Hey Jim, We are a 7 Signal customer and have been very happy with them.
We are and Aruba shop, so I'm not sure all that CleanAir gives you, but with Aruba and 7 Signal, there is some overlap in terms of RF Spectrum analysis, Rouges, etc. (And that's nice in some ways to have each vendor verify the others findings). We have Aruba everywhere, 7 Signal in key areas. What 7 Signal does give you is performance testing from a client perspective. The problem we had is from the Aruba Wireless system and other monitoring tools, wireless looked great, but from a client perspective, there were some issues. So, the first big benefit was that it was able to test wireless as an independent auditor, to the wireless network it looks like another client. In a repeated loop, it: Associates (in can target specific AP's and radio bands) Authenticates (Open web portal, or PSK, or 802.1x, or all of the above, which helps test/monitor your authentication back end) DHCP's (this can help test for pool exhaustion, etc) Transfer tests to "sonar" devices, both FTP for bandwidth and VOIP/SIP for jitter/latency, up and down. All information is logged and tracked to give nice histories on what is going on. It can also alert if it finds issues / thresholds. You can control what you do in the loop, etc. Other stuff like Rouge detection, Spectrum Analysis, Passive tests, etc. The longer term benefit was twofold: 1) The guys at 7 Signal are pretty sharp, they had a lot of good insight and recommendations within a little bit of time on campus. Not just reporting problems, but solutions as well. 2) Trending. As we play with our wireless vendor options, even code upgrades, 7Signal's historical data can show marked improvements (or, performance degradation :( ). We didn't go the full Eye coverage model for the entire wireless space like a hospital might do, instead we focused one Eye per Aruba controller to help verify the controller was behaving, for each controller we picked a high utilization area to get the most info. Since the initial deployment, we've bought a few more to focus on important areas such as large lecture halls or critical conference areas, working on installing those now. We did run cables for each of the Eye's, just part of the project. You could in a pinch deploy in the Telco closet to avoid the cable run. Doesn't give the Eye the best visibility, but gets you up and running quickly. As for modifications, it's not just about AP location but configuration parameters as well, channel / power fluctuations, config parameters, etc. One of the biggest benefits we saw was turning off 802.11b. We knew it would, but it was nice to see stats from 7Signal to help prove/show it. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions. Carl Oakes Network Architect California State University Sacramento [email protected] From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lee H Badman Sent: Friday, May 31, 2013 12:25 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] 7Signal- anyone? Hello to the group, I know that this has been discussed before, but I'm coming back around to it. I'm intrigued by 7signal.com and see attractive aspects to their approach, but find myself struggling with: * Pricing- Seems incredibly expensive * What's really being delivered- we are a CleanAir environment, so much of 7Signal would be duplicitous in function, and so far I can't tell all what one is delivering that the other leaves out * What 7Signal expects you to do to optimize- there are locations where APs cannot be moved, there are groups of clients that you are likely not going to easily pin down for driver updates, etc, and only so many system settings you can tweak without creating other issues * Deployment model- given that Eyes themselves need to be cabled, it's not exactly easy in all cases to deploy them and there is no radio backhaul option All of my cynicism aside- is anyone on the list a 7signal user? Any testimonials or thoughts? Thanks very much- Lee Badman Syracuse University ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
