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WirelessTrakker Service Description
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WirelessTrakker is a solution to make deploying and managing a wireless network (WLAN) easy and simple,
while maintaining high security and control over what happens on your network.
Similar to products
from BlueSocket, Meraki, and Cisco; it is designed to be fast and easy to get any management tasks
done, and to tie into your existing network with only some minor changes in most cases.
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I am amazed at how simple the setup of WirelessTrakker has been. We were
pleasantly surprised that we did not need more than 16 access points to serve
our single building K-8 district, but the coverage has been outstanding. The
integration with Active Directory through our Secureschool box makes management
a breeze. The tech support is exceptional and easily accessible as it is located
in the US. We finally have a stable wireless network that is safe, reliable, and
robust.
Jay Christgau, MHLT Elementary
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Service Features
- Simple, Easy Wireless Network Management For Staff and Guests
- Create up to 4 different wireless networks (SSIDs), each with different levels of access
- Supports 802.11 encryption standards, like WEP, WPA, and WPA2
- Integrates with SecureSchool for add-on filtering and logging
- User validation can be internal, Active Directory, LDAP, or handled by SecureSchool
- Easy-to-use web-based controls
- Free Service Upgrades
- Free/Unlimited Technical Support
- Automatic Configuration Backup and Updates
Equipment Buy Back
We recognize that many organizations have wireless equipment in place, and it
may be difficult to finance the purchasing of all new access points or
controllers. To help ease the financial burden of purchasing WirelessTrakker
Access Points and replacing any wireless controllers you have, we may be able to
buy your existing equipment from you to offset the cost of your WirelessTrakker
purchase. Depending on your equipment, your WirelessTrakker purchase may even
be free for the first year! Contact us for more details about this program.
Service & Warranties
The WirelessTrakker controller is fully warrantied and supported by K12USA for
as long as you subscribe to the service. This includes email and telephone
support, as well as software updates for the controller and access points. Once
your subscription is up, you return the controller to us. The access points are
outright purchases, and warrantied from K12USA for 30 days against DOA (dead on
arrival). The APs carry a one year warranty from the manufacturer, and details
on the return process are included in the documentation for the access points. Contact us for more details about this program.
Try it now!
We offer a free 30-day on-site demo of our WirelessTrakker Controller appliance. You will
have to purchase at least one wireless access point.
If you would like to test WirelessTrakker at your school
please complete
this form.
As a nearly 30 year veteran of the IT workplace, I know how hard it is to set up
a robust, enterprise class, Wireless Local Area Network. With all of the
technical pit-falls, setting up a multi-access point wireless LAN segment is
difficult. From the moment that I unpacked the controller and access points, I
just knew that this setup was going to be one of the easiest that I had ever
done. Once I had the controller installed in my LAN, a simple phone call was
all that was needed to have everything activated. The technical team even
helped configure my pre-existing switches to work seamlessly with the new
system. The access points were a snap to set up and in next-to-no-time, I had
my entire b/g/n multi-access point wireless LAN up and running – across our
entire campus. It doesn’t matter what our students or faculty are running – PC,
Mac, iPad, ‘Droid, iPhone, etc. – it just all works flawlessly.
Yossie Frankel, Shalhevet School
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Overview
School’s wireless networks are being asked to do more and more every day. For example many
schools are issuing students and staff iPads that need filtered and secure access to the Internet.
Guest presenters are also becoming more common, and these presenters often need full access to
the Internet, but you want to keep them off your LAN. WirelessTrakker was designed to solve these
problems by providing the ability to separate different groups of wireless users with different
levels of access, all from one central management interface.
A WirelessTrakker solution consists of a WirelessTrakker Controller, and one or many WirelessTrakker
Access Points. The WirelessTrakker Controller is a 1U appliance that you install in your server
room or wiring closet. The WirelessTrakker Controller acts as a router/gateway between your wired
network and your wireless network. It is a low power device that has minimal moving parts,
designed to be an integral part of your network and to have very high uptimes.
