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Meraki MR

Meraki MR

Overview

What is Meraki MR?

Cisco's Meraki MR Series is a wireless LAN solution.

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Video Reviews

5 videos

One Users Cisco Meraki Review: How it stacks up to the rest
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Cisco Meraki Review | Perfect for home access
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Around the world, This Cisco Meraki Review Points to how it helps users stay connected
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Product Details

What is Meraki MR?

The Meraki MR series is an enterprise-grade line of cloud-managed WLAN access points. Designed for challenging enterprise environments, the MR access points use advanced Wi-Fi 6 technologies including MU-MIMO, OFDMA, beam forming and channel bonding to deliver the throughput and reliable coverage required by demanding business applications.

Meraki MR Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Cisco's Meraki MR Series is a wireless LAN solution.

Ubiquiti WLAN, FortiAP, and WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud are common alternatives for Meraki MR.

Reviewers rate Product Scalability highest, with a score of 9.6.

The most common users of Meraki MR are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(136)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Meraki MR is a product that eases the administration for the customer and provides a short route in implementation for the consultant. A nice visual dashboard gives the customer an excellent view throughout the network. Most beneficial when dealing with many branches in several different places, it the branches furthest away that need most attention, with Meraki Dashboard all branches are as close as the HQ.
  • Centralised management when handling branches.
  • Easy to determin what model is suitable.
  • Stable and reliable wifi
  • Works well for both office and manufacturing due to the amount of antenna choices
  • Remote management and/or wifi as a service is easily implemented.
  • License and support in one SKU is appreciated
  • External antenna even for the MR44 and MR36. Customers may need the reach but not necessarily have a dense trafic environment.
  • Useful to keep the same AP mount, just as for Cisco classic
  • Power mode to save energy at certain times
  • Connect an AP via tunneling to wifi to reach places where cabling is hard to fulfill
  • When entering a renewal license before last date of renewal , old devices with still time left disapears
Smaller companies with several branches gives a centralised visibility without needing an extensive NOC. But even dense usage office spaces is well suited for Meraki and easy to follow in the dashboard. Meraki is at the moment less usable in smaller warehouses and factory floors since you have to go for the higher density MR46E even when coverage doesn't produce high traffic, the solution is more AP choices with external antenna besides the MR46E.
  • Ease of expanding is positive
  • Customers often understand the licensing model, they accept it but with a bit of muttering, but I find it transparent.
  • Last month change with Operation Scale is not a hit with dual messages. The solution is said to be pricing through Fast Track but not all items are on Fast Track.
  • A customer with multiple branches will save money when one person may operate the dashboard instead of several locals.
Visual management makes it easier to get a quick glance and an easier way of finding out what is wrong. Can be handed over to first line support to avoid involving networking technician straight away. Enables to get control of remote offices that actually are more crucial to have fully functional operations than head quarters since they are "left alone"
Switching is today more to tie the wifi network together, most employees connect through wifi, it is essential that Meraki security offers will follow along and offer to secure the network when the end point connects. Cameras will be used more in the coming years as well as your sensors to astablish the modern smart building that keep track on energy consumption and optimizes the need for the customer.
It is easy, first to find correct sizing of products and then to expand. Nice feature to allow the second MX to act as hot standby but still with one license. It is favourable to have one AP license so it can be reused with another AP , but not necessarily from the same series. Could be done for the switches as well. It's all about keeping it simple to the customer. The least cumbersome and most easy products to use and purchase will be the winner. Creating a big CX department is not always beneficial for the customer.
Meraki for the easier choice. Lately Meraki have climbed up the ladder with the new MS390 widening the offer. For me I see Meraki for the small/mid market customer and Cisco Classic more for the bigger customer with more specific needs. But security must follow along with the same ease of setting up like for what Meraki is known.
  • Cisco Meraki MR
  • Working from an office or other company space
  • Working from home
