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Aruba Instant Wi-Fi Access Points

Aruba Instant Wi-Fi Access Points

Overview

What is Aruba Instant Wi-Fi Access Points?

Aruba Networks offers wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions via its variety of wireless access points.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Aruba Wireless LAN Systems have proven to be a reliable and robust solution for various organizations. Users have successfully converted …
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Aruba for the Win

10 out of 10
August 03, 2018
Incentivized
Aruba is being used by our school district to enhance connectivity for all staff and students. We deployed seamlessly across 15 buildings. …
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Aruba to the rescue

10 out of 10
November 15, 2017
Incentivized
We use Aruba wireless throughout the organization. We had a very unreliable wireless deployment from SonicWall. I had personally had …
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Product Details

What is Aruba Instant Wi-Fi Access Points?

Aruba Instant Wi-Fi Access Points Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Aruba Networks offers wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions via its variety of wireless access points.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.2.

The most common users of Aruba Instant Wi-Fi Access Points are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(67)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Aruba Wireless LAN Systems have proven to be a reliable and robust solution for various organizations. Users have successfully converted their Aruba IAPs into a cluster, enabling them to manage their access points even when the controller goes down. This feature provides uninterrupted connectivity and ensures that users can stay connected without any disruptions.

Companies and educational institutions have also benefited from the scalability and easy management of Aruba Networks. For instance, a university system has implemented Aruba Wireless as their primary network, serving faculty, staff, students, and guest networks across multiple locations. With over 25 access points set up across campus locations, Aruba Wireless provides a seamless user interface for setup and enhances connectivity for a large number of users.

The ease of management is another advantage of Aruba Networks. Administrators can manage each controller from a single location, allowing them to easily identify problematic access points or areas that require attention. This centralized management capability streamlines the troubleshooting process and ensures efficient network maintenance.

Aruba Networks has also been deployed in various environments such as office settings, school districts, warehouses, and customer service locations. Users have found it to be a reliable alternative to their previous wireless deployments, providing a stable internet connection even during high-demand events like meetings and seminars.

In addition to its reliability, Aruba Wireless offers advanced features that attract users. Some users have switched from Cisco wireless to Aruba wireless due to better visibility and SD-Wireless capabilities. The deployment of multiple controllers, Mobility Master, Airwave, and Clearpass further enhances the overall network performance.

Overall, Aruba Wireless LAN Systems serve as an effective solution for organizations seeking robust wireless connectivity across multiple locations. Its scalability, easy management, and reliable performance make it suitable for various use cases ranging from small offices to large campuses or enterprise-level deployments.

Easy Installation: Multiple users have expressed their satisfaction with the easy and straightforward installation process of the Aruba Access Point. They found it to be hassle-free and user-friendly, making it convenient for both technical and non-technical users.

Convenient Cluster Upgrades: Many reviewers appreciate the convenience of being able to upgrade their entire cluster from a single dashboard provided by the Aruba Access Point. This feature saves them time and effort, allowing for efficient management of their wireless network.

User-Friendly Interface: The well-designed interface of the Aruba Access Point has been praised by numerous users for its ease of use. Its intuitive layout and smooth navigation contribute to a positive user experience, even for those who are not familiar with networking technologies.

Inadequate default settings: Some users have found that the default settings for the hotel lobby, offices, and outdoor areas could be improved. They feel that these settings do not meet their specific needs and require manual adjustments upon installation.

Lack of comprehensive documentation: Users have mentioned that better documentation is needed for the product. They have experienced difficulties with authentication methods and struggled to find clear instructions on how to configure and troubleshoot them effectively.

Challenges with pricing and licensing: Several users expressed dissatisfaction with the pricing and licensing of the product. They have concerns about it becoming similar to the issues they faced with Meraki licensing, which could potentially impact their budgeting and overall cost-effectiveness.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-14 of 14)
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Mahmoud Kasem | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Using [Aruba] IAP can save your back in case of the controller goes down you can convert them to IAP and build a cluster and have the ability to [set up] and manage it and also for small and medium company you can purchase instant APs and build your own cluster[.]
  • Easy to install[.]
  • Easy to upgrade all cluster from single dashboard[.]
  • You can use arm and client match[.]
  • Hotel lobby
  • Offices
  • Even outdoor areas
Small scenario when we covered a factory storage area by around 15 to 20 AP instead of purchasing a wireless controller and still we have the same main features while using the IAP cluster[.]
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have medium deployment of Aruba wifi, have multiple offices in which we have controller and between 10 - 100 APs. From the point of management it is very easy as we can manage each controller from single location - mobility master. Most of our users are on wifi right now and we do not see any problems while users are moving over office and we easily identify problematic AP or area.
  • Good speeds and area coverage.
  • Easy deployments.
  • Good documentation and online support.
  • I hope it will not end up like with Meraki licensing when moving to cloud.
  • Some small issues for specific configuration changes which has to be done in order otherwise they do not work.
We use it in all our offices from small to larger ones (20 - 1000 people in office) and they work great.
We also use it for our events which are happening from time to time based on covid it has moved online for the moment but once we had 30k visitors in 2 days and had good amount of Aruba wifi which worked perfect in this event.
May 19, 2021

