I’m planning some home networking upgrades over the next few weeks/months. I have a pretty beefy networking already but I am wanting more for some specific places.
Current setup:
*2xHP E3800 48-port switches stacked in MDF. This is my “core”, routing all of my VLANs and is the main point of distribution for all other switches
*Brocade ICX 6450 24-port in my garage, this IDF handles external cameras, wifi, and a couple of jacks on that side of the house.
*HP 2530 8-port in living room, for TV, a camera, gaming systems, wifi etc.
*HP 2530 8-port in bed room, for TV, wifi
I have 4 Unifi APs, 2 AC LR, 1 AC lite and 1 AC Pro.
Goals of this upgrade would be to replace the 2530s, as they are only 100Mb switches. The second goal would be to upgrade to Wifi 6.
One of the things I am looking at is Aruba Instant On, the 1930 switches and AP22s.
The other thing I am looking at is the UniFi Switch Lite 8 PoE and AP-6-LR.
The biggest problem with the UBNT stuff is their lack of stock/availability. I’m not in a huge rush, but worth mentioning. The switches need to participate in spanning-tree, and have VLAN support, but otherwise they don’t need anything fancy. Do the Unifi switches participate in spanning-tree?
Another switch option would be the Ruckus 7150-12P
Does anyone have experience with the Aruba Instant-On APs, or any of the other equipment mentioned? Do you like them?
Go Unifi! As much as I hate to say one brand is the answer for home users it is true. We have started offering Work From Home packages and we just install Unifi systems with a subscription to cover our costs to host the controller.
Everything I’ve seen about the Instant On switches is that they are basically fully featured Aruba switches when running as standalone, and almost feature-less when adopted into the Instant On cloud. I’ve heard in reviews that Aruba will be adding more switch features to the cloud, but haven’t seen any further details about that.
The Ruckus 7150-12P is available on eBay for $200-$250, because Ruckus and Lennar made a deal to put one (and Ruckus APs) into every Lennar home, and people sell them on eBay because they need more ports, or don’t know how to use the Ruckus switches (which admittedly don’t have the greatest web UI).
If you decide to go Unifi for all switching eventually, then a Unifi switch now makes sense, but Unifi only really helps when all of your switches are Unifi - just like you wouldn’t want to have a mix of Unifi and non-Unifi APs.
I did a review of the Aruba Instant On and they are still as basic today as they were back then. They told me more features were coming soon, but no data was put on that. I am using the Aruba switch at my house and as of DEC 2020, still no different than my review https://youtu.be/QU2TtDQ9MjI
UniFi switches and access points are excellent, just don’t use their routing equipment unless you have only the most basic of needs.
I agree wholly in regards to the Unifi switching thing, and thats also been a sticking point in my brain. I have no intentions of moving to Unifi for Core/Aggregation purposes anytime soon. However, having them in those two edge locations seems like a really cost effective option.
HI Tom,
Interesting to hear about the APs being crummy still. The switch WebUI on your review makes that switch look like a really good contender, though. It seems to have everything the 2530 has.
I guess it’s really all up to the 1930 vs the 7150 for switching, and Unifi APs seem to still be the recommendation. I can wait for more AP-6-LR units to be seeded to reviewers before making that decision, since I want to get the switches in place before that upgrade.
I’ve never used the small business line of HP/Aruba switches, I know the OfficeConnect 1920s were pretty popular though. I’ve only ever used ProCurve products and their children. It’s disappointing that the 1930 doesnt have a CLI, but I could live with that. The Brocade/Ruckus/IronForge/Whatever other parent company’s OS is pretty good now that they’ve killed off Dual-Mode and I really do like that offering.
I’ve used both PRocruves and Brocade at work. We have 7450’s all over the place, and the POE keeps dieing on them all the time. The HPs I used to manage were basically bullet proof. Idk tough choice.
POE dying on the 7450’s is specific to that platform, I can confirm from experience that the 7150s are much better in that regard. The 7150-C12P does have a different issue though - because it is passive, the power supply is prone to overheating if not given sufficient ventilation. The rest of the 7150 line doesn’t have this issue because they are lower power (7150-C08P) or have fans.
You can also look at the 6450-c12-pd - I’ve heard this device has a much more reliable PSU, but you have to deal with the software being EOL (but you can still get the last version free from Ruckus).
I don’t know much about the HPE/Aruba switches below the 2xxx level, I know in the past they were a completely different platform from a different acquisition than ProCurve switches, but I believe newer devices are more on-par.