pros and cons of the product and the requirements regarding our business.

The dashboard could be a bit better. I'd like to see more information about the whole controller and APs. It should be as simple and convenient.

I haven't used the solution for very long. It's been about a month. 

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

The scalability of the solution is great. However, it depends on the business' needs.

I can't speak to technical support. I didn't actually open any ticket, so I am not sure. I can't say how responsive or helpful they are. 

I've been using Aruba Wireless Controller, and Huawei - just the controller. I'm new to this environment and I'm new to the device.

I did not handle the initial setup and I didn't configure anything. I've just started administering the solution actually. I can't speak to the implementation process and how difficult or simple it is.

I can't speak to the pricing or licensing. It's not an aspect of the solution I take care of.

We're just customers and technical users. 

We use different versions, such as the MX64, 800 series, and 100 series.

At the moment, I'd rate the solution at a six out of ten. I have no experience, or at least, not too much experience yet. 

I think the IoT integration is the most valuable. I started applying IoT solutions 12 years ago on location-based services. Aruba had implemented this at the time. So I think the integration, particularly into the applications and stuff, is pretty interesting in Meraki. It's a substantial network from my point of view. It's good.

You're starting to see CO2-type sensors come into the classrooms and stuff like that. So it would be nice to build some "if-then" functions into IoT-type sensors. For instance, if a classroom has high CO2 levels, you could automatically open the Windows and use heat exchange to bring in fresh air into the room. At the same time, you could have the temperature control adjust automatically so it doesn't get too hot or too.  So you would need to plug in some configurable where you collect the output from the sensors and have it carry out some small actions based on that. I think it's well within Meraki's capabilities. 

I've been working in IT for 40 years. I was working on Nortel products even before Cisco, so I have more than 20 years of experience in WiFi alone.

Everything works. I can't knock the product. I know a lot of the senior management within Meraki and used to work with them at Nortel. I know many people who work on the product side, and I've never had a problem. I've deployed Meraki for one customer with 2,500 sites in the UK, and I don't think I've ever had a wireless AP go faulty on me. We've just never had a failure, to be quite honest. That's unusual.

The only thing that always causes problems with Meraki is the license. It's a bit of a bugbear with Meraki, and it remains today. So it's an unusual concept compared to the other products in the marketplace, but then it does cause a bit of a nuisance from time to time. The license they sell is difficult.

I've worked on Meraki and other Cisco products as well as Hewlett Packard, Aruba, Siemens, and Aerohive. Aruba's first-class product is easy to work with, and I've done a lot of the complicated location with services on the Aruba kit. Most of the WiFi solutions are pretty good. The main difference between products is the application integration for location-based or IoT services, and Meraki has a good lead. You can buy IoT centers that work. So I know they're pretty basic sensors, and they are a bit expensive. However, I don't think you can beat Meraki when you're talking about multiple deployments, particularly in retail and stuff like that. It's very good for that. With loads of different sites and small amounts of kit, it works perfectly. I haven't had many problems, and in the many times I've worked with the kit, it's never failed me. That's unusual.

I rate Cisco Meraki WLAN mine of 10. However, it would be a 10 out of 10 if it could apply some conditional logic where the result from a sensor triggers an action on another IoT device, such as a motorized heat exchanger, to bring fresh air into the building. If you were able to do something like that, it would improve things even more. It's a good LAN, but there's always room for improvement. There are some things that I'd like to see, such as more applications, integrations, and stuff like that, but apart from that, it's pretty good.

When you look at the benefits, some wireless solutions are more flexible than others. Meraki is easy to configure and monitor. The best thing Meraki can do is give them a test AP on their network because there is some problem with APN allowing other kits on the network and letting people test, but handover between the APs is satisfactory. I've got four APs in my home that go between the office, workshop, and high space, and the handover is still seamless. The coverage is brilliant from my point of view. I deployed it in a large warehouse, and handover was seamless. It was covered. To me, the easiest way is to get a customer to test their network with two, so they can do a handover and allow them to test and configure. That's plug-and-play.

We are resellers and our customers are generally medium to enterprise size organizations. I'm the senior manager and we are partners with Cisco. 

The dashboard is a great feature that is architecturally based and I like the fact that the solution is accessible from anywhere. As an administrator, it is very useful to have access to the dashboard from anywhere through my mobile Meraki app. I can see if there are any issues and can get alerts over my emails. The basic value of the product is the ease of use and ease of access from anywhere. The product is very easy to manage, easy to configure, and easy for our customers to understand. It's the ease of use that sells Meraki. When it's used as a whole stack, Meraki is one of the very good and easy to manage products.

There are a lot of improvements that could be made, especially from the feature point of view. If you compare the Meraki firewall to UTM, Meraki has close to 90% of all the features that UTM offers but there are some that are lacking and that need to be rectified. For example, UTM has a feature that enables you to block videos inside Facebook or block particular applications inside another application. In Meraki, you can only block the entire app or the entire URL. For example, you can block the category video, but not any applications that are inside apps. When it comes to switching, Meraki lacks categories of features, like the traditional Cisco, Aruba, or Ruckus app, and I think they need to increase the number of modules and categories of switches.

I've been using this solution for almost six years. 

 The product is stable and I have not seen any issues over the past couple of years.

The solution is scalable, the only problem we had earlier was the Meraki firewall did not support more than two ISC links, but I think the hardware has matured and can now support more than two ISC links. Some years ago now, Meraki used to lose many customers because it didn't support more than two ISC links.

It's very easy to get support from Meraki, because everything is there in the dashboard. You just need to open a case through the dashboard and you get good support. 

The pricing is a little higher than other similar architecture products such as Ruckus or Aruba. Meraki has a premium pack added to it so it's costly.

If you're a medium enterprise type of organization, I'd recommend something like Meraki, at least from the wireless point of view, because I think it has a very, very simple and easy-to-use dashboard. As mentioned, it's easy to configure and very easy to manage. Wherever there are very low resources to manage a network, Meraki is the one. If a company isn't managing many people and there aren't too many network administrators, it's a very good solution. 

I rate the solution seven out of 10.