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Spotted this Cisco AP at LocoLanding Adventure Park in Penticton, British Columbia.
I thought it interesting that they went for the black face plate but not for a fully black body. Does Cisco do that? I know they sold a ton of indoor APs in all black to a large customer in western Canada. Saying that, I wonder if all black outdoor AP in a warn, sunny location is healthy for the AP’s internals.
Even access points can get chilly. This one gets to stay outside the fridge while its antenna is extended inside.
Earlier this year I was in San Diego and took a walk down by the pier. There’s a spot where you can sit on the pier near the Midway Museum and someone (the city?) has installed a Merki access point and a camera.
What interests me most about this is the empty bracket that’s still mounted above the camera. Looks like maybe a Cisco 1552E used to be mounted on this pole?
This Cisco 3702i was spotted peeking out from behind the curtain in a conference room at a hotel.
Peekaboo
What’s odd to me is that the whole conference level was already blanketed in WiFi. Why the lone AP casually left on the floor? Also, does anyone else immediately wonder what they would get access to if they plugged their own equipment into a public network port like this?
I didn’t notice the label on the AP until zooming in on the photo (the original, multi-megapixel photo).
It’s really snowy in parts of British Columbia, Canada right now. The trees are covered in a brilliant blanket of white snow. And so are the Cisco industrial WiFi routers that dot this part of the province :-)
This particular router is one that I drive past a few times a year in different seasons. Right now it’s -20C (-4F) and there’s snow everywhere.
(That big pole on the back side of the router is just a mounting pole, not an antenna)
Thanks to Colin for this one :)
At a hockey arena in Edmonton, they installed a Cisco AP over the ice, presumably to try and maximize coverage across the whole arena. That makes sense… until you think about the age range of the players.
If you look closely, you can see black smudges on the AP where kids where shooting hockey pucks up at the AP. And it looks like even with the cover over it, the kids are still keen to try and knock it down.
Man, LAX is pretty gnarly. Between taking photos of planes and APs, it's amazing I didn't miss a flight. First off, pretty obvious–at least in Terminal 2– that they're an all-Cisco shop. No shortage of 3702i APs anywhere.
Curiously, they also had a healthy amount of 3802e APs (“e” denotes a model with external antennas).
I’d love to know why they mixed models like this. They even had the two models fairly well intermixed; a specific model was not just in a specific area.
Yes, even in a crowded club with music, food, drinks, and entertainment, I still keep a watchful eye open for them weefees.
This Cisco 3802i AP is mounted on the (low) ceiling as you enter the main room of the Hakkasan Nightclub at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Hakkasan at CLUS 2017
More spotting at airports! This time Ottawa’s Macdonald-Cartier International. Cisco 1552 outdoor APs are providing WiFi coverage on the apron.
Ottawa International (YOW)
Ottawa International (YOW)
Ottawa International (YOW)
Ok, last of the airport posts for this week. This time, Vancouver International (YVR). Similar to SAN , YVR has Cisco APs providing Wi-Fi coverage in the rental car garage.
YVR Rental Car Garage
Unlike SAN, YVR went with the ruggedized Cisco 1532i AP which can operate in below-freezing temperatures.
What I like most about YVR’s network is their extensive use of the Cisco Hyperlocation Antenna. The 32-element antenna array wraps around the AP and plugs in on the bottom of the AP into the module slot.
Continuing on with this mini series on Wi-Fi at airports, here’s a couple of shots from O’Hare (ORD). ORD seems to be in the middle of either an evaluation/bake-off or a transition between vendors because I saw a healthy amount of Aruba and Cisco in the terminal (I don’t remember which terminal this was in).
Aruba at ORD
This looks like an Aruba AP-228 which, if I’ve identified this correctly, does make some sense because I spotted this unit in the jet bridge getting onto the plane and if you’ve ever walked on/off a plane somewhere in Canada in the dead of winter, you KNOW those things do not have very good temperature control.
Ok, more sightings at an airport! Similar to Calgary International (YYC) , San Diego International (SAN) has APs mounted right outside the terminal along the arrivals/departures road. SAN is using Cisco 1552s.
SAN Taxi Line AP
I’m sure the metal-wrapped cement column does wonders for the signal in the Taxi line. Also not sure why these APs are carrying the SSID for the conference room?
SAN SSIDs
What was cool though was in the rental center garage, there were APs everywhere.
Calgary International Airport (YYC) has completely transformed their Wi-Fi service is the last couple of years. They switched from their prior vendor to a 100% Cisco solution all while greatly increasing the quality of the network and expanding the network’s footprint so they can provide high quality connectivity in areas of the airport they couldn’t before.
First off, when you get dropped off at the airport, as soon as you step out of the car you’re within the Wi-Fi coverage area.
I was recently in Edmonton for work and made a point of going with a colleague (hi SK!) to the brand new Rogers Place stadium to catch an NHL game. This stadium is fully teched out with digital signage, a high capacity, robust IP backbone, and of course, serious Wi-Fi coverage. The stadium offers free Wi-Fi to event attendees and also uses the network for their own services and applications.
I found this post sitting in my drafts folder. I started writing it in Dec of 2016 and guess I forgot to finish it!
After many weeks of talking about it, we finally flew out to Vancouver to visit a bunch of friends we have in the area. I saw these Cisco 1552 APs along the water front as we were wandering around downtown.
Vancouver City Downtown
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any proper tools with me to scan for SSIDs so I’m not sure what networks are operating in this area.