When at the office you are always protected by company security policies. Working from home is a different ball game. Here you need to sort out three different types of communication, your business communication through VPN, your business internet usage and then also your families use of Internet. These thre ways needs different approaches, you do not want malicious code to come into your network through the familys actions to affect your work device at home. Therefor you have to take an approach to secure your own end point as it is the first perimiter far away from the company protected environment behind a firewall.
You need to secure the end point. That endpoint must also be able to function as well from home as from the office. When the end point isn't secured at your home office, it might, when your in the office, connect to the office network and spread malicious code from within.
A simple VPN connection will not guard you enough, it will keep you safe when connected but what will happen when youre not connected? Ciscos can offer solutions for each step to secure your end point, from Cisco Umbrella to Cisco Secure End point keeping you and your company safe all the way.
Working from home keeps you more focused while not so frequent visits to the office space will create a need to be more social once you are there, making you less productive. Do make sure you use Webex or Teams to connect to collegues and be social with them. See, there is a Cisco solution for that as well.
Cisco products will be the same for protecting both the end point and to protect the companys network, threat intelligence will all come from Cisco Thalos.
  • Webex
  • Microsoft Teams
I'm a reseller, my aim is to get customers to get the most suitable solution for them.
  • Reliable wifi both at home and at the office
  • Ease of monitoring through Meraki Dashboard
  • New use cases is about to form
  • using the wifi to collect data from sensors
  • for air quality, density of usage, triggers for automation
  • Automation in new ways
Once again, it is easy to get running, gives you an extensive but still comprehandible management
No
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
It must be easy to use and to monitor, the end users experiance must be flawless and the management needs to be flexible but still not cumbersome.
It is important to understand your network and your challenges coming up ahead. Do I need a solution that can be ready and reliable straight away or do I want to evolve with the network over time. How do I implement security features along side and within the network.
Not been in contact.
I have no experience with Premium Support
No
TAlk to Meraki or your Sales Rep. most often they will find a solution that is suitable for you.
To get basic functionality doesn't take long. Set up a new Meraki Dashboard activate the licenses and get internet connection for the APs and you are more or less done. The Dashboard will find your items and you're good to go.
  • Beeing able to monitor remote branches in Dashboard
  • It powers up and will find your dashboard
  • More models need to be available with external antenna
Yes, but I don't use it
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We provide IT support for several organizations. Our implementation of MR and other Meraki devices have been in several industries, including schools, medical offices, business offices, and manufacturing. The ease of management of the access points is key to our recommendation and implementation of these products.
  • Ease of management
  • Ability to create multiple SSIDs
  • Monitor and track usage
  • Ease of setup
  • Licensing - provide discounted licensing for quantities
  • Discounts on hardware upgrades
Ease of management, especially SSIDs. Several years ago there were problems with Chromebooks getting updated configurations. We support a large school environment and would have had to reset all of these devices. We determined that we could easily setup a Open SSID to allow these devices to connect to. Once they were able to connect, they were able to access the updated Chromebook configurations which included resetting their SSID to the proper secured SSID. We could monitor connectivity to this temporary SSID to determine when devices were no longer connecting to it. Additionally in a school setting, we are able to modify/update SSIDs when needed (at least annually) and monitor access to SSIDs for private or guest access.
  • Hardware replacement - when a device has failed
  • Software license can be applied to a replacement device (ie: an upgrade)
  • Total cost of Management - ability to manage and monitor devices
  • Negative - the total cost of the renewal of 100 licenses for devices
We manage and monitor the implementation of Meraki devices for several of our clients. The cloud based management allows easy access for all of our support staff. We also utilize legacy copies of Systems Manager to allow for remote access and to manage, monitor, and inventory these devices.
Ease of setup - by entering the Sales Order number in the licensing screen, devices are configured and updated as soon as they are connectec to the network.
