Cisco Wireless Lab

[micchon]

Hello, I was hoping someone would be able to provide some guidance for someone trying to break into wireless. I don't have any experience with cisco wireless, so I was looking into buying a few things to play around with to get started.

I plan on using the vWLC trial if I can with the APs, but was trying to look on ebay for APs. I'm a little confused about some of the different models and options. Can someone recommend an AP model that is cheap but can run a fairly recent version of code. Also, I was having a hard time trying to figure out if a certain AP can even be run with a controller. I know some are autonomous and some are controller-based, but how can I make sure I'm buying the right thing?

Any other recommendations would be appreciated, thank you.

[Dustin Anderson]

So, you'll be limited by what version of vWLC you get.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/compatibility/matrix/compatibility-matrix.html

Table 7 is the best cross reference for AP to code.

Now, cisco is in a bit of a  transition as they are moving away from AirOS to their own iosXE controller. 

If you want to get your feat wet for not a ton of money, run AirOS code and you should be able to get APs off eBay for ~50/each AIR-2702i This will allow you to run the last 8.10 code.

If you are looking to try the new 9800 controller, you start to get limited again as the 2702i stops at 17.3.x, but a newer 2800 or higher series AP is going to cost a lot.

Also for the AP, you will see -X-K in the part# X is the region, you do want to try to buy for the region you are in. US is usually -A

https://content.cisco.com/chapter.sjs?uri=/searchable/chapter/www.cisco.com/content/en/us/td/docs/wireless/wcs/3-2/configuration/guide/wcscfg32/wcscod.html.xml

Here is a good reference of the regions.

[ammahend]

Are you a Cisco partner ?