Spruce Meadows is an equestrian facility in Calgary, Alberta which hosts multiple well-known horse jumping events throughout the summer. There’s lots to see there, but of course I had one eye peeled for technology ?.
I spotted this Cisco 1532I access point at a distance of a few meters. At that distance, I almost mistook it for a speaker because it’s so small! I guess I’m used-to the larger-sized 1552s. The grey color also didn’t help in identifying it.
In August 2016, the Canadian National Women’s Open Championship was held at the Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club in Calgary, Alberta. A friend of mine, Stephen K, went to watch the tournament and took these pictures (👍).
Cisco 1552EU at Canadian National Women's Open Championship, 2016
He said there were tripods like this all over the course holding Cisco 1552EU APs. A few things strike me as interesting here:
How horrible would camping be without WiFi?? 😜 There are a few APs scattered around the campground at Fairmont Hotsprings in British Columbia, Canada.
First are some Ubiquity units which I assume are owned by the campground since they are mounted on campground buildings and poles.
UBNT at Fairmont Hotsprings
UBNT at Fairmont Hotsprings
Box at bottom of pole
Next, Shaw Cable has deployed Cisco 1552C outdoor APs with an integrated cable modem to cover the campground with their Shaw Go WiFi.
Usually you’d expect to find an industrial, IP67-rated access point such as the Cisco IW3702 in a harsh location such as in a manufacturing plant, on mining equipment, or mounted on a pole somewhere outside.
But this unit is located at Calgary International Airport (YYC) in the “A” wing of the Domestic Terminal Building. Specifically, it’s in the long, ground-level hall where passengers board the small, regional WestJet planes.
Cisco IW3702 at YYC in 'A' Hall
The folks that organize and run the network at Cisco Live do an awesome job of making sure there’s Wi-Fi throughout the entire conference location. They also do not skimp out on the number of APs they deploy.
It only happened one time where I was in a room that didn’t have an AP (but there was an AP right outside the door). Every other room had at least one AP.
I suppose you can’t call it “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth” if there’s no Wi-Fi, right?
Cisco 1552 outdoor APs are attached to the underside of the overhang at the grand stands:
Cisco 1552 at Calgary Stampede
The scale of this picture is hard to grasp. It appears the ceiling is rather close to the camera but just look at the size of the AP; the ceiling is actually dozens of feet away.
Cisco Live US 2016 was held in Las Vegas this year which meant the Customer Appreciation Event was held in the brand new T-Mobile Arena. This arena has Cisco Stadium Vision which basically means it’s tricked out with Cisco-powered digital signs and TVs and of course, pervasive Wi-Fi.
At first I couldn’t spot any of the APs or antennas! But then I realized they were carefully installed so as to blend into building.
I went to Duke University!
As a visitor 😁 And naturally I kept an eye out for wireless gear.
One obvious place I found some: at one of the libraries.
At one of Duke University's libraries
At one of Duke University's libraries
Looks like they’re a Cisco shop on campus.
An unexpected place I saw WiFi was at the Duke Chapel.
Duke Chapel
A little UBNT device at the back of the Duke Chapel
Ryan (@homeychan99) sent me a pic of what looks like a Cisco 1552 with a panel antenna at the Calgary Zoo.
CIsco 1552 (I think?) at Calgary Zoo
The Target department store in Kalispell, MT has a unique flush mount being used in their hanging ceiling. Guessing those are Cisco 1700 or 2700 series APs? I need to get better at identifying these.
Lots of Cisco APs scattered around Seattle Tacoma International Airport.
I did not explore the other wings, but along the “A” gates there are 1552s spread around some of the jet bridges. It’s times like this I wish Apple iOS would accommodate WiFi scanning apps so I could see what networks are present in locations like this. I suspect handheld bag scanners used by the ground crew and possibly content downloads to the aircraft (in-flight movies and music).
Shaw is installing Cisco 1552 outdoor APs at some of the Calgary Transit stations to increase their WiFi hotspot footprint. The latest I’ve noticed is at the Center Street station.
Three APs total at this station so there should be no excuses for a bad signal. 😜
Shaw Cable runs a massive Wi-Fi network in Canada that provides hotspot service in every (?) market that Shaw has a presence. Cranbrook, BC is one of those markets and I could not believe how many APs Shaw has hanging on poles there. All up and down the main street you can see the Cisco 1552s hanging on the messenger wire between poles.
Cisco 1552 broadcasting Shaw hotspot
This AP is hanging on the edge of the Safeway parking lot.
I was in a concert hall yesterday and spied two APs in the ceiling, practically on top of each other.
On the left is an Aruba AP from TELUS (their TELUS Direct WiFi) and on the right is a Cisco AP from Shaw (their ShawOpen WiFi).
Anyone want to bet they totally worked together to avoid co-channel interference? 🙄
Cisco TACOPS has the NERV but also has some light duty vehicles that can supplement the NERV or be dispatched on their own. I took these photos of the vehicles parked on the Cisco campus in RTP, NC.
Here’s a 1552E outdoor AP on the SUV. Cisco TACOPS SUV
1552E on TACOPS SUV
In addition to the SUV, there’s a communications trailer which mimics the capabilities of the NERV, including the mast with the 1552E on it.
NERV is the Network Emergency Response Vehicle and is an asset used by Cisco’s Tactical Operations (TACOPS) team when they respond to emergencies.
The Network Emergency Response Vehicle
The vehicle based in California (there are two in the US, one in San Jose, CA and one in Raleigh, NC) toured through western Canada in 2015. Among its extensive communications capabilities is, of course, Wi-Fi.
1552E and PTZ camera on the mast