How To Choose The Best Wireless Access Points

The technology behind enterprise wireless access has changed significantly over the last several years. Far from the clunky, hard-to-operate boxes of years past, the best wireless access points today are user-friendly, and easy to both install and maintain.

As more businesses these days are looking to upgrade their internal networking environment, the choice of access point becomes crucial. They will be directly accessed by more users, more times a day, and with a larger variety of devices than any other equipment on your network. They have to work correctly and efficiently to become an effective part of your office.

So, when you're putting together a purchase list of the best wireless access points, these are the features you should be looking for:

Finding the Best Wireless Access Points For Modern Businesses

1. There's no need for hardware controllers.

For many years, wifi access points were “dumb” boxes that needed a computer somewhere else to operate properly, their hardware controller. There's no need for them today. Modern wireless access points use software-based control, which is located on the network itself, eliminating the need for any external controllers.

The benefits of this are enormous: It's a big chunk of hardware removed from the system, as well as eliminating a big (and expensive) single point of failure from your network. No single piece of hardware can take your network offline.

2. Look for robust guest access.

Guest access shouldn't cost you or your guests money – it should be an integral part of the security system. Visitors to your business are going to expect to be able to use their devices, and with distributed network security, there's no reason they can't. Smart guest access can still apply your corporate security policies to their devices, ensuring they remain in safe areas on the network.

You don't have to worry about letting unsafe devices onto the network, thanks to this. If the network will authenticate them, they're safe to be on it.

3. Consider your broadcast options.

There are a wide range of WiFi antenna options for your business to choose from. Depending on your needs, choosing the best wireless access points may begin here: If you are going to need a large antenna, your options in wifi points may be more limited.

The area you'll need to cover will be the main determining factor here, as well as whether they'll be for indoor or outdoor use, as outdoor units require considerable shielding.

4. Get one-terminal cloud management.
   

Another major benefit of modern networking is that systems administration has been vastly simplified. With the network software and security systems housed on a virtual network, access to them can be granted from any device from anywhere in the world.

Your SysAdmins are no longer restricted by geography – only in the most extreme circumstances would they need to be in the same building as the physical server. They'd still have a real-time overview of your networks, including any distributed WLANs and telecommuters, with full power over it all.

Or, if you'd simply like our opinion:

The Best Wireless Access Points For Most Businesses Today

For most of our clients, we recommend the ADTRAN BlueSocket or Meraki Cloud managed system, specifically due to its reliability, its extendability, and its ease of use.

Cisco Meraki access points deliver some of the fastest WiFi speeds on the market with the most simple to manage system. Through the Meraki Dashboard you can deploy, scale, and manages all of your networking devices from a single pane of glass. The Meraki MR52 and MR53 are 802.11ac wave 2 access points designed for organizations who have  robust WiFi bandwidth and need steady connectivity. 

ADTRAN BlueSocket access points are designed for plug-and-play configuration. When powered on within a network running ADTRAN OS, they immediately pull down all the relevant network settings and are ready to go.

After a couple clicks from your SysAdmin authenticating it for the first time, it will never need to be touched again.  Or, if you need to relocate, it will always be able to reconnect to the network and come online within moments of being turned back on.

That makes ADTRAN BlueSocket an easy recommendation for a wide range of businesses as the most reliable and flexible wireless access points we carry.