Demystifying Ruckus Home Wi-Fi: Getting Started Guide

Welcome to a comprehensive guide on Ruckus Wi-Fi, a true enterprise-grade Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) product line. This post delves into the intricacies of setting up a robust home Wi-Fi system, with a focus on the high performance APs which Ruckus is known for. Though Ruckus might not be the first name that springs to mind when you think of home Wi-Fi, their reputation in the enterprise space is well known, consistently delivering top-tier performance at the largest venues in...

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Mastering Home Wi-Fi: A Guide to Predictive RF Planning

Wi-Fi access Point placement and the number of APs you use is critical to having a good Wi-Fi experience in your home. Too few APs as well as too many APs can result in less than ideal Wi-Fi. However, many homeowners have no idea how to scientifically determine AP quantity and placement. They just buy one or more APs, throw it in the middle of the house, and hope for the best. Hope is not the right answer when it...

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Part 2: Ruckus Unleashed Best Practices Guide

This is Part 2 of 2 of the Ruckus Unleashed home Wi-Fi Best Practices Guide. In Part 1 we configured a number of settings including system time, country code, email alerting, radio configuration, and more. Part 2 will focus on SSID architecture and setting up a number of Wi-Fi networks (WLANs) for various use cases, such as homeowner IoT and guest networks. We will be deploying 3 or 4 WLANs, depending on your requirements. Let's dig in! Related Posts Part 1: Ruckus...

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Part 1: Ruckus Unleashed Best Practices Guide

Welcome to the unofficial Ruckus Unleashed Best Practices Guide for enterprise-grade home Wi-Fi. This post will guide you through the configuration of the free Ruckus Unleashed controller for a residential setting. Residential deployments can present unique challenges to maximizing Wi-Fi performance and stability. This guide provides detailed guidance on a variety of settings and presents sample Wi-Fi LAN configurations to help get you started. Ruckus Unleashed is a high-performance local Wi-Fi controller which runs within your Ruckus access points. No external...

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Part 2: Ruckus One Home Wi-Fi Best Practices Guide

This is Part 2 of 2 of the Ruckus One at Home Wi-Fi Best Practices Guide. In Part 1 we configured a number of settings at the Venue level, including channel plan, radio settings, channel bandwidth, and more. Part 2 will focus on SSID architecture and setting up a number of Wi-Fi networks (WLANs) for various use cases, such as homeowner IoT and guest networks. We will be deploying 3 or 4 WLANs, depending on your requirements. Let's dig in! Related Posts...

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Part 1: Ruckus One Home Wi-Fi Best Practices Guide

Welcome to the unofficial Ruckus One Best Practices Guide for enterprise-grade home Wi-Fi. This post will guide you through the configuration of the Ruckus One cloud controller for Ruckus Wi-Fi access points in a residential setting. Residential deployments can present unique challenges to maximizing Wi-Fi performance and stability. This guide provides detailed guidance on a variety of settings, including those for Wi-Fi 7, to get the most out of Ruckus Wi-Fi APs in your home. What is Ruckus One? In contrast...

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Smartwings Thread/Matter Blinds Review

Back in October of 2023 I purchased a number of Smartwings Thread and Matter enabled shades. This post is a long term review of the six shades I've had in two different rooms. I have three roller style blackout shades in my bedroom, and three zebra style in my office. I've had all six paired to both Apple Home and Home Assistant, via Matter's multi-admin feature. This post is my detailed review of the Smartwings shades, the installation, long term thoughts, and...

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Ruckus One: Provisioning ICX Switches

This post covers how to provision a factory fresh Ruckus ICX network switch with FastIron 10.01.x to their new Ruckus One cloud controller. Ruckus sells a number of network switches which can be easily integrated with their Wi-Fi APs. For this post we will be using a Ruckus ICX 8200-C08ZP, which is a multi-gig/10G/25G PoE++ switch designed to support Wi-Fi 7 APs, such as the Ruckus R770. Disclaimer: Ruckus was kind enough to send me a ICX 8200-C08ZP PoE++ switch. However, there...

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Goodbye NextDNS, Hello Control D : My New DNS Service

This article discusses my recent migration from NextDNS, a popular ad and malware filtering DNS service, to Control D. Several years ago, I transitioned from Pi-hole, a local network-based ad and malware tracker, to NextDNS due to its enhanced functionality. However, NextDNS failed to keep pace with the industry. Its lack of new features motivated me to look for an alternative DNS filtering service.Interestingly, I discovered Control D in a conversation thread on the NextDNS forums. Amid the multitude of...

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Ruckus Unleashed to Ruckus One Migration Guide

If you are using Ruckus Unleashed as your Wi-Fi controller of choice, but want to migrate to Ruckus One, this post is for you. If you want to find out all about Ruckus One and the benefits it has over Ruckus Unleashed, check out my article Enterprise Grade Home Wi-Fi: Ruckus Unleashed vs. Ruckus One. This post is short and too the point. It will walk you through converting your environment from Ruckus Unleashed to Ruckus One. Pre-Stage Your Configuration...

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