HPE Juniper Access Points

We had trouble getting Cisco access points and equipment during Covid and tried Juniper and they have been great. They are more cost effective and Mist makes them easier to manage than traditional aironet access points. We have been able to deploy them across our network and centrally mange them with more features and less licensing issues than we had with Cisco.

We used to have aironet and since going to Mist and using Juniper Access Points, we can now manage the aps and network anywhere at any time. The access points can be easily setup and joined to your network and you can easily deploy a new site. We use them across the county but they have made a big difference at our convention center. We provide guest wireless and employe wireless as well as customized wireless setups for people renting the convention center.

We currently have deployments of AP45 Access Points across 2 locations. One location has 13 APs across an Office/Warehouse, and the other, which is currently being built, has 2. The APs themselves are great! Coverage is amazing. Roaming works really well for cloud-based APs, though we don't have motorized equipment mounted on clients, so your mileage may vary. The Mist Portal is pretty good, though I think it pales in comparison to Meraki or Aruba.

The Mist portal-controlled Juniper APs are great in an environment where clients are relatively stationary. Coverage is fantastic, and throughput is really good. I would be more concerned about placing these in a distribution-type warehouse where clients frequently roam between APs. While I've not had any issues, I could see where some APs might become sticky due to the cloud-controlled nature. In my experience, a local controller would be better suited to environments like that. I'm also concerned that support and quality may suffer due to the HPE merger.

We use the HPE Juniper Access Points with constant high density users populations and high bandwidth utilization. Cafes and Labs. These were areas where DNS, Lost connectivity to APs and slow throughput to end user devices was commonly reports. WIth the HPE Juniper Access Points, we are able to zoom in on per device to see what issues the reported device had, and zero in on the issues FAST.

High density, high utilizations areas of a business / enterprise. Roaming in campuses where devices need speed to authenticate when roaming.

We are a K12 School and have over 100 Juniper APs Deployed. They are very Robust and, paired with the Mist portal, they work great. The auto channeling and auto power are controlled and adjusted with state-of-the-art cloud AI. Most, if not all, problems are solved before you even know about them.

In a high-density K-12 Deployment, Juniper outperforms most vendors. Hardware is superior in terms of durability, appearance, and functionality. The AI Cloud Controller is 2nd to none in monitoring performance and self-diagnostics. AP tools enable easy identification, testing, and troubleshooting of APs. Overall, when switching from a Cisco Meraki to Juniper, there is no comparison. We immediately saw a performance and reliability improvement.

We use Juniper AP Series Access Points with Mist across all of our sites, about 70 total. Before, we didn’t really have visibility into what was happening on our wireless network or a centralized way to manage it. Now we can quickly see where devices are failing in the connection process, which makes troubleshooting a lot easier. Deployment is simple, which helps since I’m the only network admin, and having the APs tied in with Mist switches gives us a single platform to work from. Overall, it’s cut down on downtime and reduced the amount of support overhead we used to deal with.

In my experience, Juniper AP Series Access Points are a great fit for environments like ours where you’ve got multiple sites and not a huge IT staff. For example, in our retail locations I can roll out new APs quickly and know they’ll come online with the right config. If a store calls about Wi-Fi issues, I can jump into Mist and immediately see if the problem is the AP, the switch, or even the client device—it saves me from having to send someone onsite.
They also work really well in our medical offices, where reliable coverage is critical. If a doctor’s tablet is having trouble connecting, I can see exactly what stage of the connection it’s failing at and get it fixed fast. That kind of visibility has been a big change compared to what we had before. It's not appropriate for companies that want on-prem access. This is cloud access/configured/troubleshooting only. It's a subscription-based system - if you don't renew the subscription there is no way to manage the APs

We deployed Juniper access points to all our offices. The previous vendor we used had an on-prem controller and did not offer much in the way of network visibility. With Mist, we have all the visibility we need. Mist alerted me when I had an AP that had "insufficient capacity." I moved that AP slightly and brought in an additional AP. Another problem fixed and I got to it before users complained. I use Mist's Radius solution which is great. Our requirements for authentication are fairly simple. Do you have a cert and are you a user in our MS Entra environment? If so, come on in. Mist Radius can do way more, but I don’t need it at this time. Another feature I really enjoy is having different PSKs for the same SSID. I can segment IOT devices depending on which PSK they use without deploying a new SSID.

The APs I use are great for an office environment. I can only speak to that because I don't deploy APs elsewhere. I have ceiling mounted AP34s and AP45s. I use the AP45s in large areas where we host large events. I use AP34s in the rest of the office to support production user needs.

I have a floor with a vaulted ceiling where I can't affix an AP. For this floor I deployed AP12s under numerous desks. They don't provide access to the 6 GHz channel but they do everything else I need.

We deploy these to multiple sites throughout the US and Internationally. All of the data we need for these are right there in the Mist portal. Setting up profiles has never been easier. I also love that if we don't have an IT resource on-site, in which we don't at a bunch, and we need to deploy or replace an AP, the process is smooth with Juniper AP's

In our case of having to deploy these all over the world at our sites, the ease of connecting and configuring it saves a lot of time. Especially when it comes to directing non-technical people on how to hook them up. Most of the time I just say where to plug it in and I do the rest. As long as there's an internet connection, you should see the AP.

I am over three schools and a board office. I have replaced the board office AP and the high school with Juniper access points and have had absolutely no issues. The Mist console is the best thing I've ever seen associated with access points and I've dealt with Ruckus, Aruba, and several others over the years. Since switching to Juniper equipment I have no longer had to worry about access points going down and if they did, it would be easy to pinpoint when and where.

I don't know where it would be not suited, but I do know I haven't tried it running multiple networks.

As for the school setting, it is very well suited. It's easy to track, install, onboard and see what devices are online and keeps a log of failed attempts as well.