A couple of weeks ago Todd wrote about his poor experience with eero technical support and how he was moving all of his Wi-Fi business to Ruckus/Access Networks. Mark sent over a couple of APs — an R550 and R650 that he had in inventory, as well as the amazing “Getting Started” and “Best Practices” guides that Blackwire Designs provides (https://www.blackwiredesigns.com/ruckus-101/ruckus-unleashed-getting-started/) to dealers to optimize the setup of Ruckus access points. Mark follows this guide every time he sets up a new network and Todd will do the same.
While Todd’s network does seem to be dramatically improved, he relishes the fact that he now has full control and configuration capabilities across his entire network, from router to switches to access points. And he found the setup to be very straightforward. We have been talking about the benefits of Ruckus for quite a while, and Mark is excited that Todd is now taking the plunge as we can continue to help each other even more with idiosyncrasies and the odd little tweaks we like to make.
Here are the big benefits Mark enjoys with Ruckus hardware and Access Networks and Blackwire Designs as his partners and what Todd will be experiencing going forward:
- Rock-solid hardware that just works and lasts for years and years
- Great support from some of the best in the business (this is what ultimately swayed Todd)
- Access Networks hardware comes with four years of technical support and Blackwire is among the best partners in the business when it comes to supporting their dealers
- Easy set up and deployment — set up one AP as an unleashed “master,” then plug in the others, and they download the system configuration from the master
- The Blackwire guide only takes about 30 minutes to go through and has some key steps to optimize your Wi-Fi performance. Ignore this at your own peril
- With eero, only one mobile device could be the “owner” device to set up or change the network configuration. That is problematic with a team of installers and, when the network was transferred to the client, it was difficult to manage the system after install, even with the eero Pro dashboard. Ruckus is an enterprise-grade solution and has a full management web UI
Also by Todd and Mark: The Ups and Downs of Technology Advancements
Mark has been using Ruckus is his go-to APs for about three years now. He has yet to have to return to a site due to poor performance or bad hardware [knock on wood]. That is what we get when we use enterprise-grade hardware — reliability and stability — critical components to successful installs and successful businesses. We wish some other manufacturers in our channel had this same dedication to these criteria.
What will it take to get you to give Ruckus a shot? If you’re thinking about it, don’t hesitate to reach out to Blackwire or Access Networks. Both of them will take great care of you!
Todd Anthony Puma is the founder and CEO of The Source Home Theater, based in Matawan, NJ and serving the greater New York Metro area. He often co-writes blogs for Residential Systems with Mark Feinberg, who is the founder and CEO of Home Theater Advisors, based in New York, NY.
