Ruckus Wireless as an Unifi alternative?

[custom90gt]

A dedicated master is necessary if you need some extended L3 features or you have a huge amount of clients (at least 500-1000).
I don't see any reason to speedup roaming because it is client responsibility.

I suppose I'm just looking for a reason to spend more money on more hardware, hah. I could probably get away with just a single R850, but I'd love to have good coverage around the whole house.

According to this old article, the controller will be participating in the roaming (since Unleashed seems to work the same as ZD) so it's theoretically possible I guess?

I personally have 1000km between my ZD and its furthest house full of APs. Never noticed slow roaming.

Seems like that's just addressing the actual delay when talking to the ZD itself? Maybe not an issue with having a non-dedicated master on the same network.

 

[ms264556]

I suppose I'm just looking for a reason to spend more money on more hardware, hah. I could probably get away with just a single R850, but I'd love to have good coverage around the whole house.



Seems like that's just addressing the actual delay when talking to the ZD itself? Maybe not an issue with having a non-dedicated master on the same network.

Yeah, the contrived example in the article relies on long distances. As I said I my first comment, I don't see any roaming difference at home no matter what controller I'm using.

 

[custom90gt]

Yeah, the contrived example in the article relies on long distances. As I said I my first comment, I don't see any roaming difference at home no matter what controller I'm using.

You're supposed to tell me it's worth buying more hardware to test it on

 

[ms264556]

You're supposed to tell me it's worth buying more hardware to test it on

I was going to write a message telling you to send me your R850, but I remembered the huge box of unnecessary R610s, R650s & R730s cluttering up my office.

 

[custom90gt]

I was going to write a message telling you to send me your R850, but I remembered the huge box of unnecessary R610s, R650s & R730s cluttering up my office.

Hah this is still the Ruckus from ebay that's not quite an R850 but functionally similar to...

 

[ms264556]

Re: 200.15.6.12.304 Apple devices connectivity issues

Hi Everyone, We were able to reproduce the Roaming issue and the we have fixed it, we have a QA build available which is tested and production capable. will it be fine if you can you help us to load the image and check if is working for you? This will help us to get the confirmation from the...

community.ruckuswireless.com

200.15 - problems with iOS devices & roaming/deep sleep/general connectivity. I don’t know why it doesn’t affect everyone- I have three R750s and a H550 and I’m affected. There’s other folks affected as well but Ruckus QA is having difficulty reproducing the wake from deep sleep issue. They managed to reproduce the roaming issue but the version they say fixes it … doesn’t

They've released another refresh, 200.15.6.112.54, which claims to fix the roaming issue this time.

 

[Vesalius]

Another minor firmware bump was released today trying to fix the Apple bugs introduced in the initial 200.15.*

RUCKUS Unleashed 200.15(MR) Refresh Release Notes
Resolved Issues in Build 200.15.6.112.54

• Apple devices having roaming issues after upgrading to Unleashed 200.15 MR. [ER-13584]​

Resolved Issues in Build 200.15.6.112.52

• HomePod Minis are unable to connect to the Unleashed network after upgrading to Unleashed 200.15. [ER-13309]​

Resolved Issues in Build 200.15.6.12.304

• Kernel panic reboot in T610 AP. [ER-12634]
• R750 APs are rebooting with target assert. [ER-12709]​

 

[hmw]

Another minor firmware bump was released today trying to fix the Apple bugs introduced in the initial 200.15.*

RUCKUS Unleashed 200.15(MR) Refresh Release Notes
Resolved Issues in Build 200.15.6.112.54

• Apple devices having roaming issues after upgrading to Unleashed 200.15 MR. [ER-13584]​

Resolved Issues in Build 200.15.6.112.52

• HomePod Minis are unable to connect to the Unleashed network after upgrading to Unleashed 200.15. [ER-13309]​

Resolved Issues in Build 200.15.6.12.304

• Kernel panic reboot in T610 AP. [ER-12634]​

• R750 APs are rebooting with target assert. [ER-12709]​

yep this build promises to fix the problem of Apple devices disconnecting when waking from sleep or then not connecting at all when 802.11k and 802.11r are turned on. I am going to update now and test with iPhone 15

 

[Becks0815]

Another minor firmware bump was released today trying to fix the Apple bugs introduced in the initial 200.15.*

If I wouldn't have added this thread to my watch list, I would miss the updates. The R610 I have is bullet proof, fire&forget, with zero maintenance. Last time I looked into it for a firmware upgrade, it had 150 days online time, and only because I unplugged the POE by accident at some time, it didn't have more days on the clock.

Amazing APs.

 

[custom90gt]

If I wouldn't have added this thread to my watch list, I would miss the updates. The R610 I have is bullet proof, fire&forget, with zero maintenance. Last time I looked into it for a firmware upgrade, it had 150 days online time, and only because I unplugged the POE by accident at some time, it didn't have more days on the clock.

Amazing APs.

