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Meraki is a privately held company backed in part by Google and Sequoia Capital

The Meraki MR16 Wi-Fi access point arrived yesterday, and I was able to spend about 30 minutes for a brief preliminary take of its capabilities.

Now, I have had the opportunity to explore many different business-grade Wi-Fi access point (AP) in the past.  Nevertheless, the sheer level of design excellence and usability that Meraki successfully imbued into its product really got my attention.  This ranges from the placement of the Ethernet and DC port, placements of LED, include back plates and screws etc, to the design of the Meraki Dashboard.

Anyway, I’ll elaborate on them when I do a more complete review of the MR16 AP later this month.

Meraki’s unique cloud-hosted controller architecture means that installation of the MR16 AP is performed from Meraki’s Web Dashboard.  This can be done via a few simple steps without referencing any documentation.

Installation process:

  • Plug the Meraki MR16 AP into HP 2915 Switch (PoE enabled)
  • Create a new account on Meraki Dashboard
  • Click on “Add AP” and key in Order Number (or Serial Number)
  • Done. Start configuring your Meraki AP from the Dashboard

I must admit I hit an initial snag when the Meraki Dashboard complained that the AP have not checked in. It turned out that the problem was my own as I have port security enabled on my HP 2915 Switch.  I did a quick configuration change on the HP 2915, and the Meraki MR16 AP was able to connect via DHCP on my network and sync to the Meraki Dashboard – all automatically.

No wonder Gartner pegged them under the “Visionaries” category in its Magic Quadrant for wireless LAN infrastructure.

Meraki MR16 Access Point

Meraki MR16 Access Point

I don’t typically do “unboxing” shots of business-class products. But I was so impressed by Meraki that I could not resist taking a few photographs of the MR16; click on “Continue reading” below to see them.

Meraki MR16 Access Point

Meraki MR16 Access Point in its box

Meraki MR16 Access Point

Quick start guide is a single sheet with instructions on the other side

Meraki MR16 Access Point

Instructions on the quick start guide (Click on image to enlarge)

Meraki MR16 Access Point

Back plate and various screws/parts are well-labelled to the tiniest detail (Click on image to enlarge)

Meraki MR16 Access Point

Back view of the MR16

Meraki MR16 Access Point

Ethernet and DC port. Note the space for the wires when mounted onto a wall