Hey Folks!
Finally got my ALTA AP6’s and able to install them with minimal testing and are live in Production environment.
Quick background of the environment… Battle and Brew is a Gaming, Bar, and Restaurant venue which has many data hungry gaming devices, related patching, Guest Streamers, as well as customers who frequently live stream onsite for their followers.
Short Read:
- Great cloud interface! It’s fairly easy to pick up with somethings to be aware of such as when viewing your APs, some of the icons provide options vs an intuitive asterix or drop down arrow. Example, clicking the AP name allows you to change the name quickly (pros and cons) but clicking on the AP Icon gives you the config pop up
- AP’s feel solidly built which i think is an all metal shell that is a great heat dissipater
- Mounting hardware, need some work but wouldnt stop me from using ALTA APs
- Would i use or continue to use ALTA APs, heck ya!
- Replacing my Crap-Biquiti’s and Merakis (YES MERAKIS)
Install Experience:
- Box came with typical mounting hardware such as screws, mounts, and guides but i found out quickly that the plastic mounting bracket was a challenge with my topic post here: AP6 Mounting Bracket - Tab Bracket Issue - #4 by rutman286
- With general Home Depot DIY experience, mounting is like any other AP out in the wild
- Setup and adoption with their cloud controller was really easy to use and mimic my previous production setup
- Since i do have a test site, i mistakenly placed a few in there but was easily able to move them over to Battle and Brew Production site
- Cloud Controller has Dark Mode (yes!)
- Color coding for sites or configs i find very useful for quick info for what has what Config
- Ability to add additoinal password to an SSID to access a network temporarily or manage certain devices security wise in case you have to remove the password to that network. I’ve not seen that feature before but find it very useful (perhaps other vendors do that?)
- Being able to block apps and domains is Extremely easy to use, so thumbs up on who manages that at ALTA
- Biggest feature i like (which should be common sense) is the ability to leave NOTES! Yes, detailed long notes for each AP. Such as a detailed description of where and what the AP is for, yada yada. I’ve set AP’s up in large lab environments and i would have to leave paper notes or excel sheets for Admins to know what XYZ setup is for and if you move or take XYZ down, this will happen so having Notes is freaking awesome!
Here’s some photos I can share out. It’s still an ongoing process but as you know in IT, sometimes you just gotta get it done and “one day” come back to clean it up.
Thanks for the feedback