Ruckus Regrets (R730, how do I control it)

[custom90gt]

Hey everyone,
so I got super excited on Ebay when I found a Ruckus R730 for a reasonable price and I purchased it. Well obviously I didn't do my research and had no idea that it wouldn't run unleashed even though my R720 does it. My question to you all here is what should I do with it?

It will likely be my only AP since the R720 is good enough for my whole house, I just thought I'd make the upgrade to AX wifi for my fire stick maxes that I have throughout the house.

I haven't used a non-unleashed ruckus product before, so I'm not sure if there is a way to modify the configuration easily? If not, what would I need to purchase to run it?

Should I just sell it since it seems to be the unwanted step child of the R7/8 series? Hardware wise it seems great, but updates are few and far between.

*on edit* not sure if this is accurate or not, but a post mentions purchasing a ZoneDirector 1100 and installing firmware 9.8.3 to manage access points without purchasing a subscription. Is that accurate? The absolute last thing I would do is purchase a subscription or license to run this thing.

 

[daleq]

I also agree that it seems confusing that the R730 is not supported by Unleashed.
Maybe the "solo" firmware is suitable for you? (I have not used solo, so I can't say anything about it.)
Ruckus Solo Access Point 114.0.0.0.6565 (GA) Software Release (R730) 114.0.0.0.6565 2021-06-28

 

[custom90gt]

I also agree that it seems confusing that the R730 is not supported by Unleashed.
Maybe the "solo" firmware is suitable for you? (I have not used solo, so I can't say anything about it.)
Ruckus Solo Access Point 114.0.0.0.6565 (GA) Software Release (R730) 114.0.0.0.6565 2021-06-28

I appreciate the help. I did see the solo firmware but it looks like you need to have premium support to download the latest version, the other version is from May 2020...

I may try purchasing a ZoneDirector 1100 for cheap on ebay to see if it will let me "manage" it without having to buy any licenses. Unless someone has any other hints for me.

 

[ms264556]

You probably saw that the R730 isn't 'real' 802.11ax. It's pre-standard and got replaced with the standard-compliant R850.

Still a beast of an AP though, and if you just need the one AP then solo firmware is absolutely fine. I've run Solo before & you don't really lose anything if you only have the one AP at home. It's uglier to setup, but once it's done you never need to touch it again.

I recommend going to the Ruckus forum and requesting they make the latest Solo public. They had a problem with their releases for a while and everything was marked Premium, so hopefully they just need to re-flag the download. Having said that, you won't notice any difference running the older public firmware in the meantime.

If you want a ZoneDirector then you'll need to get a ZD1200 to support the R730. These are still pretty cheap (I have a few I picked up for ~$100 each), but the combined cost of the R730 and ZD1200 makes this an expensive upgrade for you.
You will be able to factory reset the ZoneDirector and install the very latest 10.5.1 release, and any update released in the next 30 days (+ any critical security updates indefinitely). I found that I always get another 30 days of support license when it runs out, so you might be able to get ZD upgrades forever at no extra cost. The actual running/management of the ZD1200 has no ongoing costs.

 

[ms264556]

...and since I have a ZoneDirector, I'm happy to swap you a never-used R650 for your R730 ...

 

[custom90gt]

I did read about it being a pre-AX AP, but for what I paid for it, I was willing to go that route. I'll see if they will make the latest solo release public.

Disappointing about the lack of the RD1100 to run the R730, they are super cheap online. I may look into the RD1200 in the future though. Good to know it doesn't have any running costs after the initial purchase.

And lol at the trade. Who knows though, you may see this R750 listed on the for sale section depending on how well it works compared to the R720.

 

[Vesalius]

I did read about it being a pre-AX AP, but for what I paid for it, I was willing to go that route. I'll see if they will make the latest solo release public.

Disappointing about the lack of the RD1100 to run the R730, they are super cheap online. I may look into the RD1200 in the future though. Good to know it doesn't have any running costs after the initial purchase.

And lol at the trade. Who knows though, you may see this R750 listed on the for sale section depending on how well it works compared to the R720.

I’ll offer my unasked for 2 cents. Practically, that’s not a bad trade. I have the r650 and for home use it’s excellent. Unless you are running 500 or more devices directly off it, I can’t imagine you would notice a diff, except you get a common unleashed install/management in home, less PoE power requirements and Wi-Fi 6 compliance.

sounds like a win-win for everyone if the offer was serious.

 

[custom90gt]

Well I got them to make the most recent version of Solo public, small kudos to them.

Is there anyone that is familiar with the solo firmware? I was assuming it would be as simple as setting up the wireless settings and then plugging it in to my switch with pfsense, but it's not. Devices do not get DHCP from pfsense. Also, does anyone know if it's possible to setup a LAGG with solo? Maybe via command line?

Thanks for all the help.

 

[ms264556]

Download the Indoor AP User Guide pdf and follow the "Configure the AP for Standalone Operation" section.

I have a 90% finished step by step walkthrough written (I'm going to give away all my non-Unleashed APs & wanted to provide easy-to-follow setup instructions), which I can polish off if the Ruckus documentation isn't clear for your use case.

The user guide also has a section "Configuring Link Aggregation (LACP) for AP Backhaul". I don't think your AP supports LACP though - Ruckus only enabled it for APs without multi gig ethernet.

 

[custom90gt]

I appreciate all of your help, I'll take a look at it and see if it's helpful. Any reason for ditching the non-unleashed gear?

It's too bad I don't know of any easy way to get 5gb ethernet to my brocade 6450, lol.

 

[ms264556]

By non-unleashed I meant old 802.11n. I have a couple of big boxes full of ZF7962s and ZF7982s I picked up when R600s still cost >$100. These have great antenna arrays so they perform better than any 802.80ac router/AP. But as you found, Ruckus solo is tricky to setup unless you know the steps. I spent the last year picking up cheap auctions for power supplies and network cables & I scripted the Solo setup, so I can give them new homes instead of chucking them into the ewaste.

And I feel your pain on the brocade front... I've got a 7150-48p which I'll probably never use, since everything multi gig comes with copper these days.

 

[custom90gt]

Maybe I'll see if you can send me a rough draft of that guide? What's weird is that it seems like my auto DHCP settings are not working and the AP itself will not get a lease. I'm going to try another couple of things today to see if it will work, but even after reading the AP user guide, I'm not sure what I'm missing.

 

[custom90gt]

Well the good news is that I finally got it to do DHCP after doing a factory reset after upgrading to the latest SOLO version. The bad news is that my speeds in the house on 2.4ghz or 5.0ghz are <10Mb, lmao.

 

[custom90gt]

Well I guess I'm giving up on this R730. Not sure if it's the solo firmware or something else is wrong with the AP, but the speeds on it just totally suck. 15ft away with a basically direct line of sight, speeds are <10Mbps on 2.4ghz. I've factory reset it, I've decreased the power (1/2 and 1/4), I've changed channels. Not sure what is wrong with it but as soon as I plug in my R720 things are great. Thank god for ebay returns in this case I guess.

 

[Vesalius]

@custom90gt if you keep your eyes open and subscribe to an ebay search for r(5,67)50's you can get any of those 3 for $450 or less every now and then.

 

[custom90gt]

Yeah I'll take a look for an R650 I suppose. It looks to be ideal for my home needs. It's just too bad this R730 isn't working out for me.