Ruckus Wireless Reviews

The controller is most valuable. Through Ruckus ZoneDirector, we can easily manage the websites and the web.

We are using the R610 or R510 model, and it is good in terms of signals.

They can improve the cloud portion. Other vendors have a cloud controller, and they can provide the same so that we can see everything.

I have been using this solution for eight years.

It is stable.

It is scalable. We have more than 100 users.

They provide quite good support, and for the product, they have a lifetime warranty.

It is very easy. The setup or configuration of a new access point takes only 10 minutes.

Its price is reasonable for me.

It is a good product, and it is very competitive in terms of price.

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

We use it for WiFi in our company.

There can be the same SSID for several devices.

The software should be made more stable.

I have been using this solution for three or four years.

It is better than before.

Its scalability is enough. There are 10 to 20 users per device.

Their support is enough for us.

It was straightforward. The deployment took one week or two weeks.

It was done in-house. We have two people for its maintenance.

I would rate it a nine out of 10.

We use Ruckus Wireless for network security.

Ruckus Wireless supports the most recent technologies. We can trace every individual and what kind of traffic they're using on our campus. It is very helpful.

I have been using Ruckus Wireless for approximately five months.

The stability of Ruckus Wireless is very good.

Ruckus Wireless is scalable.

We have approximately 1,800 users using the solution indoor and outdoor we are supporting approximately 50,000 users.

We have not had any problem with the solution. We have a warranty with the solution which is good.

We use Ruckus Wireless in parallel with Cisco because it is less expensive than Cisco.

The initial setup was not simple. We were installing indoor and outdoor wireless and this is why it took us three months.

The implementation of the solution was done by the vendor. The time of the implementation took approximately three months.

We have 10 system administrators for the support of this solution. They check all activities on the campus.

The price of Ruckus Wireless is less expensive than other solutions, such as Cisco.

We have licenses for 500 access points.

As a network professional, and an IT manager in a university, the Ruckus product is working with all the vendor's standards. There are common standards, they can be called something different based on the vendors. Ruckus Wireless, in Ethiopia, is not popular, including Huawei. However, Cisco is popular.

This solution is very good and they should introduce it to their network because they could see many benefits.

I rate Ruckus Wireless an eight out of ten.

We use the solution internally and also help clients set up the product for their companies.

It's a frequency. They will provide the tool and stable wireless frequencies. 

The throughput has been excellent.

The solution does not disconnect, which is extremely helpful, especially when you are working from home. 

The signal, strength-wise, is its most valuable aspect. These frequencies pass through touch one to 200 voltage. The distortion will not affect this product. That's why we suggest it to our clients.

The initial setup is very simple.

We have found the solution to be very stable. It's great in interior and exterior environments.

The scalability is great.

The pricing of the product can be a bit expensive. They should work on making pricing more competitive. 

I've been using the solution since 2015.

It is a stable product. The product is very good and very reliable and functions well in indoor and outdoor settings.

The scalability of the product is quite good.

In my organization, right now, we have 35 workers and we are planning to move our office. There will be 5,200 people there.

We do plan to increase usage.

Technical support could be better. They should also have it so that it's included and you should not have to pay extra for it. 

I'm also familiar with Aruba. Compared to Aruba, the frequency will not disconnect.

We tried Cisco, also, however, we heard that it's not a good product. Price-wise, they're really cheap, however, they are not a better product.

The initial setup is extremely simple and straightforward. It's not overly complex or difficult. Typically, one access point can be deployed in 15 minutes. 

The solution doesn't really need much maintenance. We have used it for seven or eight years without incident. 

Our engineers are able to implement the solution for our clients. We can implement it for ourselves in-house using our team. We can easily mount the materials. 

The product is very expensive. Technical support should also be included in the pricing. 

We tend to deal with yearly licensing renewal fees. We buy packages in bundles and then, every year, we need to pay to renew. 

We are Ruckus partners. We are systems integrators.

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using at this time. 

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

Ruckus Wireless is used for networking and security. They have both cloud-based and on-premise controllers available. You often see this solution in the hospitality sector. 

Ruckus Wireless is more of a plain Wi-Fi solution where it does the basic job well. Additionally, it has good conductivity, easy to use, simple to manage, and its access points can be used as standalone devices which gives flexibility in the SMB market.

