Ruckus Wireless as an Unifi alternative?

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Dave Corder

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Dec 21, 2015
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The external modules are similarly numbered but are prefixed by a T, not R. They are significantly more expensive though so sit down before hitting ebay up! At the price the R models are available Id be inclined to mount one in a sheltered location and see how it goes. Putting one in some kind of plastic external box probably wouldn't affect range and may help with rain protection etc.
I subjectively guesstimate an increase in range of about 10-15% moving to Ruckus from Unifi. They can't defy the laws of physics so tin foiled insulation will still be an issue, but there is likely to be a slight uplift which may just push it into the range of useable.
Thanks for the info. The laws of science be a harsh mistress...we'll see if it becomes usable enough with the R710 (I mostly want to be able to do FaceTime/Google Duo calls with my kids to my parents from the backyard as they play this summer...). If not, I think I will see if I can find a cheap enough Rx10 unit (I gather those are the ones that are not yet EOL and still getting Unleashed firmware updates?) and mount it under the eaves.
 

sth

Active Member
Oct 29, 2015
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makes sense. TO give you some hope, the slight improvement I saw in range moving to Ruckus was enough to solve access in my garden and enable wifi calling/skype etc so fingers crossed the slight improvement in range gets you what you need.
Under the eaves sounds like a decent enough space if you have to go that route.
The R/T710 are still getting upgrades I understand but I could be wrong. Check on the Ruckus site, you'll need an account at some point if you haven't created one yet.
 

blinkenlights

Active Member
May 24, 2019
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The external modules are similarly numbered but are prefixed by a T, not R. They are significantly more expensive though so sit down before hitting ebay up!
Nothing directed at you, @sth, but I don't get why people are complaining about the price of used enterprise access points here and in other threads. I see a T305i 2x2:2 in what's described as "excellent" condition for $190 BIN on eBay. These units are a whole different kind of animal - they comply to different certifications than the indoor units, have to survive freezing cold and blazing heat, dust and rain storms, still performing well while being weather-sealed and hardened.

Honestly, I find it weird that anyone thinks that type of gear is at the same level as a $50 white box special at Best Buy ;)
 
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Konger

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Nov 24, 2019
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Just wanted to update you all on the Ruckus R510/R610/R710/R720 series for unleashed firmware... Ruckus just released unleashed firmware 200.8.10.3.278 firmware on Friday which fixes the wpa/wpa2 slow performance issue in 200.7.x,series and the first version of 200.8.x series. This should work for most devices such as iOS devices.. and so far only one android device reported not working for it. It seems to work for me and my iOS devices. For ruckus Wave 1 APs ruckus will release a 200.7.x firmware on Monday to address the same issues.
 

blinkenlights

Active Member
May 24, 2019
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Just wanted to update you all on the Ruckus R510/R610/R710/R720 series for unleashed firmware... Ruckus just released unleashed firmware 200.8.10.3.278 firmware on Friday which fixes the wpa/wpa2 slow performance issue in 200.7.x,series and the first version of 200.8.x series. This should work for most devices such as iOS devices.. and so far only one android device reported not working for it. It seems to work for me and my iOS devices. For ruckus Wave 1 APs ruckus will release a 200.7.x firmware on Monday to address the same issues.
Thanks, @Konger. I was able to do an "online upgrade" of my R720 once, only once.. it still shows the old firmware as the latest version, even though I can download 278 from the support portal.
 

Dave Corder

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Dec 21, 2015
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My new (to me) R710 has been up and running for about a week and a half now with Unleashed 200.8.10.3.243 and my UAP-AC-PRO shut down. The R710 is running the same SSIDs as the UAP-AC-PRO was and, for the most part, the R710 is doing better than the UAP-AC-PRO and I'm pretty happy with it.

However, I'm having an issue with my wife's phone (Pixel 3) and my phone (Pixel 3 XL). They're disconnecting from the main wifi SSID on 5 GHz pretty dang frequently and re-connecting. The logs show that it's due to the client side - "Reason: (code 3)STA deauth leaving". However, if I switch my phone to the SSID I use for my Home Automation equipment, I don't have this issue. I'm currently at a loss to explain this. I did some Wireshark packet captures and some diagnostics from the Unleashed console and didn't see anything terribly unusual.

Anyone have any suggestions? Should I start a new thread for my issue?
 

