Combining Old and New (MR18 and MR33 - Site Refresh)

[-Michael-]

Hi all, does anyone have experience of combining new and (much) older Meraki APs?

We are looking to expand or uplift some sites that are using MR18's with MR33 APs.

Obviously the newer ones have come a long way, have the third radio for auto adjustment of environmental factors etc. 

What problems might we encounter? 

[BHC_RESORTS]

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@-Michael- wrote:

Hi all, does anyone have experience of combining new and (much) older Meraki APs?

We are looking to expand or uplift some sites that are using MR18's with MR33 APs.

Obviously the newer ones have come a long way, have the third radio for auto adjustment of environmental factors etc. 

What problems might we encounter? 

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We have a few locations where MR18s and 33s or 42s or 72s or all of the above are all running. Honestly, I can't really think of any problems you might encounter. I believe they even use the same AC adapter if you aren't using PoE. L3 roaming, concentration, band steering, etc. all features should work the same across the network.

[PhilipDAth]

I agree with @BHC_RESORTS, you are not likely to run into problems replacing existing APs with newer better APs.

[randhall]

No problems at all. We run 700+ APs of 16, 18, 32, 42, 52, 58, 62

[Samir]

The only problem you could possibly run into might be a licensing one if you have a site on the 'free' pro subscription and upgrade it to enterprise.  Then all of the devices on that site would need enterprise licenses.

[TNelson]

I'm noticing an issue, with our MBP's We have a mixture of AP's ranging from MR18 to MR 52's What I've noticed is clients with MacBookPros are connecting to our MR33's which is on the other side of the mezzanine, When there is at least three MR18's closer to them.

[PhilipDAth]

I don't blame them @TNelson .  An MR18 is only 802.11n while an MR33 is 802.11ac.  They are going to prefer an 802.11ac AP over an 802.11n AP as it has the potential for much higher performance.