The solution lacks a lot of features other solutions provide. If you are an organization that is more focused on security or you need a lot of other features, such as location tracking then Ruckus Wireless may not be the right choice. If you want a solution with more than basic security I would choose Arista or Aruba.

Ruckus has gone through too many changes in their management, and in the last four or five years, they have been lacking feature sets that others provide. Additionally, the integration, network security, and BLE features need to be improved. There are key features they are still lacking.

I used Ruckus Wireless within the past 12 months.

The solution is highly stable.

Ruckus Wireless is scalable. However, in terms of the scalability of the controller, there is always a limit on the number of access points or clients the hardware can support. If the access points are placed in a decent place with multiple options of controllers everything works well.

Ruckus Wireless is the best fit for the SMB market which they have a dominant presence.

We have deployed the solution in an educational institute and in a restaurant that has a lodging segment and a coworking space.

I have not faced any problems with the solution to need to contact the technical support.

The solution is straightforward. It can be done in a short period of time.

Once you deploy Ruckus Wireless correctly, there is no maintenance required. It is close to maintenance-free, except for some operational jobs which depend upon what the customer may want and that is where you need human intervention.

If you walk into any restaurant or hotel you will find Ruckus Wireless solutions because it is economical when it comes to pricing. There is a basic subscription for the license and support.

I have evaluated Arista and Aruba.

I would recommend Ruckus Wireless to anyone who is looking for a plain Wi-Fi solution. If you want Wi-Fi that will provide wireless connectivity that is good and stable, this is the solution to pick. If you need a solution with a lot of features for the network, such as wireless intrusion prevention or internal location tracking, there are other solutions that you should look for.

I rate Ruckus Wireless an eight out of ten.

It is generally deployed in hotels and sometimes for VIP customers.

In my experience, Ruckus devices are much more reliable than other vendors when it comes to consistency, coverage, and client density. Ruckus is very simple to configure and troubleshoot.

I've been using Ruckus Wireless for almost six years.

The stability of Ruckus Wireless is better than other solutions. I never hear complaints about coverage, connectivity, or speed. I've worked in the wireless field for almost 17 years, and I've only received one call about Ruckus. During the same time, I've received four calls about other solutions from other vendors.

I've deployed in JW Marriott Hotel with almost 900 access points. And I deployed it in one house with just 20 access points. So working with both big and small projects, I've had good customer feedback. Since I'm not receiving any complaints, I feel like it is working fine on any scale.

In one of the hotels, it stopped broadcasting SSIDs, so I opened a ticket with Ruckus support. They upgraded the software of the controller and performed some configuration modifications, then it worked fine. I only faced that one issue, but this was their own issue. It was delayed too for the RNA. 

For Ruckus Wireless, the setup is simple. The time for deployment has been increased somewhat. And deployment also depends on the quantity, but the solution is very easy to implement overall. Physically installation and configuration are simple. The access point is also much lighter than other solutions. 

We sell both Ruckus and Aruba. Aruba is more complicated to use and less reliable than Ruckus, but it's also much less expensive. When we're quoting prices, we'll send the customer two quotations, one for Ruckus and one for Aruba. So for example, if a project costs $2,000 with Aruba, the same project will cost around $3,200 or $3,500 with Ruckus. It is very difficult to convince the customer to choose Ruckus because of the price. 

I would rate Ruckus nine out 10. I'd also point out that Ruckus Wireless is high speed. And with Ruckus, you can use standalone or cloud-based. Standalone is much better. 

We have an internal network in the house that we use it for. It all has access points all over.

I am familiar with the brand and it works well.

The price could be improved.

I have used the high-end version of Ruckus in my house and we will be using it in my building. We have an outside company to help us with this. 

I have been using it in my house for two or three months.

We are using the latest version.

I have not had any issues with the stability of Ruckus Wireless.

There are six of us in my house that use this solution and we also have an outside guest house that has access.

I have not contacted technical support.

I did not install this solution, we had outside help.

We had an outside company install this solution. They oversee the network in my home.

The price is on the higher end. It's quite expensive, but that is what you get with these types of solutions. When you are dealing with Cisco or Ruckus, it's going to be a higher price.

It's been good so far and I have not experienced any problems.

I would rate Ruckus Wireless a nine out of ten.

The system is used in reporting as a vital business tool for collecting, analyzing, parsing, presenting, and storing unprecedented

The solution automatically detects network anomalies. SmartCell Insight uses advanced machine learning algorithms to automatically establish a pattern of normal behavior for each network element. The system requires no input from IT. Its predictive analytics capability automatically detects anomalous behavior in network elements—helping you to proactively address issues that might affect service levels.

