Meraki Firewall Usage Statistics

When the Meraki firewalls were installed, we lost our ability to monitor Internet usage. Is it ever going to return?

That tool used to be very helpful as a first line of defense when there were Internet problems. It was easy to see that if three wards-worth of members were logged on that might be a reason available bandwidth had disappeared. It was also a quick way to monitor the ISP and determine if they were feeding us Internet service in the first place or had dropped us for higher priority customers. It also gave me ammunition to help train leaders and members on proper Internet usage, in particular why they should download their videos beforehand and not try to stream them at Church (except for the ones that are not available for download).

The rumblings at one of my meetinghouses have reached the level where I will need to provide some serious attention to the situation, but I have no way to gain any clues remotely. This will cause me to begin a few 100-mile trips to monitor and hopefully resolve the problem.

What happened to the Usage Statistics tab at the firewall manager? Will it return, or should I start saving up my gas money?

Adding a bump on this. Usage statistics used to be very helpful and it is difficult to be blind on the network when expected to support local networks. Can someone update the status of the meraki tools?

Since I posted, I have learned that the new Meraki firewalls are handled in a different manner than the former Cisco firewalls, and because of that the data is not readily available at the stake level. The usage tab is still in place at the TM website because it is anticipated that the information will become available again.

It is my understanding that the Church is working with the vendor to determine a viable solution that will be beneficial to all. Sadly, there is no timeline for when the issue will be resolved so that stakes will be able to have access to that information to help manage their networks.

It certainly was helpful information for me as a stake technology specialist when it came to troubleshooting and answering question from priesthood leaders. I hope this capability returns soon.

lajackson wrote:Since I posted, I have learned that the new Meraki firewalls are handled in a different manner than the former Cisco firewalls, and because of that the data is not readily available at the stake level.

To add more, the Meraki firewalls are managed from "the cloud". This is different from when it was managed on church-owned servers. As such, the church is at the mercy of whatever interface Cisco provides. Apparently there's been negotiation, but I guess so far, it hasn't been fruitful.

We definitely need this functionality back asap. Our Area Presidency have asked each stake to do a full technology audit and we now cant see how many devices are actually connecting to the Access Points to know whether more are needed or need upgrading. We cant see the connection load.

andrewtwigg wrote:Our Area Presidency have asked each stake to do a full technology audit and we now cant see how many devices are actually connecting to the Access Points to know whether more are needed or need upgrading.

I would report that back to them.

andrewtwigg wrote:Our Area Presidency have asked each stake to do a full technology audit and we now cant see how many devices are actually connecting to the Access Points to know whether more are needed or need upgrading. We cant see the connection load.

I would report back to the stake president, who should report back to the Area Presidency, that you no longer have the capability to do that kind of a survey. This ability went away when the firewalls were switched from Cisco to Meraki.

It may also be that Headquarters already has this information, since they used something similar to determine how many access points (if any) to send to each meetinghouse when the switch was made.

Not to be mean, but a little general authority inquiry may aid in bumping up the priority of the Network Usage fix.

That said, a "full technology audit" may have a specific definition. For example, you can do ISP speed checks and know what kind of service you have. And if you run speed checks on Sunday while 5 wards are in the building, you will be able to see how much bandwidth is left on an average Sunday when wards are trying to conduct Temple and Family History classes.

You still can see how many devices are attached to the network. If you subtract the number of wired devices on the network, you will know the number of member wireless devices that attached as they walked into the building.

What we have lost is a fairly continuous reading and record kept of ISP service. To do that now, I would have to sit at the meetinghouse 24/7, run down my cell phone battery doing speed tests, and keep sharpening a pencil in the library.

We are aware usage stats were lost when the Meraki was installed and are working on providing them again as soon as possible. We understand the information contained in the report is important for the management of meetinghouse networks and apologize for not being able to provide a solution in a more timely manner.

There is nothing new under the sun, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit.

Any ETA when we will get this functionality back? My Stake Presidency has asked about this information but I’m not able to provide them anything.

derrickfulkerson wrote:My Stake Presidency has asked about this information but I’m not able to provide them anything.

Your best bet is to ask your stake president to take it up with his presiding authority.

These kinds of things are not prioritized by mere mortals like us.