Ruckus Wireless as an Unifi alternative?

[ms264556]

For WiFi 5 definitively.
Nowadays, R650/750 also is an option for home if WiFi 6 is what you want. I got a R750 for a reasonable price and sold my R710.

If the extra cost isn't a problem then I love my R650s. There is a noticeable performance bump from the R710. Also the R710 is EOL in a few weeks, along with all other WiFi5 APs, so it's more of a short-medium term AP purchase.

For me, the R730 has performed better than the R650. But other users have had issues with them, so at $90 it's either a bargain or a lemon. A couple of R710s at $50 each is safer.

 

[ms264556]

if I mesh one AP in my garage that I can't run ethernet to - can I use the ethernet ports on the AP for a wired connection to a desktop or switch out there?

You can. Only the H series let Unleashed configure the port settings though, so you won't be tweaking these ports with VLANs or 802.1x etc.

 

[ZOMGVTEK]

I think the R750 is the next up sensible upgrade from the 710s at the current market prices. My vote would be R710, R750, or R770 if you want to upgrade the backhaul and spend a lot with questionable long term support. If you needed encryption on the backhaul to the WAPs, or have a lot of units, the hacked 730 as master is a cheap way to get that done. But this only makes sense on older units that are a bit slower anyways. I get something like 140mbit before the R730 master runs out of CPU on a core. Presumably it can manage this into 4 WAPs at the same time, but I haven't tested that. Still plenty of oomph for a VoIP network.

The R710's are sorta a medium term WAP today. They're flooding the used market, very affordable, are quite sensitive, and sip power. I struggle to hold myself back from replacing my WAPs with 770's, but its really only so I can do a speedtest and see the number hit a few thousand. If you're being practical, the 710's are still killer WAPs today, and should be for a few years yet.

 

[ChuckBuilds]

Perfect! Thank you all! Ordered one on eBay. Excited to learn the Ruckus suite.

 

[kpfleming]

I'll echo that; I've got a 710 (house, multiple floors, some plaster-and-lath walls) and a 510 (garage) and they are fantastic. I should get another 710 as a backup if they are that cheap!

 

[bugmen0t]

Are there any updates to the vSZ license optimizations for home use ?

 

[sth]

The circumvention of the licensing system? That would be illegal and frowned upon by Ruckus given it’s a current product and more than likely abused outside of just home users. It’s just not the same and extending the life of deprecated hardware.
I use vSZ in the home and honestly unleashed has closed the gap significantly compared to several years ago and will likely close further with the introduction of dedicated controllers now.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

The circumvention of the licensing system? That would be illegal and frowned upon by Ruckus given it’s a current product and more than likely abused outside of just home users.

Yeah, we would never circumvent the licensing system to have SZ for home usage (and for shit and giggles), because that would probably be illegal

 

[sth]

I struggle to hold myself back from replacing my WAPs with 770's, but its really only so I can do a speedtest and see the number hit a few thousand.

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.

 

[ZoomLenz]

Both ports work in unleashed. The PoE port is plugged into a 2.5G switch, and reports that properly as well. I was digging around a bit, and all the options appear to be functional.

Really cool to see a sorta straightforward hack to give these aging bricks some new life. The effort put into the documentation on your website is appreciated.

Seconding the thanks! Just added a R730 pretending to be a R850 as Dedicated Master following the guide.

Only thing I added was initially installing Unleashed 200.14.6.1.199 so I could update SSH to ECDSA, then resetting and upgrading to the latest.

 

[ZOMGVTEK]

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.

Yikes, this isn’t something I was aware of. I actually was just fiddling with WPA2/3 mode, and noticed I couldn't get a few devices connected anymore. One LG TV, a B9, wouldn’t connect at all. have a newer model, A2, and that connects as WPA2. I have a few other devices that are newer, and they connect fine as WPA3. Oddly, I have a few year old iPad Pro that also won’t connect at all in WPA2/3 mode. It gives some error about the channel being in use on other networks. I would think that should handle it just fine on the latest iOS...

Looks like I’ll have to sit this one out for a minute.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

I actually was just fiddling with WPA2/3 mode, and noticed I couldn't get a few devices connected anymore.

