Free Meraki AP with 3 year cloud license

Iristheangel

Cisco Meraki | Try for Free

Figured I would throw this on here. You have to register with a business e-mail address, be an IT professional and watch a 1 hour webinar.

When you are done, you call the 888 number provided and they'll mail your AP to you within a week.

--chris--

Pretty cool! Thank you for posting this.

Iristheangel

No problem. I love these things. We use them at work for all our locations and they're pretty easy to manage. I did the webinar this morning and they're already shipping one out to me

--chris--

My plates full at work, but I will figure out how to fit this into my day for a free AP lol.

it_consultant

I have been deploying Merakis since before Cisco bought them. I am seriously considering buying the Meraki firewall for my environment; I am thankful that Cisco has more or less left them alone after acquisition - although they used to forget to require you to renew your cloud license, Cisco definitely put a stop to that!

networkjutsu

I received one a year ago by attending a webinar. When I changed jobs, I lost the code that I need to put in. The Meraki AP is collecting dust just like my Aruba Instant AP105 that I received for free after attending Airheads local. I hope I'll be able to set up the Aruba Instant this weekend because my 5GHz coverage sucks.

Iristheangel

@Network - Just put in the serial number on the back of the AP. That should be all you need. The license is linked to that serial #

networkjutsu

Iristheangel wrote: »

@Network - Just put in the serial number on the back of the AP. That should be all you need. The license is linked to that serial #

Oh, that's right. Forgot about that! Thanks! Just need to remember what account that I used when we were evaluating their products. Though, I think I can just sign up for a new account. Maybe I'll fire it up but after two years I don't have a use for it since I sure won't renew it for home use.

TesseracT

I got one a few months ago. The web interface is great. The actual AP is crap though - I got a better signal and less drops from the wireless router I got from my ISP. Ended up taking it out. Talked to a Meraki rep and he agreed, it is their lowest level AP though, you shouldn't run this in an enterprise settings. It's worth playing around with it though considering how good the web interface is. I ended up giving mine to a coworker to play around with.

Ivanjam

@Iristheangel - thanks for the info - did the webinar earlier today.

--chris--

Thanks Iris, ill be watching the Security webinar in about an hour

jmasterj206

Does anyone know if the unit comes with a power adapter? I could just throw in a PoE switch or an injector. Just curious.

j23evan

I was first introduced to Meraki this February, and at first I was turned off on the cloud only subscription based model. I was deployed as an interim IT director for a city, and based on budget, it was the most feasible solution to deploy wifi to many locations without investing in expensive cores and switches. After getting them in and installing them, WOW. They are absolutely fantastic, I have had zero issues with them in 8 months, and the ease of control, and ability to have them do whatever you want from a simple intuitive interface is second to none. I thought I had missed out on my webinar to get a free AP until I read your post Iris. Thanks so much, mine is on the way. Our Cisco team went to some live seminars and each walked away with a router, a switch, and an AP. I've only used the AP, but I am interested in their other offerings. EVERYONE ATTEND THE WEBINAR AND GET ONE.

rsutton

We have been using Meraki Firewalls, switches and AP's for a couple years now. Love them, love them, love them.

RouteMyPacket

Cool, thanks

Iristheangel

Just got an email telling me that my Meraki Z1 has been shipped. I was hoping for at least an MR12 but that's fine. I'm going to give it to a client to use anyways

gadav478

Thanks Iris. Scheduled my webinar yesterday and a rep called me today to confirm.

BobbyDC

I'm interested. What do they consider an IT Professional? I've only been working in IT for about a year and I'm not sure if I would consider myself a pro.

All of these webinars seem to take place in the A.M.. Not sure if I'll have an hour to sit and watch the whole thing.

Iristheangel

You being an IT pro = Just you say you are and you have a company address to register yourself to. That's all they really require

Zoovash

Hello,

After registering for a webinar with my company address I got an email from territory manager introducing herself and asking if i have any networking project coming with year. Is this an automated email ? Do I have to reply or should I just ignore it ?

Thanks!

pert

I did this a while back and got one just as advertised. It's pretty slick, amzingly slick even. Price is much higher than competitors, but the GUI is on another level compared to most competitors. You can config this thing with much less knowledge than you would need for Brocade or Cisco GUI config.