Aruba is superior

Michael Haberkern | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Aruba networks throughout our environment with approximately 80 wireless access points, both indoor and outdoor, utilizing 2.4 and 5g as well as public and secure SSIDs. Aruba is very scalable and once configured requires little maintenance to run. Of all the wireless platforms I have used in my career, this is by far the most useable and stable.
  • Scalable
  • Reliable
  • Redundancy
  • Administrating from the webui can be pretty painful
  • It is extremely granular, which can be hard to understand
  • The IDS\IPS is weak in some repsect
Aruba and Clearpass is some of the best in the business. I have used Ubiquiti, Cisco, and Sonicpoint. For an enterprise, this is the pinnacle. The Aruba WAP suite has a model and range that is suited for almost every environment I can think of. The past 3 years using the product has been a positive expereince with only 2 outages (submitted tickets and they asked up to upgrade our firmware, go figure... that seems to always be the resonse.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Aruba WAPs for WiFi access in our office, for employees and guests. We were having about 25-50 people come to our office for large meetings and seminars. The crush of them adding devices, and then booting up Chromebooks for a training exercise would overload our WAPs. We installed these and ever since we don't worry about it anymore. These are rock solid.
  • Simple
  • Stable
  • Powerful
  • UI for management is just OK
It's been working great for us for years. We first purchased it so that we could have large educational meetings with guests and required a lot bandwidth and simultaneous users logging on.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used as a Branch Office WLAN controller with APs and as a Home Office (SOHO) Endpoint Manager (with RAP/IAP devices). It is managed by 2 Teams, and used by the whole organization for Home Office VPN connectivity. It addresses the problem of static VPN provisioning; WLAN provisioning through the VPN & VoIP Phone Connectivity with QOS.
  • Overall AP Provisionment.
  • Cloud-based management/provisioning of APs.
  • SOHO Connectivity Troubleshooting.
  • Simplify or enhance management of APs as corporate assets.
  • Simplify device hard resets for laymen (end users).
  • Better REST API instructions/documentation.
Aruba is very well-suited for Multi-office WLAN provisioning including geo-dispersed WLAN coexistence. It is also well suited to Small or Home Office environments. Aruba has struggled, and continues to struggle with, persistent nagging issues with its implementation of AAA and VoIP QoS, necessitating manual CLI intervention (or custom REST API scripting) to issue 'AAA user del' commands for bugged IP endpoints.
VoIP, while generally acceptable, sometimes suffers poor performance even when the last mile network is ruled-out. Base products offer little insight and advanced tools (like the formerly named Airwave) are expensive.
September 12, 2020

