The Aruba 800 Mobility Controller is an appliance-based device which provides central management of wireless access points. The Aruba access points integrate easily with the manager and each access point device can run in one of two modes — access point or wireless monitor. The Mobility Center offers a slew of advanced features, such as VLANs (virtual local area networks), IPsec tunnel termination, 802.1X integration, roaming and advanced RADIUS (remote authentication dial in user service) authentication features.
During testing the unit performed well and was able to detect the rogue access point quickly. The Mobility Controller gives the ability to perform a denial-of-service attack against the rogue access points to stop the device from violating the wireless security policy for the organization. The Aruba access points can respond on all three major wireless standards, and a handy feature is that the access points can pull power from an Ethernet cable. This removes the need to have a power source nearby. In addition, the Mobility Controller can import a floor plan for an organization and triangulate the signal from rogue access points. The Mobility Center can also detect and alert if an active wireless attack is underway. The appliance will detect the event and provide a link to the WVE (wireless vulnerabilities & exploits) website where the specific attack details can be found.
Installation for the device was primarily web based and quite easy to navigate. Documentation is in the form of PDF files which are indexed and easily searchable.
Aruba offers common support options, including a phone and email interface for customers who purchase a maintenance plan.
The Aruba 800 Mobility Controller was among the priciest of products in this Group Test, but only slightly higher. The product incorporates a large number of features that help to offset the slightly higher cost.
800 Mobility Controller has been rated Best Buy.
