Review - Meraki Mini Pro
27/04/08 10:02 |
Review
You may
have seen my previous post and thread at
MacTalk.com.au talking about Meraki and
the Free The Net campaign in San
Francisco, I
really like the idea of community driven wifi - so
I took the plunge and ordered a Meraki Mini Pro.
I whipped up a quick review for MacTalk.com.au, here is a repost or you can read the review and ensuing thread here.
I whipped up a quick review for MacTalk.com.au, here is a repost or you can read the review and ensuing thread here.
I ordered
the Meraki on Friday afternoon and it arrived 10:30AM
the following Monday. Starting with the speedy,
albeit expensive shipping - the Mini was sent with
UPS and I was able to track the package without any
issues. The order confirmation email came from Maraki
within 5 minutes of the order and it had a link to
the order status page, which was updated with the UPS
tracking link as soon as it shipped (on top of the
email UPS also sent). So there was no shortage of
information, which was fantastic.
The Mini arrived in a small box surrounded with packing material, well protected from any bumps or drops. The Meraki box has nothing on Apple's packaging but it is simple, nothing in excess - great to see they are considering the environment!
Once unpacked, the Mini was an absolute breeze to setup. I plugged a spare network cable from my Time Capsule straight into the Mini and plugged in the power, it came straight up and was ready to go in seconds. After creating a 'Meraki Dashboard' account (<3mins), you are taken to the 'Configure' tab of the Meraki Dashboard where you can set everything from 'basic' Public and Private access to 'Branding', 'Messaging' and there are also 'Advanced' options.
The basic configuration settings let you set the Network Name (SSID) and if you want to use tiered access (Public and Private) or setup specific users (by email address based accounts). In the Public tier you can set up free access, or up to two 'billing plans'. In each of the three available public tiers you are able to set bandwidth settings from 50kbps up to Unlimited. In my particular case, I have set up a free tier and two paid tiers...as you can see here, it is very simple:
Next is branding configuration, in this section you can enable a 'splash page' which users see when they first connect to your network, this can include a custom message (even some basic HTML formatting) and if you would like to display the Meraki logo or your own. You can also turn off the splash page if you choose not to use a billing plan.
The messaging configuration is for setting up the 'Meraki Toolbar', you can enable or disable the toolbar along with setting up custom logos, messages and ad's to be displayed in a (fairly unobtrusive) toolbar that appears at the top of your browser window when connected. This cannot be disabled in the Standard model.
There are a few more things you can setup, like how much network information you would like to share with Meraki (like location information), options for adding more nodes to your network (though MAC and Serial numbers or your Meraki order number) and your billing payout address (which is automatically populated from your order or and can be changed). Lastly there is the advanced configuration settings:
Here you can set some more detailed network settings like Public SSID, allowing wired users to become part of the private tier, restricting outside access to the local LAN (thankfully, OFF by default), Language and time-zone settings along with setting up alerts which can be sent to your registered email account or another that you specify. As you can see in the second screen shot above, there are even settings for redirecting connected users after they see your splash page, allowing others to administer your network and allowing certain users free access to the network.
I thought the last option was cool, you can set your node to 'Run Dark' so there is no visible status indication on the unit. This would be particularly useful on the outdoor units where you didn't want any flashing lights to attract vandals.
You may have noticed at this point that I'm spending a big chunk of this review talking about the Dashboard, the reason for that is simple - the unit is simple, all the brains are in the Dashboard. So once you have un-boxed, mounted and plugged in the unit...that's all you need to do with the hardware. All that said, it might seem like there is a bunch of stuff to setup, in reality though, most of the available settings can be left as default, you only need to change things if you want.
The other major section in the Dashboard is 'Monitor', which as the name suggests, let's you monitor just about everything that is going on with your node and network.
At the highest level there is an Overview which shows recent usage, number of people connected and a map of your nodes location (Google Maps, surprise surprise). The other options like usage data, users and device list let you drill down to the user level and see how much each user is...using and block or white-list particular devices/users.
I briefly tested the range of the Mini using a completely unscientific method, walking around with my iPod Touch. Even though the Mini is sitting on my desk (next to the Time Capsule) on the second story, behind several well insulated walls I can get coverage 'across the street' and about 2-3 houses away in both directions. If it was mounted on or near a window or in a spot where any thought had gone into it at all, I imagine the range would be far better.
