New to Meraki-Go - So far not impressed

[mbaker33]

Hey all, 

I just installed a new Merak-Go setup last Sunday and have had nothing but issues with it so far.  I am a Network Engineer, with a lot of experience in setting this type of stuff up.  I was hoping for an experience closer to standard Meraki, but there is literally almost no configuration that can be adjusted on these devices.  The lack of any real configuration is a bit disappointing.  I'm hoping I am just missing something obvious here and someone can direct me to something I am not aware of other than the App on my phone and my.meraki.com.

The bigger issue for me is I can't seem to push more than 150 Mbps through the GX20.  When I hook up my Spectrum provided router, I get 500 Mbps pretty consistently as long as my bandwidth-hogging kids aren't home.  With the GX20, it is consistently 150-170 Mbps and I occasionally get up to 220 Mbps.  I work from home, and the kids are remote learning during the pandemic so every bit of that 500 Mbps is incredibly valuable.  Is anyone else having this issue as well?  I read that they were 1 Gbps ports, so I'm not sure where the hang-up is here.

I want to love these devices.  I have been a HUGE fan of Cisco and Meraki for a very long time.  I was sold on a Ubiquiti setup, and then found the Meraki-Go and decided to change it up.  Currently, I am regretting that decision, but I am hoping I can turn that around.

Thanks,

Mark

[Roska]

Sad to hear. To me this is mostly about positioning and not about HW or softaware and management being uncabable of providing the stuff you might have been looking for in the first place. I agree with you that the GX side would need upgrading on the performance level at least for the countries and areas where there are bandwith sold with reasonable prices. At the same time I agree with Meraki vision for Go stack to be as slick as possible as this is mainly positioned for coffee shops, barbers, blacksmiths and the likes. Anyway data speeds and amounts are increasing at this space as well.

[Moskeeto]

Hello Mark, 

Thank you for your post. 

I'm sorry to hear that the Meraki Go setup has not been to your liking so far. However, our Meraki Go Support Team would be more than happy to take a look and further assist you regarding the throughput issues you are experiencing. I would encourage you to please open a case with our Meraki Go Team for assistance in this matter. A case can be opened via the app by navigating to Settings>Help>Contact Support. 

Thanks, 

Keithia

Meraki Go Support

[Indigo]

Hi.

I think Meraki Go might not the right product for you if you're a network engineer, love to tinker with configuration, program devices using command line interface, etc.

These devices offer a different value. Easy to install, easy to configure (as long as you are within the 95% of people that don´t need a really complicated setting), solid performance, stability, enterprise level reliability. Set and forget.

We're 7 users at home, 2 teleworking, 4 children home schooling. Since I installed my Meraki Go network I've had 0 disconnections while teleworking and videoconferencing, 0 complaints from children unable to join a class. This stuff just works, which wasn't the case with the 2 other mesh systems I tried... which needed regular re-boots from either the device or the APs.

I do agree with you that would be nice to have a Router with higher throughput.... but also realized using the Meraki Go app that I barely use the 400 Mbps that I have through my ISP. I don't know how many 4K simultaneous streams I'd need to have to use all of that bandwidth at the same time.

[mbaker33]

Thank you for the replies, everyone.  I went into this purchase with the understanding that I may be underwhelmed with some functions of the system.  However, I assumed that some very basic functions like DHCP reservations and/or port forwarding would be configurable.  I understand the target audience is not my demographic, it is definitely more for an SMB owner looking to get some quick and dirty access for their coffee shop, restaurant, etc.

I have been able to address some of the dropouts by adjusting radio channels on the two AP's.  I do not live in a super congested neighborhood so I am surprised that this would be something that I would need to do.  This is also something I would expect the device to see as a potential issue and "auto adjust" as necessary.  Either way, a very simple fix that isn't a big deal.

As for the GX20 speed, I don't figure I will ever use the full 400 Mbps that I have through my ISP but having a 1 Gbps router not operate at its intended speed is a huge problem no matter how you shake it.  I am hoping to get some time to really troubleshoot this issue later this week.  Hopefully, I can rectify this one issue and I will be happy with the product.

I don't need to tweak things or anything like that.  Honestly, I do enough of it that all day every day at the office, so I don't really want to do it when I get home.  However, that being said, it would be nice to have some very basic adjustments available to me in the interface.  The product is new, so I am hoping it evolves.  I am not terribly interested in a lot of the competition, I love Cisco products and want this to work out for sure.

Mark

[Indigo]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the added info....

Some additional points to note:

- DHCP reservations are configurable (Settings tab -> Advanced Settings -> Local Network Addressing)

- Port Forwarding is configurable (Settings tab -> Advanced Settings -> Port forwarding)

- GX20 is not a 1 Gbps Router. It's throughput is advertised as 250 Mbps (Firewall Throughput). It has multiple 1 Gbps ports, so in my understanding, that means inside the local network devices can connect at that speed. This is useful as also means that you could set up subsequent switches to connect to each GX20 port, and all devices connected to those switches can share a 1 Gbit connection to the GX20.... so they are not limited to 100Mbit.

Hope this helps!

[hidden0]

Hello Mark,

I'm really excited you took the time to reach out. Hearing about your disappointment actually tells me we have an opportunity to improve the ecosystem for everyone. I wanted to take some time to let you, and the community, know these dilemmas are not going unheard. 