Konger

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Nov 24, 2019
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Thanks, @Konger. I was able to do an "online upgrade" of my R720 once, only once.. it still shows the old firmware as the latest version, even though I can download 278 from the support portal.
‘’it seems they haven’t pushed it yet to their online servers.... so I would just a manual local update to .278
 

Konger

Member
Nov 24, 2019
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My new (to me) R710 has been up and running for about a week and a half now with Unleashed 200.8.10.3.243 and my UAP-AC-PRO shut down. The R710 is running the same SSIDs as the UAP-AC-PRO was and, for the most part, the R710 is doing better than the UAP-AC-PRO and I'm pretty happy with it.

However, I'm having an issue with my wife's phone (Pixel 3) and my phone (Pixel 3 XL). They're disconnecting from the main wifi SSID on 5 GHz pretty dang frequently and re-connecting. The logs show that it's due to the client side - "Reason: (code 3)STA deauth leaving". However, if I switch my phone to the SSID I use for my Home Automation equipment, I don't have this issue. I'm currently at a loss to explain this. I did some Wireshark packet captures and some diagnostics from the Unleashed console and didn't see anything terribly unusual.

Anyone have any suggestions? Should I start a new thread for my issue?
Try update manually to unleashed 200.8.10.3.278 via local update.
 

klui

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2019
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The logs show that it's due to the client side - "Reason: (code 3)STA deauth leaving".
I'm not sure if the reason code Ruckus uses is the same as Linux WiFi codes, but according to Linux WiFi Reason Codes - Disconnection & De-Authentication Issues code reason 3 supposedly means "Deauthenticated because sending STA is leaving (or has left) IBSS or ESS: AP went offline, deauthenticating the client." Is it possible you have separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 Ghz and your devices can't stay connected to, most likely, 5 Ghz?
 

Dave Corder

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Dec 21, 2015
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I'm not sure if the reason code Ruckus uses is the same as Linux WiFi codes, but according to Linux WiFi Reason Codes - Disconnection & De-Authentication Issues code reason 3 supposedly means "Deauthenticated because sending STA is leaving (or has left) IBSS or ESS: AP went offline, deauthenticating the client." Is it possible you have separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 Ghz and your devices can't stay connected to, most likely, 5 Ghz?
Same set of SSIDs on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. My two OS X machines (a MacBook Pro and a desktop) do not have any trouble with the 5GHz network. My mother-in-law is currently staying with us and her iPhone and iPad don't seem to have any issues staying on 5 GHz either. Just the two Android phones, and only with one of the SSIDs on the R710. My Pixel 3 XL is running Android 10 with Android Security Patch Level of "May 5, 2020" and I'm pretty sure my wife's phone is all up to date as well.

Edit: "hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?" Rebooted my R710 just a bit ago to install an SSL cert, and so far my phone has been humming along for 15+ minutes without a deauth on the main SSID. We'll see if that holds...
 
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Kev

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Feb 16, 2015
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Installed the 278 on my R710 and speeds have gone from 220mbps to around 400mbps on average.
 

mmo

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Sep 17, 2016
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just fyi, updated firmware 200.7.10.202.118 for wave 1 is posted.
 

itronin

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Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
@Konger Thank you for keeping track of that and updating us! will be able to test this maybe later today and I have a mixed household of IOS, android, macos, and windows.
I had one issue - a windows 10 laptop had to be disconnected/forget network then re-add WiFi network.

all other devices, android, ios, macos had no issues reconnecting upon reboot.

I am not seeing any performance issues.

I also took this opportunity to change my ICX 6610 config to enable LLDP for the R710's to boost the power going to them.

Maybe this weekend I'll get LAG going too.
 

Kev

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Feb 16, 2015
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Somehow, the roaming and switching between bands was horrendous with UAP. I think the connection is just so much better with ruckus, the phones don’t need to make that decision to switch all the time. What ruckus is doing is unique and I can’t fault all the other manufacturers but the beam forming is really great and it works.
 

epicurean

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Sep 29, 2014
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I could not restore my backups from 200.6 , to the new 200.8 for my R710
It did a complete wipe and I had to configure all over again
 

Harry P. Nyce

Harry P. Nyce
Sep 27, 2017
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I'm a little unhappy with the perpetual beta-ness of the Unifi firmware, too, so I've been wanting to go to a Ruckus solution for a while
This is so painfully accurate, it kills me to have finally arrived at the same conclusion. After three or four years of deluding myself into thinking that Ubiquiti was just experiencing growing pains, it's become obvious that Robert Pera, the CEO, is so focused on these wild, fringe "innovative" ideas that never really pan out and the development and support teams frenetically scramble to keep up with what's going on. They're not being giving the tools and resources needed to be successful, there's no real clear mission, just an absolute mess of an organization. It's fine for the Apple crowd that just want some pretty blinking lights and simple, single pane management interface with a few basic features. These people care more about pretty retail packaging than hardware specifications, there's definitely a crowd for the space.

