Aruba Wireless Pros and Cons

It has an aesthetically pleasing GUI for configuration.

With Aruba Wireless Controller, all our access points are connected to one controller. Through that controller, we can actually handle each access point; we can disconnect or connect that access point, and then we can tell, or see, or allow how many users are, or should be, connected through that access point.

The most important feature is all about the two wavelengths, the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz, and the access points which are connected to this wireless controller.

If we really want to know where a specific user is connected, it gives us the ability to see that and how that user is actually receiving. We can know the speed and their IP, their MAC address and, most of the time, how much bandwidth they're using per day.

The dashboard tells us who is using most of the bandwidth, and how many APs are not in good range, or that do not actually have good security. It shows us which users are trying to hack or how many users are trying to use BitTorrent. So it gives us very good visibility into the user.

The web interface to manage the APs is intuitive and makes managing the system easy. Firmware updates are quick and do not require much downtime.

Scalability has been one of the easiest aspects of the Aruba Instant product line. As long as the models are compatible, you can simply connect it to your network and it will learn the settings from the other APs on the network and join the AP network.

The most valuable feature of Aruba Wireless is application monitoring.

It provided an easy WiFi solution for our branch offices to deploy​. We could usually have them up and running from out-of-the-box in about 10 minutes.

The initial setup was very simple.

With the central management system, I'm able to access each device. I can configure one device and then it provisions all the other devices with the same configuration, rather than my having to configure them one by one.

It delivers constantly, there is no break in the internet using these devices. It also automatically gets connected when the internet comes back. Failure is very low.

The biggest selling point was the ability to create two different SSIDs to control public versus private wireless networks.

Installation is relatively easy.​

​Stability and its ability to handle more devices has been an improvement for our organization.​

​The feature that I love the most is being able to broadcast different SSIDs with different protocol requirements. ​

​Initial setup was very straightforward. We set up the switches and APs, then took it from there. ​​

We have three wireless networks: One for employee use, one for guest use, and one for our warehouse use, which uses MAC authentication. These wireless networks just simply work, they do not fail. The IAP-205 devices are very strong with great range. Very durable equipment; it always works.

The urgent areas of improvement would be customer support, better tuned default settings, and documentation.

The speed could be better. I heard that Aruba is trying to shape the speed inside the wireless controller, but that has not been adopted yet. If they put some kind of mechanism inside the wireless controller for the speed such that, "Okay, this many users will have 20 by 20 - 20 in the upload, 20 in the download. Just this many users. And this many users will have that type of speed." I think it would be very good if they actually bring that functionality inside the wireless controller.

Every month Aruba has new firmware. I don't know if it's good or bad but it's not good in terms of production. We can't upgrade our firmware every month, especially an enterprise company, because if we upgrade our firmware based on the latest firmware that Aruba has, that firmware is not stable. They're not 100 percent sure about it.

Customer service really needs to be improved. If the customer support was better, I would recommend it to others more than I do now. Considering that you have to pay yearly for support, I expect a higher level of support.

For a more senior tool, a local application monitoring related to IoT vendors would be useful.

The product’s performance got worse with newer releases.

The latest design of their APs removes the console port and requires purchasing an expensive proprietary cable just to access the console.

I used to have issues with DHCP. It is extremely buggy and difficult to upgrade with different firmware versions/models.​

Aruba’s poor performance and random upgrade issues caused too much time consuming maintenance and troubleshooting.

There were some settings which were confusing and unlabeled when trying to use the online help with the newer firmware.​

The management system would be better if it were more polished, if it had a better interface like, for example, Meraki

If you want a centralized management system that is able to manage all your networking devices such as the wireless, the switch, the routers, and the firewall, then Aruba may not be the one, because Aruba doesn't do firewalls.

What I would like to have with these kinds of devices is the most enhanced security. For example, if I could apply security from wireless devices, that would be great. I would also like more enhanced reports on user adoption, who is getting what bandwidth.

The Aruba Central cloud portal needs a lot of work. It is complicated to navigate.

The ceiling grid mount clips have room for improvement. ​

Initial setup was complex.