I have a new avatar. It shows how well Meraki can help you clean up your server room!  ... View more

@andy1 Now that is really cool. Are you planning/willing to share the code you used? ... View more

I still say the killer (& time-saving) feature of Meraki is the site to site VPN. My somewhat humerus take on non-Meraki vs Meraki site to site VPN setup.      Please be kind - this was literally the first video I ever edited! ... View more

Security - security - security.   My top 4 tips to secure a Meraki network by leveraging the full-stack!   ... View more

Hi guys. Sorry I'm late for this contest. Been on a well-deserved vacation.   Physically locating access points on a map are very helpful for me. I upload floor plans to the portal to locate the actual WAPs. This is is very helpful when working remote. I hope you guys this tip helpful as well!   ... View more

End users - the thorn in an engineer's side.   The Meraki dashboard is a (hmmm.. what adjective do I use because there are so many) comprehensive troubleshooting tool. Yes, the cloud management aspect means you don't have to do on-site. However, if you were on-site, what's the most useful troubleshooting tool? CLI? *yawn* What's that tell you? MAC addresses in use? VLAN/port configurations? How helpful is that? I'll tell you - not very. How much bandwidth is a user taking? How long has it been since a device was online? Without external monitoring via SNMP of netflow, you can't find this info. Have you ever had to justify an expensive out of town trip only to find out you are no closer to finding the root cause of your network issues?   Here are 2 ways the Meraki dashboard has helped me - and it can help you too.   1 - Cable port testing We've all seen this before right? (I took this picture at the last customer site I visited...) Have you ever had to test one of these? 19 WAPs mounted in the ceiling of a warehouse. Customer claimed we had a bad switch port since 2 WAPs provided poor Internet access. But we tested all the WAPs and all worked correctly. What changed? Oh wait, customer provided the cable vendor. Login to dasahboard, click on the switch, select the port, then scroll to the bottom. Ran a cable test & found the cable run was over 350feet. Hmmm... sounds like that's over the 100meter max to me. "Mr customer - I think you need a new (shorter) cable! May I recommend a low-voltage contractor that DOEs respect ethernet standards?"   2 - Client bandwidth usage We had a client that upgraded from 10meg to 100 meg Internet. At first, things were fast. The client then reported backups were failing due to transfers timing out.  Pop in the dashboard and check the client graph.  - Looks like an issue to me. Click on the Usage column to sort then click on the top client. From there, click show details on the application graph. BAM! We found the culprit. Bittorrent traffic from 8p-4a was saturating the circuit. This is where computer names are helpful. We made a call to the client with the affected PC name & were told they would take care of it. We asked about the owner of that PC so we could update our notes. "We'll take care of the user - rest assured there will be no more BT traffic from that PC." Again we asked who's PC it was... after a brief silence, our suspicions were confirmed. "It was the IT Director's PC."   The dashboard is not only convenient but a very helpful troubleshooting tool. ... View more

How have I seen organizations leverage Meraki’s advanced security tools to combat emerging threats?   There are numerous ways that Meraki security tools have helped our customer's combat threats.   Cisco AMP is time-consuming to deploy on traditional ASA devices. With Meraki, I can setup AMP with 3 dropdown boxes in less than 10 seconds. This extreme time saving is appealing to every customer. Built in VPN functionality means even non-administrators can setup their own VPN client - no install required VPN means we can close public openings. We see RDP open on the Internet too many time. Customers will only use a solution if security is balanced with convenience. Dashboard reports enable even the non-technical user to have a view of the security. The client list - this is my favorite thing to show a client. It's priceless to hear them exclaim "I didn't realize there were so many devices on my network. Who is that? What device is THAT?!" Mobile app - I believe in empowering users. When you install the Meraki app & show a client they have 100% visibility to their network 24x7x365, they are always amazed. SOHO/Branch Office users no longer need a large security appliance or home-brew solution to add security. Meraki Z1 can be purchased & setup for little more than a high-end consumer device and they don't include client or site to site VPN. Firmware updates used to be an arduous task. Meraki not only automates updates but empowers administrators to control the upgrade window, version, and features. How many ransomware attach vectors use already patched flaws? Auto updates ensure you don't get hit by something that was fixed months ago. Many clients (including those running Cisco AMP & ISE) were infected with ransomware. 0% of our Meraki clients experienced ransomware attacks. Coincidence? I think not.    I ❤️ Meraki ... View more