Meraki Go takes advantage of numerous automation features, such as automatic channel and power selection for access points. Another example is DHCP is automatically available on new VLANs created on the GX20. That being said, we've garnered feedback from many users such as yourself and intend to make improvements.  Some changes we can all expect in the near future include some of the items you've mentioned: DHCP scope configuration (which currently exists, but is somewhat tucked away), manual radio controls (for channel and power selection), and ultimately an easier way to perform these configurations.

We're glad you decided to pursue Meraki Go and hope we can develop a stronger, more useful application for the product line over the coming year.

[mbaker33]

Thank you for that.  I believe I will stick with the Meraki APs, however, the 250 Mbps cap on the GX20 may force me to return the device.  Not that 250 Mbps isn't enough, I pay for 400 Mbps, and to not be able to get what I pay for in the event I do need it doesn't seem right to me.  Before doing that, I will certainly reach out to support privately and see if there is anything that can be done.

Also, I thought I had fixed the issues with wireless dropouts, but it seems like they continue as well.  Again, I will reach out to support and send along the appropriate dump files and such to see if we can figure this out.

As I've continued to say, I have always loved Cisco and Meraki devices.  I have faith that this can be a very good solution.  I understand, however, there are bound to be some growing pains with such a relatively new product line.  I am happy to help in any way you think I can do so.  Beta testing new features, or whatever, I'm game to help out.

I also think there are thousands of people like myself that are looking for a new home wireless solution that has the Cisco name on it.  Pure Meraki is too expensive and feature-rich for a home network, as much as I would love to have it.  Somewhere between where Meraki Go is currently, and where Meraki is currently would be the perfect solution for most of those people.  I also think many of the SMB users would appreciate some of those features as well.

Cheers,

Mark

[hidden0]

We're all trying to find that comfortable middle ground right now. What I can tell you (to save some time) is that the GX20 is capable of 250 Mbps per the datasheet. No need to open a support case on the throughput front.

We have gigabit interfaces and this is mainly due to interfaces commonly supporting that line rate these days. For example, I'd expect you to be able to reach closer to 1 Gbps if you were doing a LAN to LAN file transfer on the GX20 LAN ports. Reaching out to the internet, however, requires the firewall to do its job at inspection and gives us the 250 Mbps we're discussing. Reaching a routed/firewalled 1 Gbps of throughput is difficult, but certainly on the horizon for new hardware. This is a problem we're happy to tackle, so stay tuned!

Now on the other hand, we're very close to releasing new wireless configuration in the app. We'll make sure any updates are presented in the "What's new" section to let you know when they are available to use.

Finally, I wanted to mention that we read all of the app wishes. If you want to quickly drop us a message via the wish tool in the app about something you need or want, let us know!

[stevec101]

Hi Mark,

I'm also an Engineer and was almost about to send the kit back but got a really good tip from support when I was trying to troubleshoot some channel selections.  The Meraki-Go APs support browsing to "ap.meraki.com" when you are connected to an AP just like the enterprise Meraki AP's.  The data on that page about your connection is awesome.  It also automatically refreshes so if you have multiple APs you can watch the roaming happen.  I feel like its a little reminder that this gear shares some of the Meraki Enterprise DNA.

Steve

[olavrb]

250mbps throughput would be OK 10 years ago. People have 1/1gbps at home these days. That makes Google Wifi a better option for home and SMB (yeah, really).

Don't settle for a 1/1gbps firewall as a successor to GX20, go straight for multi-gig. Then I'll consider investing in Meraki Go as a future proof concept.

[Roska]

Good discussion and happy to see other users and providers having the same point of view around this 🙂

[stevec101]

Just to keep things in perspective lets look at the Meraki Enterprise product lineup.  The first firewall to go over 1Gbps firewall throughput is the MX250 which is considered a "Large Branch, Campus/Concentrator" device which has an MSRP of $9995.00 for the hardware alone.  Unifi's closest competition the UniFi Security Gateway tops out at 85 Mbps when you enable the security features.

[olavrb]

10k$ + monthly cost for the cheapest 1/1gb Meraki firewall/ router is nuts.

Adjustable level of security and thus speed/ security (IDS, IPS) tradeoff could be something to look at implementing too.UniFi has this.

[TyShawn]

I totally agree with the ask for turning off IDS/IPS Meraki as a brand has made this part of their vision for a while, and seeing this feature set going to an option I don't see coming anytime soon. I've been to a good amount of Meraki Live events and this topic is brought up at each event. With the response of "Well we are aware of the ask but not sure if this will happen".

As for the speed increase comment. Many homes and SMBs are still around 100Mbps or less. In medium to larger cities that have FIOS or cables companies willing to offer 300 Mbps+ at a reasonable rate this could be a limiting factor and one that will quickly growing in the coming years. Finding the right balance between offering the higher speeds at the right price will be tough for Meraki to figure out as a brand as the security features have been the driving force behind the hardware and and software cost. 

I will make my comment quick on UniFi. In their current state with the USGs still haven't completed the features promised over 5 years ago, the ever changing and at times buggy controller, the shift to UDMs being painful at times, UDM still in development it's a little hard to keep pushing down that path "for me". 

[RoBB1]

Looking at the Meraki Go Blog:

posted on 06/14/22     "Introducing the Router Firewall Plus" <--- Is this new hardware from Meraki Go?

[RoBB1]

What are the specs for the new GX50? Need more details with this new hardware device…