The Ruckus SCI has transformed traditional network reporting into a vital business tool, collecting, analyzing, parsing, presenting, and storing unprecedented amounts of user, traffic, session, and location information. Data from the large networks can be stored and retrieved for several years. Ruckus SCI collects and aggregates statistics, providing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as upstream and downstream traffic, number of sessions, unique clients, or even the throughput customers can expect to achieve over periods of time on a per-AP basis, and filtered by time as well as a wide variety of other metrics

The most useful aspects include:

• Powerful Wireless Network Reporting and Analytics
• Network intelligence from applications, clients, access points, and controllers
• Predictive analytics powered by machine learning to automatically detect network anomalies
• Variety of standardized reports with drill-down capability for highly granular detail
• Data Explorer tool to customize reports and dashboards with drag-and-drop ease
• Ruckus SmartCell Insight (SCI) is the industry’s first Big Data Wi-Fi analytics and reporting engine that is purpose-built to help service providers make informed business decisions regarding the operation of their Wi-Fi networks. It makes use of Big Data technology and storage innovations found in columnar database repositories which greatly enhance the scale and performance of a system when used to process historical data.
• Easy to integrate/configure with old systems.

I would like to see more location-based services on the Smart Cell Insight on access points.

I've used the solution since about May 2021.

It is very scalable. You can add more controllers as long you have license capacity.

Customer service is excellent and the service is prompt.

You can also raise the level of your issue if you need to.

You can get to choose your type of support and they can communicate with you via e-mail or a direct phone call.

I did not use a different solution just yet.

It is a straightforward setup. There is documentation for the system, which makes it easy.

It was an in-house combination of the IS team and the system users.

I'm still considering other platforms.

This a good solution for an enterprise network.

Our clients use this solution for hotel and restaurant management, stadium management, and other forms of retail — typically for large environments. Still, for clients that don't have the resources for this type of hardware, we are looking for a cheaper solution or another enterprise-level access point.

Our clients are typically large businesses. They consist of a lot of major hotels; they all require huge deployments. We're talking hundreds, if not thousands of users. 

We have access points with EOL (end of life) — actually, they are working very well nowadays. Still, with the new technology, we need to improve these agreements because the new data rates need to be parallel with the new technology. That's the only reason the old access points are working so well.

Performance-wise, it's great. The throughput of the speed base and the capacity when it's operating in a high-density environment is outstanding. 

As an elite Ruckus partner, we get a big discount. That said, the analytics could be improved. Some of our engineers prefer the IQ platform in Extreme. They like the analytics and all of the information that they can validate from its cloud platform.

It would be nice if there was a way to compare access points and hardware so you can always get the same level of performance.

The platform that we have with version 5.12 has only just begun supporting R320. This makes things a little slow, especially in regard to the cloud menu. The analytics or maybe the kind of information that we can get about it could be better. We should be able to click on an icon for more graphics and less text.

The company I work for has been using Ruckus Wireless for roughly 12 years. Personally, I have been using this solution for six years. 

Stability-wise, Ruckus Wireless is great. 

Scalability is good. The SmartZone controllers have been working well. We know that they had a manufacturing issue with the first order as they had a lot of problems with the hard disks, but they seem to have resolved that problem. With the cloud, our clients have the capacity for a lot of systems.

We haven't had any issues with the technical support.

Personally, I think the deployment is easy. With Ruckus, there is a lot of documentation included to assist you with the initial setup. 

We are the owners of the equipment. We rent out services to our customers. We pay for all of our devices and rent them out. We have contracts from anywhere from 36 months to five years. 

Many of our customers also test and evaluate the analytics of Meraki. Analytics is very important to our customers. Ruckus has the ability to connect and get analytics, but you need to pay for that. With other platforms, we can get a lot of information for free. With Meraki, you need to pay for a license on a year-to-year basis.

With Ruckus, even if you have a big environment, you can get great performance with only one access point. 

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.  

We started rolling out Ruckus access points about eight years ago, but it was a very small deployment. We only had about 15 or 20 devices, and later on, we did a bond measure upgrade to basically go and expand that to having one per classroom and a few in the common areas such as cafeteria, gyms, and stuff like that. The idea was that we were going to put on-premises one-to-one, which is like putting a Chrome cart of 35 devices in each classroom. We wanted to be able to have the ability to have high-density wireless in the school district and up to possibly 80 devices per room because we were thinking of BYOD and devices that we already have. Generally, it was to be used for just normal day-to-day access to the network and internet.