I still very much love my Edgerouter(s) paired with UniFi access points, but honestly wish I had made the jump to OPNsense (or pfSense) and Ruckus AP (currently using a little R310 with Unleashed firmware) years ago. I'm obviously not as familiar with the menus having only made the switch in the past few weeks, so having to relearn a bunch, but things are already noticeably more stable than the ceiling mounted UniFi (UAP-AC-LR) access point which was very good despite the aforementioned issues @Dave Corder so aptly brought up. Perhaps I'll eventually run both access points, but even the 2.4GHz bands are fine for streaming 4K video to multiple devices while dozens and dozens of other devices are constantly connected. Overall, both great choices -- UniFi for cost/ease of use, Ruckus for power users.
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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Just upgraded last night from 2x R600 to 2x R710.

I really should have taken my time and made a video of it going thru the process but I was busy with the wife and kids and still wanted to get them up and running last night.

On my Galaxy S10+ bandwidth/speeds are significantly improved and the size and heft of the R710 is quite noticeable as compared to the R600.

Just a few things that I ran into as "gotchas" for anybody interested in the process.

I bought these on eBay with the understanding they were already on the most recent Unleashed firmware, but they were not they had one of the controller based firmwares on them. So I had to install the Unleashed firmware.

Knowing the R600 and other Wave 1 devices maxed out at Firmwmare 200.7 I actually installed the 200.7 firmware to the R710's and just plugged them in and let them join my existing unleashed setup so I would not have to reconfigure any of my settings for the new setup.

After adding both new AP's to the network I removed the old two (Both physically and actually clicked on remove from Unleashed GUI) and then after that I was able to upgrade the firmware yet again to the 200.8 firmware. Though I noticed no difference in performance nor options by doing this. The only difference I saw was the new "Switches" section in the Web GUI.

The main "gotchas" without a power supply I used PoE to power these and if they are on a network with a DHCP server they will not use the 192.168.0.1 IP they will pull a DHCP address.

I could connect to them via SSH but not the web, and all the instructions I found to update the firmware used the web interface.
Turns out, I needed to preface the IP address with https:// using the IP alone or http:// would not resolve the web portal.


After I figured that out, changing the firmware was easy.

I was able to connect to the configure.me SSID with my laptop but just got an APIPA IP when trying to do that AD-HOC so I am not sure if you can actually configure them from the SSID. If you do an Ethernet AD-HOC connection without DHCP you will get the 192.168.0.1 IP for the AP and just manually change your IP as needed (I used 192.168.0.20)

The new firmware gave me a nice warning that my AP was running in a degraded state because it was not getting enough power.
Running both APs in 802.3.AF instead of 802.3AT when both switches I was using are PoE+ switches.


On the Brocade ICX 6450-48P I manually changed the inline-power to Class 4 and gave it the max 30W power limit and it finally changed the inline-power listing for that device to be 802.3AT from the CLI but the AP itself still reported consuming 802.3AF power and in a degraded state.

After some googling and finding commands for the CLI for standalone AP's I didnt really find anything for Unleashed.
Come to find out going to the AP individually and going to Edit you can do a PoE ovveride and by changing both AP's to 802.3AT mode suddenly they both started running at full power without being degraded. I have no idea why it did not negotiate the proper PoE power on both my switches (The other switch a simple Zyxel GS1200-8HP nothing to change in CLI just a basic Web UI where PoE is on or off)

I am very happy with the R710's they seem ideal for my setup as going to the R720 requires PoE++ for full function and so I do not have that and 2.5gb Ethernet which I also do not have. The R750 was just a bit too expensive and the only AX devices I have are my phones.

I personally cant wait for AP's to have 10gb Fiber connectivity so I can use faster than 1gb uplinks without having to get some kind of crazy multi gig ethernet switch.

Even without the load balancing features enabled, just like my dual R600 setup the AP's seem to do an amazing job splitting my clients pretty much in half.

Very happy with the R710 and eBay seems to come up with them pretty cheap on the regular. One seller has them for $250 each shipped I think thats a fair price. I got mine a bit cheaper than that.
 
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