The WirelessTrakker Access Points are installed throughout your building, wherever you need access
to the wireless network. In typical school construction, if you place an access point in a
hallway with classrooms on both sides, it should cover 4-6 classrooms with good signal quality.
The access points support 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n. They can be mounted directly on drop
ceiling tiles, or mounted to a wall.
The WirelessTrakker Access Points are powered using Power Over Ethernet injectors, that are typically
placed in your wiring closet. You simply connect your switch to the power injector’s “LAN” port,
then the WirelessTrakker Access Point (directly or via a patch panel) to the “POE” port. The power
cord for the POE injector plugs into a standard power outlet on a surge protector or UPS strip.
This means that wherever you need to put an access point, you only need a CAT5 jack. No electric
outlets are needed at the access point’s location.
Security
WirelessTrakker allows you to create up to 4 different wireless networks (SSIDs), each with different levels of access.
For example, you can create a “guest” WLAN that allows only filtered access to the Internet, a
“presenter” WLAN that allows full access to the Internet but no access to the LAN, a “staff” WLAN
that allows access to everything on your wired network, and a “student” WLAN that allows access to
select network devices.
WirelessTrakker supports 802.11 encryption standards, like WEP, WPA, and WPA2. All three of these
methods support the typical “pre shared key”, or PSK, security. WirelessTrakker also supports
Enterprise level authentication for WPA and WPA2. Instead of requiring your users to put in a key
that is common to everyone (and easily stolen from post-it notes and word of mouth), users are
prompted for a name and password before they are even given an IP address on the network. That
name and password can then be validated against a database on the WirelessTrakker appliance, Active
Directory, LDAP, or a SecureSchool user database.
Additionally, each WLAN can have a different encryption type to make it easier for some users to
access it. For example, the “guest” WLAN would probably be best suited to have no authentication so
that guest users can just get on and get what they need to do done, while the “staff” WLAN requires
a name and password to validate that they are a member of the organization.
For unencrypted WLANs and for WLANs with PSK encryption, you can also turn on a captive portal.
The captive portal requires that the user identify themselves somehow (either by their full name,
or a username and password ) and optionally agree to a Terms of Service agreement (customizable by
you) before they are granted access to the network.
Management
One of the goals of WirelessTrakker is to make it simple and fast to deploy and maintain a robust
wireless network. All of the configuration for the entire wireless network is done in the
WirelessTrakker web interface. If you are familiar with SecureSchool, using WirelessTrakker will be
second nature since it’s based on the same interface design. The WirelessTrakker Access Points get
their configuration from the WirelessTrakker Controller, so you do not have to configure each access
point individually. If you add a new WirelessTrakker Access Point to your network, the controller
will push the configuration down to the access point and it will “just work”.
WirelessTrakker logs and reports everyone that connects to the WLAN, adding accounting and credibility
to your WLAN. For example, if user “Fred” logs in to the WLAN, WirelessTrakker can tell you that
“Fred” logged in, got IP address x.x.x.x, and connected to the access point “y”. Using that data
you can even see where (approximately) the user was when they connected.
Choosing the right Access Point
When selecting which access points are necessary for your environment, we have 3 different models for you to choose from, each with their own benefits:
- Indoor AP: This is the standard / typical Access Point currently used in most environments. They use most of the WiFi standard network types currently available (802.11b/g/n) on 2.4Ghz. They connect to the network using a 100Mbps Ethernet connection, and are powered by a 24V POE injector (supplied) which is typically installed in the wiring closet.
- Outdoor AP: This has the same feature set as the Indoor AP, but it is built to be installed in an outdoor location.
- Indoor Pro AP: This is a dual band Access Point, supporting both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands on all WiFi standards (802.11 a/b/g/n) (not all modes are available on all bands). Each band can be turned on or off independently. To support a higher throughput, these APs connect to the network using Gigabit Ethernet. They are powered over POE like the other Access Points, with one minor difference: these use the 802.3af Power Over Ethernet standard. This means that they can be powered either by the injector that comes with the Access Point, or from a switch that supports Power Over Ethernet.