DevilWAH

I would be really interested to know how it scales.

The GUI for Cisco while not straight forward is not to bad and scales well even with a few hundred AP's, and multiple service profiles. Trapeze on the other hand was a really easy GUI, but very limited if you wanted to do any thing other than basic services. To do that you had to move to there centralized management tools.

I haven't touched Meraki, so just curious how they have got the balance between straight forward and flexibility.

it_consultant

DevilWAH wrote: »

I would be really interested to know how it scales.

The GUI for Cisco while not straight forward is not to bad and scales well even with a few hundred AP's, and multiple service profiles. Trapeze on the other hand was a really easy GUI, but very limited if you wanted to do any thing other than basic services. To do that you had to move to there centralized management tools.

I haven't touched Meraki, so just curious how they have got the balance between straight forward and flexibility.

I remember when I was selling these before Cisco bought them; they had a list of universities which used them in deployments that went into the several hundred to thousands. I have no problem believing that claim. They are among the easiest to deploy and configure of any AP I have ever used. I deployed them to hotels where the same AP would serve the internal folks and guests. Guests would go to a walled garden login page and pay for access while staff had a normal bridged-in wifi connection to their corporate LAN. The Merakis were able to handle both authentication mechanisms on the same AP, securely, without needing to segment the traffic on the backbone side. This would take hours on traditional APs with onsite controllers, with Meraki you set it up in the cloud console first then start plugging the things in. Setting up advanced traffic shaping is simple, I choked you down if you were streaming video to 1 MB but let you go at 5 MB if you were streaming music through spotify or whatever. Keep in mind, I was able to do all of this without changing anything on the infrastructure side. The things can NAT, VLAN, firewall, traffic shape, report, charge for access, etc.

I don't use them anymore (switched jobs) but I was concerned when Cisco bought them, Cisco is not known for their beautiful GUI's and easy to deploy devices and I was/am worried they would ruin Meraki. So far it seems like my fears are not well-founded.

pert

IMO, the ease of use is the reason to get them. I can have the IT guys handle all the wireless because the GUI is so easy to use. Stuff that takes training to learn from other vendors can be done by a kid in high school using Meraki. They do cost a lot more than competition though. So I don't really get how you'd justify a huge deployment of them when you have people who are technically capable of using the cheaper stuff. It seems great for like a regional MSP setting up small business in their area.

Sounds Good

What is the cost of the license after the 3 years are up?

it_consultant

If I remember correctly, the Meraki (mid level unit) indoor was about $700 to purchase plus the license which was $150 or so for the year. When you compare that against a controller based unit it actually comes in a little less. However, if you just need a few APs for an office then get a couple of ubiquitis and call it a day.

*EDIT*

This pricing is from before Cisco bought them, the prices may have gone up significantly. Either way, you have to compare them to controller based systems, since that is what they are.

DevilWAH

For a duel 5508 controller with 80 2600 AP's it comes in at £73K with 3 years support

$700 + 3 x £150 = £722

So yes you should get about 100 AP's from Meraki for the same cost.

pert

The price on the Brocade stuff was insanely cheaper last time I compared.

it_consultant

pert wrote: »

The price on the Brocade stuff was insanely cheaper last time I compared.

Yes, I field tested the Brocade wireless and it works great. They are essentially rebranded motorolas which are high quality units for sure. Brocade is also going into agreement with Aruba, which is meraki-like, but I don't yet know how that is going to look to the consumer. Given the choice between Brocade's current stuff and Meraki, I would go with Meraki. However, the Brocade stuff works great and I wouldn't tell you not to get it.

pert

it_consultant wrote: »

Yes, I field tested the Brocade wireless and it works great. They are essentially rebranded motorolas which are high quality units for sure. Brocade is also going into agreement with Aruba, which is meraki-like, but I don't yet know how that is going to look to the consumer. Given the choice between Brocade's current stuff and Meraki, I would go with Meraki. However, the Brocade stuff works great and I wouldn't tell you not to get it.

I would go with Meraki over Brocade if price was no object, but that is rarely the case.

Zoovash

I just received a Meraki MR12.
It's really interesting what you can do with it, probably too much for home use, but if you're a little paranoid about your security it's great.
Thank you for sharing!