Aruba Networks Wireless LAN

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Aruba Wireless LAN is what is used to provide wireless internet access at the organization. This provides seamless internet access across various networks for staff and guest users. Without Aruba Networks Wireless LAN, the internet would not be as accessible for the organization.
  • Intuitive controller updates
  • Ease of access point configuration and deployment
  • Controller configuration using similar commands to Aruba Network switches
  • In-service software upgrades, although this feature has been added to Aruba OS8
  • Upgrading from Aruba OS versions may require a full network rebuild.
  • Additional licensing model for Aruba OS8
Aruba Wireless LAN is well suited for organizations that require a significant number of wireless access points and have simple intuitive management over all those devices. This would be less necessary for a business that may only require a single access point or a few access points that can be achieved through a simpler solution such as EERO.
Bruno Carvalho | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have two Aruba WLAN controllers in each state of the country. And several Aruba Access Points spread across different branches of the organization. In the WLAN Controller we do all the management and control of the wireless network and access points are the equipment responsible for providing Internet access to employees and customers. The main benefit is that you do not have to do any manual configuration on the premises. Only we do it in the controller and it replicates in all locations.
  • Supports 802.11 ac wave 2.
  • Supports many users at the same time at the access point.
  • Visibility of the entire wireless network.
  • Full access reports.
  • High price compared to some competitors.
  • It takes time to restore the network if you restart the controller.
The Aruba Networks Wireless LAN solution is excellent and I recommend it for our scenario where we have central controller and managed and controlled access points, as well as for scenarios where everything is in one place or does not depend on the controller. The Aruba wireless network supports many simultaneous users and automatically configures spectrum, signal strength, frequency and radio functionality. It is also possible to view the traffic that passes on the network and to know which applications and users consume the most bandwidth.
Matthew Haineault | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Aruba Networks Wireless LAN Systems throughout the company. We utilize more than 25 different access points to get the best signal from any place in the company. Connections are great and the user interface to set up the access points was seamless and easy to use for our company.
  • Easy to set up access points.
  • Easy to use interface.
  • Could have better default settings.
  • Could have better documentation.
We utilize three different networks. One for guests, one for employees, and one for employee computers. These networks just seem to work. They do not fail. It works very well for a manufacturing facility where multiple access points are needed to maintain good connections throughout the facility. It does not require overkill to get a good signal. They are strong access points.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Aruba wireless for all our locations, which include a standard corporate office, customer service locations, and warehouse locations. At our corporate location, the wall and ceiling are made of cement and our warehouse locations have very tall ceilings. Aruba has proven to be very robust, and can accommodate each location. We even have some Instant AP's in some of our remote locations, and at each of these locations we have multiple networks, including a guest network and event networks.
  • They have the range we need especially in our warehouses were they are mounted up on the ceiling.
  • They can all be controlled by a controller, which makes for easy configurations and monitoring.
  • The ability to have multiple SSID's is great. We are able to push traffic where it needs to go.
  • The built-in Guest network on the controller is top notch, and makes it super easy to give guest internet access but not access to your network.
  • We have had a bunch of these stop working after a power outages. We are guessing a surge or something caused them to stop working.
  • Some of the documentation is outdated. It seems they like to make changes to how things work and it usually mean less access and insight into the devices you manage.
  • The auto signal strength feature could use a little work. It seems like even when we turn it down all the way it tries ot increases the signal strength.
Wherever wireless access is needed, Aruba is the solution. Whether it's a large deployment or small, Aruba has a solution. We have a small office in another country and instead of buying a controller we used the Instant AP's and they have worked out great. In our large warehouses, we have a controller with 100's of AP's and we have not had any issues besides a few AP's dying. unless you have a really low budget, Aruba will work.
August 03, 2018