Things to consider when selecting which model(s) and how many of each type to purchase:
- Installation location: Is this AP going to be providing access to people inside or outside?
- Number of stations: If this is intended for a 1:1 environment where every student has a WiFi device, or any other high density of devices, then more APs may be needed in that area to support the bandwidth needs. In areas where a high density of APs is necessary, using 5Ghz Access Points will help because there are 9 non-overlapping channels available, opposed to 3 using 2.4Ghz. Because of the channel availability in the 2.4Ghz band, some of the Indoor Pro APs may need their 2.4Ghz radios turned off or set to a lower power to avoid channel overlap.
- Range / coverage area: In a typical school environment (hallway with classrooms down both sides), the Indoor AP typically covers 6 classrooms. This varies based on building construction. If the school is built with poured concrete walls with rebar or wire mesh, the signal range will be less. If the 5Ghz band on the Indoor Pro AP is used, 5Ghz radio waves are very easily blocked and the range is typically 1/2 that of 2.4Ghz, if not less.
- Device support: Not all devices support both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz band. Almost every WiFi device supports the 2.4Ghz band. Newer devices that are coming out typically support both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands, but always check with the manufacturer.
Here are some popular devices that support the 5Ghz band. (Note that in some cases 5Ghz only works on 802.11a, not 802.11a/n.)
- Acer C7 Chromebook
- Apple iPad (any version)
- Apple iPhone 5 & newer
- Apple MacBook Air
- Apple MacBook Pro (early 2006: “a” only, late 2006-current: supports “n”)
- Asus Zenbook (Most models)
- Amazon Kindle Fire HD (all sizes)
- Google Chromebook Pixel
- Google Nexus 4
- HP Pavilion Chromebook
- Samsung Chromebook
- Samsung Chromebook 550
Differences Between Access Point Models
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Indoor AP |
Outdoor AP |
Indoor Pro AP |
| Indoor Use |
X |
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X |
| Outdoor Use |
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X |
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| 100Mbps Ethernet |
X |
X |
X |
| 2.4Ghz WiFi |
X |
X |
X |
| 802.11b |
X |
X |
X |
| 802.11g |
X |
X |
X |
| 802.11n |
X |
X |
X |
| 24V POE (requires injector, supplied) |
X |
X |
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| 48V 802.3af POE (optional injector supplied) |
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X |
| Gigabit Ethernet |
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X |
| 5Ghz WiFi |
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X |
| 802.11a |
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X |
Integration With SecureSchool
WirelessTrakker works great as a standalone product to manage and control your
wireless network. But when paired with SecureSchool, it’s capabilities increase
even more! The SecureSchool add-on to support filtering of Apple iPads & iPods,
and Google Android devices determines how to filter the user based on the
device’s IP address. When WirelessTrakker (with an authenticated WLAN) is added
to the mix, you add authentication to the system so that SecureSchool knows
exactly who is using the device so it can filter and log them accordingly. The
importance of this is so that you can have one SSID for all students, but be
able to filter each student differently. When using other wireless systems,
SecureSchool has no way to know who is using a machine, just that it is in an IP
range for students. That can be problematic if there are different levels of
filtering for different students (for example, “lower” versus “upper” students).
Requirements
WirelessTrakker is fairly easy to install and get going. The only requirement your network needs to
have is that the switches in between the WirelessTrakker Controller and the WirelessTrakker Access
Points need to support VLANs and VLAN tagging (known as 802.1Q). Most managed switches support this.
You will need to configure the ports that the WirelessTrakker Access Points and the WirelessTrakker
controller connect to with VLAN tagging support and place the ports in the correct VLANs. We can help
you with this process, and have instructions for how to do this for many different vendors
of switches.
If you want to authenticate your wireless users with Active Directory, then you need to have a
Microsoft Windows Domain Controller running Windows 2000 or newer.
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