Review: IronPoint Wireless Location Manager 200

For: Scales to large number of IronPoints with little performance degradation. The Win32 configuration client is stable and easy to use.
Against: The first levels of configuration take place through a serial cable and it took several reconfigurations to get the configuration saved.
Verdict: A good overall product that offers the same features that more expensive products offer.

The user interface is a graphical Win32 application that was easy to install on an existing Windows XP machine. The application provides several features, such as the mapping of access point to the floor plan of your organisation (this is handy for detecting and tracking down rogue access points), wireless access point configuration, client configuration, as well as a logging and reporting interface.

The reports that were created by this application were as good a reporting mechanism as we have reviewed so far. The software was able to detect our rogue access point without difficulty.

While most of the installation went smoothly, the IronPoint 200 had to be configured through a serial cable. This was a bit of a challenge since most manufacturers are no longer building serial ports in their computers.

We did experience difficulty trying to save the changes to the access point. We configured the access point several times and when completed we could not find the save function in order to make the changes permanent. The install guide informs the administrator that it is safe to simply power down the access point without saving the configuration first.

However, in our testing, all changes that were not saved were erased when we removed power. Once the configuration was on the access point, the Wireless Location Manager application is used to configure the rest of the device through the Win32 program interface.

Documentation is available in the form of PDF files that are indexed and searchable. Foundry Networks offers several paid support options, including 24/7/365. There is an online knowledge base available to registered users.

IronPoint Wireless Location Manager 200 is at the lower end of the price spectrum, but there are several more expensive models available for large enterprises.

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