Agreed, that's the reason I switched from a consumer Asus router to the ruckus. The Asus router needed reset on a weekly basis and the only time the Ruckus gets reset is when I'm messing around with it for fun.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

FYI, little experiment with T750 today (probably won‘t be as bad for R750 etc)

iperf3, device on rear of AP: 80Mbit
iperf3, device in front of AP: 800Mbit

about expected. The Outdoor APs only radiate like a half sphere due to their massive aluminum backplate

 

[6TTLAB]

i only Ruckus 550

 

[fohdeesha]

i only Ruckus 550

ver niceeeee

 

[tazplex]

@ms264556

Assuming the recommendation is to stay on 200.14 with a R730 flashed to R850 used as Dedicated Master, even though the WiFi features are disabled. Does it still loop? Thanks.

 

[ms264556]

@ms264556

Assuming the recommendation is to stay on 200.14 with a R730 flashed to R850 used as Dedicated Master, even though the WiFi features are disabled. Does it still loop? Thanks.

Other users have reported that 200.15 is fine if your R730 is a Dedicated Master.

You should be ok if you directly install the latest 200.15 release. You will have problems if you subsequently upgraded to a newer 200.15 build - both partitions would then have 200.15, so a factory reset would brick your AP.

So if youre running 200.15 and decide to install a newer 200.15 release you'd want to backup your config, install 200.14, install the latest 200.15, restore config - ensuring the spare partition has something which will boot with radios enabled.

 

[ZoomLenz]

Other users have reported that 200.15 is fine if your R730 is a Dedicated Master.

You should be ok if you directly install the latest 200.15 release. You will have problems if you subsequently upgraded to a newer 200.15 build - both partitions would then have 200.15, so a factory reset would brick your AP.

So if youre running 200.15 and decide to install a newer 200.15 release you'd want to backup your config, install Solo, install the latest 200.15, restore config - ensuring the spare partition has something which will boot with radios enabled.

Running an R730 (as a R850) as a Dedicated Master here.

I first set it up as a DM on 200.14 and then upgraded to 200.15.

Before every 200.15 update, I roll back to 200.14 and upgrade to the latest from there. That way I always have a 200.14 image in the spare partition to recover from if something pukes.

 

[sth]

Something I discovered when replacing R750's with R760's is WIFI6E requires the use of WPA3 and several devices I have in active service have no support for WPA3 and are not expected to be upgradable, for example, Nvidia Shields and some Brother printers. The best workaround I've found to date is to create a dedicated 6ghz SSID but this consumes additional airtime and compromises range in relation to 5ghz. Unless you have a need to be on the cutting edge I'd hang tight on R750's and wait better client compatibility for Wifi7.

I “solved” this issue (worked around) the issue upgrading the R750s to R770s by creating a dedicated 5Ghz legacy SSID.
My current config is :
IoT on 2.4Ghz only & WPA2
Guest network on 5Ghz & WPA2
Legacy 5Ghz for Shields on WPA2
Primary network on 5&6Ghz and WPA3
Wifi7 is a noticeable step up in bandwidth and range. 5Ghz is pretty crowded around me and having clear 6Ghz is refreshing.

 

[Mithril]

Other users have reported that 200.15 is fine if your R730 is a Dedicated Master.

You should be ok if you directly install the latest 200.15 release. You will have problems if you subsequently upgraded to a newer 200.15 build - both partitions would then have 200.15, so a factory reset would brick your AP.

So if youre running 200.15 and decide to install a newer 200.15 release you'd want to backup your config, install 200.14, install the latest 200.15, restore config - ensuring the spare partition has something which will boot with radios enabled.

So if we are using a R730 flashed to R850 stay on 200.14 still?

 

[Mithril]

thanks for the confirmation @ms264556
What breaks if you upgrade a crossflashed "R850" to a 200.15 release and (try to) use the radios? Do the radios just not work? does it not boot? If I'm willing to try it is there any useful debug I can pull (willing to connect to the serial port inside)

 

[ms264556]

thanks for the confirmation @ms264556
What breaks if you upgrade a crossflashed "R850" to a 200.15 release and (try to) use the radios? Do the radios just not work? does it not boot?

There's a kernel panic during boot if the radios are enabled.

Ruckus APs install firmware upgrades onto their spare partition (there are 2 firmware partitions, one of which is marked active) and then mark the spare as active & reboot.

The first time this new firmware boots then it will apply any necessary upgrades to the configuration.

If, however, the new firmware fails to boot 3 times in a row then the spare partition (i.e. the firmware in use prior to the upgrade) is marked active, so the previous firmware version is restored.

So if you upgrade from 200.14 to 200.15, and your AP is not in 'Dedicated Master' mode, then the R730 will reboot 3 times & then revert to 200.14.

If I'm willing to try it is there any useful debug I can pull (willing to connect to the serial port inside)

I bought some spare R730s for testing firmwares. So it's not debug logs holding me up - it's just the spare time and motivation to look into this, given the strong likelihood that it's not something that can be fixed. The R730 was dropped by Ruckus on all their platforms, so can't just crib fixes from e.g. SmartZone or ZoneDirector firmwares.