The ability to manage and monitor all devices. We have installations with MR, MX, MS, and Legacy Systems Manager. We are able to track an end device in Systems Manager and follow the connection thru an AP, the Switches and the Firewall, in either direction.
The consolidated cloud based management interface.
Meraki - ease of management. Negative - cost device and annual licensing, especially we comparing Meraki APs to Ubiquiti. This becomes a harder selling point because of the comparative cost.
  • Cisco Meraki MR
  • Cisco Meraki MS
  • Cisco Meraki SM
  • Cisco Meraki MV
  • Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
  • Working from an office or other company space
MX - Client VPN connections. Also, use MX Site-to-site for Meraki and non-Meraki devices.
MX - Site-to-site - works great if all devices are in the same organization. If not, devices have to be setup as non-Meraki devices, even if both are Meraki MX Firewalls.
Ease of implementing Client VPN access.
Client access, redundant Site-to-site VPN within and organization.
Cisco Firewalls and Sonic wall Firewalls - not as easy to setup client and Site-to-site VPN.
10
IT technical support
10
General IT knowledge
  • Ease of management
  • Ease of monitoring
  • Cloud based access
  • Temporary setup of Wifi for a public event
  • Manage an issue with Chromebook configurations in a school by implementing temporary SSIDs
  • Managing new Wifi standards
Ease of configuration, management and monitoring.
Yes
Various APs - from home grade APs to enterprise APs.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Prior Experience with the Product
Ease of configuration, management and monitoring.
No changes
Always willing to assist. Since there is access to the cloud management, support has a better understanding of the issues.
No, not needed.
No
MR support - assisting with understanding and setting for Wifi strength in a school setting with many APs.
MX support - Multiple times when we were experiencing errors with VLAN configurations on a MX Firewall. They assisted with setting in the MX as well as setting on other vendors switches.
Cloud based management - ease of understanding.
  • Cloud management
Yes
The mobile app has limited functionality for managing and monitoring. It is easier to use the web interface.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Meraki wireless access points globally in all of our offices to service guests and employee devices. Cellular connectivity within buildings and inside IDF/MDF rooms is poor, so this allows employees to easily perform WiFi calling, use their mobile devices on WiFi, etc.
  • Easy to deploy.
  • Easy to manage.
  • WAPs fail silently.
Ideal for places with small IT teams and where wireless isn't mission critical.
  • Positive ROI given ease of management.
  • Positive ROI given generally reliable service.
The Meraki MX is more of a firewall than a wireless access point, though some models do provide wireless capabilities. Can be useful as a gateway for the MRs or in a location where a single device is needed but additional ports, VPN, or other firewall-like functionality is required.
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM), Microsoft Azure, OneNote, Smartsheet, PagerDuty, LogicMonitor, Fortinet FortiGate, FortiClient, Schneider Electric Smart-UPs, formerly from APC, Cisco Nexus, Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series Switches, Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches, Oracle SD-WAN (Talari), Cisco 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR 1000)
  • Cisco Meraki MR
  • Cisco Catalyst Switches
  • Working from anywhere (e.g., coffee shop, airport)
  • Working from an office or other company space
  • Working from home
We have reviewed options for full hoteling but due to workstation personalizations, cleanliness, and that we expect employees to be in 3-4 days per week, most stations will be permanent. We are investing significantly in wireless and wired infrastructure in our office. We are also leveraging cloud services such as OneDrive, Azure AD, cloud PBX, etc., to allow users to also work remotely. Our branch offices will eventually become glorified home offices. We happen to be moving into a new office next year so we are designing with collaborative spaces in mind as well as video solutions to support hybrid (in-person + remote) attendees.
Keeping organizational data safe and secure, while allowing employees to work from anywhere. Preventing data leaks become more and more difficult, along with management and security of devices, especially personal, but even business as well (e.g. standard domain join to Windows AD vs Azure AD joined). Additionally, allowing employees to choose which days they want to work in person makes collaboration difficult, not to mention a choice needs to be made for coverage vs. collaboration.
We use Cisco Meraki MR wireless access points in dedicated offices, shared offices, and even homes. Cloud management makes setup simple and easy. We like Cisco's cloud PBX solution and are performing a proof-of-concept now. We also like that Cisco is supporting 3rd parties such as Microsoft Teams for collaboration.