Aruba for the Win

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Aruba is being used by our school district to enhance connectivity for all staff and students. We deployed seamlessly across 15 buildings. This was a lower cost solution to Cisco and it has proven to be very robust and more than capable of supporting our needs. Airwave has been a welcome addition and allows us to see in real-time heat maps and what is happening on our network.
  • Monitoring - Airwave gives you a top down view of your network all the way down to the endpoints.
  • Ease of setup - From the beginning Aruba has been easy to implement and configure
  • Support - Airheads community and the people at Aruba have hands down been some of the best support I have used.
  • Remote access points were a little tricky to get working and requires a controller outside of the two we were currently using. On the plus side they have an inexpensive controller that worked for our needs.
  • I feel Aruba needs to offer more training in a hands on lab environment.
Aruba is great if you are looking for the Cisco quality wireless without the Cisco price. I have found Aruba Wireless to be as good as any Cisco equipment we have used in the past. The management with Airwave is outstanding.
Eric Taylor | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Aruba Wireless at all of our campus locations throughout our university system. We have been using Aruba for longer than I have been with my current organization. We run our primary wireless network for faculty, staff, and students as well as several guest networks for different groups of visiting users. Our deployment spans more than 25 locations with thousands of users and we have had great performance with the Aruba wireless.
  • Controller based deployment
  • Policy based management
  • Monitoring tools
  • We have seen struggles with authentication methods
  • Pricing can always improve
  • Licensing
We have some very high density deployment locations where large numbers of students come together for extended periods of time. We often have a thousand and more users within a conference area and have avoided connectivity issues and or complaints for the users in those situations. We feel that the Aruba wireless products are up to the task of high density enterprise deployments.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We had a Cisco wireless deployed, everything was running great but we found that it's lack of visibility and SD-Wireless driven. We decided to switch to Aruba wireless and attempted to put almost every user on the wireless within our headquarter. Having all users to be running on wireless can be challenging at first, but the ROI can be significant. We deployed two Controllers (appliance), Mobility Master (VM), Airwave (VM) and Clearpass (VM).
  • Using Airwave as single management point for APs in the environment, and the Web GUI management seems to be easy for administration.
  • Increase security with the use of Clearpass as NAC to provides role-based and device based network access control. Each wireless clients will establish secured ipsec tunnel and route data traffic to a controller. It's recommended to attached controllers closer to the network core with 10Gb uplinks.
  • Clearpass also built-in context-based policy engine, RADIUS, TACACS+ protocol support, device profiling and comprehensive posture assessment, onboarding, and guest access options.
  • Setting up Clearpass as RADIUS server to authenticate 802.1x users were pretty smooth. However, to setup Guest wireless with onboarding, and guest access can be challenged at times.
  • We have deployed the latest Aruba 335 with AC wave 2 capable APs. Just to compare to our previous Cisco 3700 series wave 2 capable APs, Aruba APs signal strength and coverage are significantly less than Cisco APs. We needed to increase the number of Aruba APs for the same coverage area.
  • There was an incident in Oct 2017, Aruba decided to push system patch and update automatically to the Clearpass. The process had brought down some services in the Clearpass including RADUIS 802.1x authentication. Aruba support notified us and found out there was a bug in the patch and somehow unknowingly cause the issue. This incident had caused our entire wireless offline and no one could authenticate to the wireless network regardless if there was redundancy setup in the system. The incident and outage were reported and affected to all Aruba customers in the nationwide.
  • There was a second outage in less than 6 months and also caused by another bug in the Aruba system. We have dual Aruba controllers A & B and dual uplinks for each controller setup for redundancy. However, recently when one of the controller A went offline without any alert (later found out the port-channels between controller A and the network switch became "not-trusted"), all APs residing on controller A had dropped and offline. However, all APs would not failover to the controller B. After digging into logs, Aruba tech support found out there was a bug in the software which caused this problem.
It is possible that we have a bad luck with the deployment. However, It is capable to perform enterprise-level security to fit some of the organization's standards. With Airwave and other tools, it's easy to manage and administrate your wireless environment. Make aware of the IPsec tunnel from each user to the controller if you are using Clearpass for NAC. If you have a remote office with local resources, you will need controller or IAP to route traffic locally. If you have many remote offices, you will need to deploy controllers or IAP in each office, which lead to additional cost and management.
November 15, 2017

Aruba to the rescue

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Aruba wireless throughout the organization. We had a very unreliable wireless deployment from SonicWall. I had personally had experience with Aruba hardware from a previous employer. Knowing the reliability of their APs, I made the recommendation to my department to check out Aruba. We've not looked back.
  • Load balancing between APs.
  • Deployment of firmware.
  • We have the 325 model and can push several devices through them w/o issue.
  • They claimed to only need 20W of power for full functionality, however, we found they need 29W of power. On CISCO PoE switches at least.
I've seen Aruba APs anywhere from small to medium-sized businesses. They are the best APs I've used and hope that they will continue to be now that they are a part of HP.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Aruba Wireless is being used across our entire campus to serve approximately 800 students and 250 faculty and staff with multiple wireless devices each. We currently use a controller-less IAP environment with 256 IAPs across 8 different "swarms" or clusters. The Aruba APs offer easy implementation and management through a web GUI. Adding additional APs to a swarm simply involves configuring a network port on the appropriate VLAN and plugging in the AP. The swarm master pushes the config out to the new AP.
  • They offer both a controller-based and controller-less option. This allows customers of all sizes to deploy a wireless network without the upfront cost of controller hardware. A controller can be added later.
  • Aruba also offers Airwave which is a single management point for all AP swarms in the environment. It offers many reporting features as well as visual RF maps displaying heatmaps of the AP signals and client positioning.
  • The Aruba Access Point we have (224s and 225s) also offer both PoE and external power supplies for those smaller deployments that may not have PoE capable switches.
  • Although there is a Help option within the IAP web GUI, it would be nice to have it be a little more descriptive about what some of the features are and do.
  • Online documentation could give more information about configuration and troubleshooting, but a call or email to support usually has things resolved relatively quickly.
I feel that Aruba wireless solutions are suited for most any environment. It is possible to scale from one AP to hundreds. It is capable of both personal and enterprise level security to fit any organization's standards. Coupled with the software tools, you have incredible control over your entire environment.
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