We now have about 350 WAPs. Half of them have been installed over three years, and the other half are probably installed just under three years. We did a switch refresh in 2015, and we went with Brocade to replace our aging Cisco equipment, which was probably 20 years old. So, that's what we have right now. 

We are basically using the latest version of SmartZone. We are up to date on that. Unfortunately, about 98 of our wireless access points are now considered end-of-service. They don't support the newer boot code, so we had to create a separate zone. They are on a kind of legacy firmware that is probably about five or six versions back. Our other zone has the latest AP firmware. They basically have separate firmware. They are basically doing a firmware for the controller and then a firmware for the APs. You could even elect to have different firmwares per AP.

The APs themselves have been pretty solid. We haven't had too many of them go bad or anything like that. The wireless performance seems pretty good.

The ability to provision the devices is pretty good, and the back end is also pretty good.

Their support has been lacking a little bit and needs to be improved. I have had a ticket open for a month, and it is really hard to get a resolution out of them.

They haven't really come out with anything that is much of an improvement in a long time. It has mostly just been fixes and things like that. We used to have a ZoneDirector or a physical controller for the wireless network, and that was kind of end of life. It was very old, and at the time, we were expanding the wireless network, and we didn't want to rely on one piece of hardware that was pretty old. So, we went to SmartZone Cluster, which has two VMs in a cluster. Unfortunately, we lost the feature ability for guest networks and other things that we were using before, and Ruckus just kind of told us that they weren't supporting that feature in the newer product, which is not really great. I was told initially that SmartZone was an upgrade to ZoneDirector. It is the logical thing to think that it is going to have all the same features, but it didn't. 

The issue that we have right now is onboarding BYOD devices. It is not really great for us, and we're looking for a new product to make that easier. We did have Cloudpath, which was a product that Ruckus purchased from another company that was an onboarding solution, but it just didn't really work very well for us. So, we discontinued using it, and it actually created more confusion for people. They should make BYOD or guest network portals a lot easier and better.

In some areas, we have been having issues because there are just so many WAPs that are so close that we had to manually turn down the radio of power because the automatic feature of the AP wasn't really doing it right. It should also have a little bit better RF analysis capability to be able to see on the controller side. The front end for our staff, students, and guests has also not been quite as good as we had hoped.

I have been using this solution for about eight years.

It has been pretty reliable. I have not had any issues recently. A couple of times, we had some issues while upgrading the path to the latest version of the controller software, for which it took a long time to get a resolution, but otherwise, the system works pretty well.

It is scalable. It seemed pretty easy to scale. We went from having 25 to 350 devices, and it wasn't too difficult. The hardest part is just getting them in the physical location.

In terms of the number of users, it could potentially be up to 4,000 people. When we had full normal school going on, we were seeing somewhere around 1,900 clients a day on average.

One of the deficiencies that they have right now is their support. A lot of times I've opened a ticket with them, and I have this back and forth communication going on. I have had a ticket open for a month, and it is really hard to get a resolution out of them. I would rate them a five out of ten.

Before they had the mergers, their support used to be really good. They have been really good in the beginning, but the company suffered a little bit from being bought out a couple of times. Brocade bought Ruckus, and then ERIS bought them. They then got bought by Broadcom, who sold off half of Brocade's business and then spun the campus switch over to Ruckus Networks. After that, they got bought by CommScope. So, the support has been lacking a little bit.

In terms of an enterprise solution, this is the only solution that we have been using. Before that, we had some kind of APs that weren't really controller-based.

It was pretty straightforward. Once we had it kind of configured and dialed out, it was pretty easy. Obviously, different buildings, devices, and things can be complex. There is no blanket setting that works for all places. 

On campuses where we have buildings more spread out, it works better. When we have one site that is basically a whole giant building, the WiFi is a little too dense there, and we had to manually change some settings for that.

As far as adding an AP is concerned, it is pretty easy. You plug it in, and it contacts the SmartZone controller and downloads the firmware. After that, it shows up as a new available AP. You just put whatever WLAN or zone that you want it to be in.

It is decently priced.

I would advise others to make sure that they do a good demo and the feature set meets what they want.

I would rate Ruckus Wireless an eight out of ten.