Most of the time the experience is seamless, though working remotely still has friction compared to in-person. One of the biggest issues is using solutions such as Citrix with VDI, particularly for audio and video. We have not had much success in collapsing these technologies and the best solution to date is for users to run Teams on their local device for communication, while using the VDI for the rest of the work experience.
Cisco is designed for the multinational enterprise. Many other solution providers are either small, slow, or have incomplete solutions. Cisco's scale and scope of services allow us to put faith behind its offerings. Don't get us wrong, when something brand new is released, we like to give it time to confirm market adoption, as Cisco has had some flops in the past, but seems committed to collaboration and hybrid work solutions.
  • Microsoft Teams
  • RingCentral
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[Cisco] Meraki MR APs are our go-to for wireless at every site we have globally. They provide reliable networking that is easy to expand and configure/support remotely.
  • Remote config
  • Regular updates
  • Fast
  • Easy to use
  • Wall or ceiling mountable
  • Support can be a bit flakey
  • Complex multi region account management
Honestly, the access points work well pretty much everywhere. The models we use are perfect for indoors and work well in a heavily populated building, dealing with high utilization perfectly. The admin panel makes it easy to expand and customize settings for an entire network at once or to change the configuration for specific access points thanks to a tagging system.
  • No network outages
  • Reliable networking
  • Easy expansion as the business grows
Cisco Meraki has allowed us to centrally manage our infrastructure without having to worry about needing to be on site at remote locations. This makes our operations very scalable and allows us to provide a consistent and simple experience for all our users.
Keeping within the Meraki family of products gives us one dashboard to configure and manage all our networks. We can see data flowing between products and keep a simple and consistent configuration set.
Meraki's scalability has allowed us to open new sites with consistent rule sets and configurations without having to worry about mistakes being made due to human error. It is very quick and non disruptive.
[Cisco] Meraki [MR] costs more but generally seems to work better for us. Our older Ubiquiti kit seemed to struggle with people roaming across the building, especially with Macbooks. We have had no such issues with [Cisco[ Meraki [MR].
  • Cisco Meraki MX
  • Working from anywhere (e.g., coffee shop, airport)
  • Working from an office or other company space
  • Working from home
Our existing MX products have allowed us to easily deploy IP whitelisting and VPN technologies to allow remote working over a secure network.
We have to make sure our networks were capable of handling the additional traffic from the sudden influx of users taking advantage of remote access.
Meraki products are good at giving us traffic analysis and also are clearly labelled for how much throughput they can handle which made the job a lot easier.
Once the technology was in place and configured to grant everyone the access they needed, it has presented us with a scenario where we can generally be a lot more productive and flexible with our staff being capable of working anywhere in the world. This has also opened new hiring opportunities as we are no longer tied to one physical location. We have had to scale our infrastructure to match but this has been very easy because of the way that Meraki products work.
We choose to stick with Meraki as we had already had good experiences with them as a whole from pre-pandemic working. Beyond this, this business likes to use scalable cloud and SaaS platforms to ensure we can remain flexible and scalable.
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Zoom
  • Google Meet
  • Slack
October 06, 2022

Meraki MR feedback

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We're deploying this kind of model for some of our customers. We have deployed devices into our headquarters and stores to configure SD Wan with 2 internet lines.
  • Dashboard
  • User consumption
  • Easy to deploy
  • ZTP
  • CLI possibilities
  • Dashboard about wifi issues
  • Wifi advice
Well suited for large or small deployments. I don't clearly know the best wifi solution. If you don't need specific or particularly advanced settings, Meraki is the best for any campus or store deployment.
  • No controller needed.
  • Licenses are well managed.
  • Price not more expensive than other solutions.
Nothing could be better for network administrators than the integration with all of the other Meraki products in only one dashboard.
  • Webex Meetings
  • Cisco Meraki Z3 Teleworker
  • Cisco AnyConnect
  • Working from anywhere (e.g., coffee shop, airport)
Actually we're still reviewing hybrid solution for teleworkers as we're working now with SSL VPNs, but security need to be applied in on premise DC.
Security is invloved in each part o the process, identity and network, as hybrid solution are not only network solutions
Support is there, ready to be reached. Some features need to be activated by the support, which is not really the best.
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