Yeah, that seems to be a pretty widespread issue...

Honestly I'd skip Wifi6E and wait for Wifi7. Ruckus seems to think the same, because Wifi6E APs are not getting Unleashed support (confirmed somewhere in the ruckus forum)

 

[diode]

R730 has limited Wifi6 support and was removed from SmartZone recently. It does NOT support Unleashed (you can "crossflash" it to R850 and use it as Dedicated Unleashed Master without Wifi / Radio enabled)

So that I understand this correctly, if you side load the AP with the R850 software, it will completely shut off all wireless on this device? It only then acts as an Unleashed Master and won’t be able to host any clients via WiFi?

If that’s the case, then why not just go with an R710 and use that as a master?

I’ve just started digging through the Ruckus AP material so I’m sure there’s something I’m missing.

 

[ms264556]

No. After the R850 hack & an upgrade to Unleashed you'll have a fully functional R730 including WiFi.

The R730 has a funky partial 802.11ax featureset though, so you won't get exactly the same WiFi performance as you'd get from a real R850.

But I've run the R730 as my main unleashed AP since the hack & WiFi works great - better than the R650 I had before.

What a couple of commenters have done is run Unleashed Dedicated Master on the R730. Dedicated Master gives you all the L3, tunneling, etc functionality from ZoneDirector & also gives you the ZoneDirector controller model (a primary and backup controller, rather than an election based system). Dedicated Master is not available with an R710 - you must use an R750 or R850.

 

[custom90gt]

Thanks for your help @ms264556, I was able to get a R730 up and running as an R850 for the grand total of $85 after taxes! Makes me think about dumping my unused R650 for another one or three, lol.

Also on edit, I was also able to get an XClaim Xo-1 modified to a T300 for my father-in-law's Christmas present!

 

[ZoomLenz]

Thanks for your help @ms264556, I was able to get a R730 up and running as an R850 for the grand total of $85 after taxes! Makes me think about dumping my unused R650 for another one or three, lol.

Also on edit, I was also able to get an XClaim Xo-1 modified to a T300 for my father-in-law's Christmas present!

The biggest thing preventing me from grabbing more R730s and replacing my R650s is the additional power requirements. I'd be replacing switches and/or getting injectors to deploy them properly.

 

[diode]

No. After the R850 hack & an upgrade to Unleashed you'll have a fully functional R730 including WiFi.

The R730 has a funky partial 802.11ax featureset though, so you won't get exactly the same WiFi performance as you'd get from a real R850.

But I've run the R730 as my main unleashed AP since the hack & WiFi works great - better than the R650 I had before.

What a couple of commenters have done is run Unleashed Dedicated Master on the R730. Dedicated Master gives you all the L3, tunneling, etc functionality from ZoneDirector & also gives you the ZoneDirector controller model (a primary and backup controller, rather than an election based system). Dedicated Master is not available with an R710 - you must use an R750 or R850.

Meant to thank you for the reply. I was able to get the R730 flashed and am amazed at how much more coverage I get with one AP versus my three Uniquity which I have installed.

I now have two switches and two Ruckus AP which has taken my setup to a whole new level.

 

[namezys]

Hey. I had an issue with r730 because it constantly reconnect clients.
I tried to solve it by using Solo Ruckus r730 Solo - Issue with 802.11ax
but cross flash solved it and it works perfect.

BTW maybe somebody tried to do something with embodied zigbee controller? Using in repeater mode would be perfect.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

I tried to solve it by using Solo Ruckus r730 Solo - Issue with 802.11ax
but cross flash solved it and it works perfect.

Glad that I could help (Yes that in the Ruckus forums was me)

 

[diode]

Hey. I had an issue with r730 because it constantly reconnect clients.
I tried to solve it by using Solo Ruckus r730 Solo - Issue with 802.11ax
but cross flash solved it and it works perfect.

BTW maybe somebody tried to do something with embodied zigbee controller? Using in repeater mode would be perfect.

Would be cool if anyone was able to get the Zigbee controller working. It seems like it would complement those who are running a Zigbee network in their home or office, for sure!