G+_Jason Perry Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I have been looking at upgrading my APs for a while. I currently have 2 old HP wireless G APs running at opposite ends of my house. Everything works fine but i am starting to move past their capabilities. They do have POE so I havent had to worry about power even though both location have an electrical box (no plug) close at hand. Moving forward I do want multiple SSIDs to segment groups such as, guest access, family access, and device access (such as TV and thermostat) access. To give you more info on my network I am currently running IPfire but am looking at switching over to pfsense do to a limitation to 4 VLANS. all my traffic is also being routed through a D-Link DGS-1100 switch. I have been set on the open-mesh om900 for a while. I love the mesh aspect, the fact it has an outdoor enclosure, its cloud managed, and tge price. Down side only 2 SSIDs. I have also almost bought a Netgear ProSafe WNDAP360 because it is a mainstream name so my trust factor is higher that it will work and the company wont go out of business or get bought and shut down. The other option I was just looking at is the consumer WiFi router option. The price of the previous 2 options is roughly comparable to a top of the line consumer WiFi router. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Marsh Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Even if you don't have any AC devices, you'll get better reliability and performance from an 802.11AC access point. Also, the point at which the AP is no longer keeping up with your wireless needs is likely to be much further down the road than if you went with a an N AP. I just recently replaced my Netgear DGN2200 with a TP-Link Archer C8, and even though most of my client devices have only 2.4GHz N radios, I've seen about a 50% improvement on 802.11N throughput. I'm considering shutting down the 5GHz network altogether because of the limited range of that band. I have a modest home, and with the AP on one end of the house, Nexus 5 will not associate from the garage at the other end of my house. I could fix it with APs placed at both ends of the house, but it'd be easier just to keep everything on 2.4GHz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_martin rednal Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Take a look at ubiquiti access points. https://www.ubnt.com/ I've installed many in home and offices. these support Zero-Handoff Roaming, vlan and are quite cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 Jason Marsh thanks for the input. How do you like the TP-Link AP? Personally I am a little leery of brands that aren't as common for the sole reason of if it doesn't work my wife will tell me about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 martin rednal they sure do have a nice looking site. It is also an attractive price, and a bonus there isn't any licensing fees for controllers. Few questions. How long have you been using them? what kind of problems have your clients been reporting? and do you use them yourself? I find there are plenty of problems they don't tell you about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 martin rednal wait a second. I was just going through their product catalog, they are the ones that bought sky dog! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Marsh Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Jason Perry well, Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ seems to think they're ok. That's legit enough for me. ;) Seriously, though, I've had no problems with mine, other than the aforementioned shortcomings of the 5GHz band at penetrating multiple walls. I used the router ranker and reviews from smallnetbuilder.com to make my decision, and I can't complain one bit. Could I have spent more? Sure. Is there another that tops the Archer C8 in maximum combined throughput? Sure. Do I want to pay $250+ for what amounts to a few percentage points more bandwidth? Heck no! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_martin rednal Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Hi Jason, Sorry for late reply, I've been using them for 2years now and had none fail yet, i have around 35 out in the field so not a lot. yes i have a couple at home covering the house and garden. regarding sky dog looks like comcast acquired them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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