The bottom line in all my rambling is, the Meraki unit is a cinch to setup and manage. These devices are built for simple and fast distribution of wifi, with easy to use and easy to understand monitoring and configuration. It's all available, online, from anywhere you can get on the Net. There really is no excuse not to help free the net - it really is super easy.
Hopefully this answers some of the questions you might have had about the Meraki, I'm happy to answer anything else (or provide more screen shots) in the thread...
The Mini arrived in a small box surrounded with packing material, well protected from any bumps or drops. The Meraki box has nothing on Apple's packaging but it is simple, nothing in excess - great to see they are considering the environment!
Once unpacked, the Mini was an absolute breeze to setup. I plugged a spare network cable from my Time Capsule straight into the Mini and plugged in the power, it came straight up and was ready to go in seconds. After creating a 'Meraki Dashboard' account (<3mins), you are taken to the 'Configure' tab of the Meraki Dashboard where you can set everything from 'basic' Public and Private access to 'Branding', 'Messaging' and there are also 'Advanced' options.
The basic configuration settings let you set the Network Name (SSID) and if you want to use tiered access (Public and Private) or setup specific users (by email address based accounts). In the Public tier you can set up free access, or up to two 'billing plans'. In each of the three available public tiers you are able to set bandwidth settings from 50kbps up to Unlimited. In my particular case, I have set up a free tier and two paid tiers...as you can see here, it is very simple:
Next is branding configuration, in this section you can enable a 'splash page' which users see when they first connect to your network, this can include a custom message (even some basic HTML formatting) and if you would like to display the Meraki logo or your own. You can also turn off the splash page if you choose not to use a billing plan.
The messaging configuration is for setting up the 'Meraki Toolbar', you can enable or disable the toolbar along with setting up custom logos, messages and ad's to be displayed in a (fairly unobtrusive) toolbar that appears at the top of your browser window when connected. This cannot be disabled in the Standard model.
There are a few more things you can setup, like how much network information you would like to share with Meraki (like location information), options for adding more nodes to your network (though MAC and Serial numbers or your Meraki order number) and your billing payout address (which is automatically populated from your order or and can be changed). Lastly there is the advanced configuration settings:
Here you can set some more detailed network settings like Public SSID, allowing wired users to become part of the private tier, restricting outside access to the local LAN (thankfully, OFF by default), Language and time-zone settings along with setting up alerts which can be sent to your registered email account or another that you specify. As you can see in the second screen shot above, there are even settings for redirecting connected users after they see your splash page, allowing others to administer your network and allowing certain users free access to the network.
I thought the last option was cool, you can set your node to 'Run Dark' so there is no visible status indication on the unit. This would be particularly useful on the outdoor units where you didn't want any flashing lights to attract vandals.
You may have noticed at this point that I'm spending a big chunk of this review talking about the Dashboard, the reason for that is simple - the unit is simple, all the brains are in the Dashboard. So once you have un-boxed, mounted and plugged in the unit...that's all you need to do with the hardware. All that said, it might seem like there is a bunch of stuff to setup, in reality though, most of the available settings can be left as default, you only need to change things if you want.
The other major section in the Dashboard is 'Monitor', which as the name suggests, let's you monitor just about everything that is going on with your node and network.
At the highest level there is an Overview which shows recent usage, number of people connected and a map of your nodes location (Google Maps, surprise surprise). The other options like usage data, users and device list let you drill down to the user level and see how much each user is...using and block or white-list particular devices/users.
I briefly tested the range of the Mini using a completely unscientific method, walking around with my iPod Touch. Even though the Mini is sitting on my desk (next to the Time Capsule) on the second story, behind several well insulated walls I can get coverage 'across the street' and about 2-3 houses away in both directions. If it was mounted on or near a window or in a spot where any thought had gone into it at all, I imagine the range would be far better.
The bottom line in all my rambling is, the Meraki unit is a cinch to setup and manage. These devices are built for simple and fast distribution of wifi, with easy to use and easy to understand monitoring and configuration. It's all available, online, from anywhere you can get on the Net. There really is no excuse not to help free the net - it really is super easy.
Hopefully this answers some of the questions you might have had about the Meraki, I'm happy to answer anything else (or provide more screen shots) in the thread...
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