About mkane

mkane · ‎06-17-2022

I recently relocated to Lincoln CA from the Bay Area. WorkgroupIT LLC is a Managed Services Provider, member of the Apple Consultants Network and Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider. We strive to bring the security and performance of enterprise security and network products and services to small businesses. Often, a small business cannot access these tools and services due to a lack of expertise, high minimums, and high annual commitments. Cisco Meraki has been a "go-to" for years due to its quality, reasonable price points, and ease of management and monitoring. In today's business environment, facing the challenges of remote work and constant security threats, our services are finding greater acceptance as a necessity rather than an option. As a sole provider, collaborating with other subject matter experts is essential for staying current and breaking down issues that may be outside of my specific expertise. A fun fact is that I was an early Apple employee and had the opportunity to work directly with Steve Jobs and through early Apple, directly with Bill Gates. Those were fun days!

mkane · ‎09-19-2019

Arrrrrgh! Ahoy LANlubbers! Ye best be protecting your patch of LAN with a mighty treasure of protection. Avast mateys - no more malware, no more intrusions and ye don't need your cutlass or canon. We be using the MX-series of Meraki Routers to protect our lair from now on. Best of all, we don't need to capture it on the high seas, but rather we hornswaggle it from our local Meraki Partner. It's like rigging new sails on our Jolly Roger Ship when the high-performance difference of the MX-Series is deployed. Best of all, when we need to sneak-up on the bloody enemy, we use the built-in VPN to shroud and protect ourselves - better than hiding in a a fog or blow - I swear to all you scallywags. Best of all, if for some reason it should take a hit and sink during the license period, Meraki will commission us a new one - better than booty! Shiver me timbers - what a great day for a Yo Ho Ho when we deploy an MX! Arrgh!

mkane · ‎06-11-2019

Everyone knows that a typical switch is used to forward traffic (or packets) from the router to endpoint devices (computers, phones, tablets, iOT, etc). Sometimes, it is useful or even necessary to isolate broadcast traffic in a large network. This can be useful to help manage bandwidth utilization (QoS) by isolating and prioritizing certain traffic for certain devices. A great example is VOIP. In a typical situation, there may be a mix of wired and wireless devices in the single subnet which might include all of the IP Phones for the site. We may want to keep all of the voice traffic isolated from the other data traffic. The first thing a VLAN does is to create a separate broadcast domain. By utilizing VLAN, we can assign all of the IP Phones as a group in a VLAN and other networked devices to a different VLAN. This is a virtual creation of separate subnets, the traffic for the IP Phones in a particular VLAN can talk directly to the IP Phones without incurring the overhead associated with non-VOIP traffic. The devices connected to a VLAN will only process traffic intended for them based on protocol. Also, other uses for separation can be for supporting multiple companies in shared office space, supporting surveillance cameras, separating NAS traffic from other print/file traffic, etc. In summary, the use of VLAN can help reduce overhead on large networks by reducing unnecessary broadcast traffic heard by each device.

mkane · ‎05-07-2019

Very cool Swag! Thanks Meraki!

mkane · ‎04-26-2019

That is my goal.

mkane · ‎04-26-2019

The leading contender at this point is the Netgear XS748T. There are 44 10GE ports. Street price is around $3K. Any comments or experience about this product?

mkane · ‎04-26-2019

I have a client that needs to upgrade their 30 machine subnet to 10GE. Is there a recommended Switch that can handle this number of users? Does not need to be a Managed Switch. Need pricepoint under $3,000.

mkane · ‎04-23-2019

OK - please swag me! I am swagless...

mkane · ‎03-01-2019

I am disappointed that we don't have troubleshooting and connectivity feedback for Meraki Go AP's similar to MRs in terms of knowing that it is connected and data is flowing. The iPhone App is not reliable. It is showing Alerts that cannot be verified. For example, the App is reporting a red dot Alert status for an AP, that is showing normal LED on the AP itself. Five minutes later it will change, the one that was red will go green, and the others turn red. I have observed some iPhones having trouble connecting (password being repeatedly rejected, then suddenly accepting). Customers report that wifi speed is slow - the enterprise portal lets me measure throughput speed between the AP and the Meraki Cloud as a way of determining if its a LAN or WAN speed issue. It is hard to troubleshoot an issue by email. The delays of back and forth are frustrating. Support suggested it might be firewall issues, but there is nothing in the documentation about Firewall configuration. And, it was about outbound ports, which are open by default, so support has not given an answer to why the app is reporting a disconnected AP that is connected. Perhaps one of the biggest issues with the IOS app is that the Client's installation and mine are never reporting the same data. This really shows why a web portal for the MSP is needed. When I am remote, the Client and I are struggling, as their app is showing different information. I must confess to being somewhat disappointed and frustrated with my first install. I was really hoping that the MR quality, performance and ease of managing would have made it into this product line, but it appears to not quite be there yet.

mkane · ‎02-27-2019

I recently installed a new network with 3 Meraki Go APs. Each is hardwired to a POE switch and connected to a Comcast Router (The APs are in Bridge Mode - getting IPs from the Comcast Router). When I look at devices in the app, I see at least 1 AP showing a red dot. When I start the app at various times, the AP showing the red dot will be changed. I never see more than 1 in this state at a time. When I click on the indicated AP, and Test to Meraki Cloud - it always connects and shows OK. Any idea what may be going on, and why this indicator is showing in the App. Perhaps a false reading? I don't get a lot of info from the App to help diagnose the issue.

mkane

Community Record

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Hello from WorkgroupIT LLC in Lincoln CA

Re: Ahoy! It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Re: Community Challenge: VLAN Explained

Re: Announcing the winners of our April Points Contest

Re: Support for 10GE

Re: Support for 10GE

Support for 10GE

Re: This contest is ON POINT.

Re: Random Alert Status (Changing)

Random Alert Status (Changing)

Re: Ahoy! It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Re: This contest is ON POINT.

Hello from WorkgroupIT LLC in Lincoln CA