Originated from these threads:
Questions about new network setup.
D-Link DAP-2660 vs Linksys LAPAC1200 VS ??
i ended up buying the following:
D-Link DAP-2660
Ubiquity edgerouter lite
TP-Link Poe Injector
Already owned:
D-Link DGS-1210-20
In this thread i will tell a bit about my experience with the above setup as a first time user of both the edgerouter and my first ever "real" access point.
Ubiquity edgerouter lite:
My concerns with this router was that reading reviews etc people say that it is hard to configure. Some would also say that does not apply for later versions of the firmware. Powering up i managed to brick it within 20 minutes of use during the upgrade process. Gui told me to reboot which i did and i could no longer connect. I spent the next 4-5 hours cursing at Ubiquity for having a prompt telling one to reboot when the manual clearly states that one should not reboot during a firmware upgrade. Thinking about my options. Rma which could take like forever or try to fix it by taking it apart and mounting the USB drive which sits inside the case. I chose the latter as i was sure that the filesystem was messed during the reboot. Mount the drive and checking the filesystem did not show any errors. Luckily and old version of the firmware will apparently be written on disk:
As seen there are files with the letter o which are the old firmware version. I ended up with deleting the new files and renaming the old by removing the o. I was happy when the router booted again. Leaving me a bit puzzled as nothing actually seemed wrong with the new firmware files logic would say that the only culprit of this was the firmware itself. Minutes later i realized that i made a huge error. I had tried to install the firmware from the Edgerouter ER8 which uses a different cpu. The edgerouter lite does not fancy that ;-) Would have been nice with a check for valid firmware before allowing uploads. But the brick was all on my part. Uploading the correct firmware and the gui told me to reboot got me scared. But this time it worked and router was now upgraded to newest firmware (1.5) Above should not scare you. It was a error on my part, but pay attention i clearly did not.
Having spent some time on my own mistake i prepared to spent hours getting this thing to actually route the internet. I was in for a huge surprise. I chose the wizard from the gui named WAN+2LAN. Connected cable to the wan port and rebooted. That was it. It worked and if i had taken care it would have taken me literally minutes to get the router working instead of many hours with a bricked router. The routers interface seem fast, but does not have many options. Includes a wizard for upnp which i after trial and error concluded was the old implementation of upnp which have had trouble with multiple xbox'es. I needed the new one based on miniupnd so I had to visit the CLI for the first time. The CLI is accessible from the web interface. To show what the cli could be used for is the commands to enable the service upnp2
Until now that has been the most advanced command i have used in the cli. Gui also has port forwarding so you do not need the cli to do that.
I like the edgerouter a lot. The simplicity is powerfull (less is more) and the fact that it only took minutes to connect to the internet is nice. Having the config in a config file also makes sharing settings much easier and helps in debugging trouble. Having said that, the edgerouter can do network stuff on a very advanced level with cli commands only the most hardcore network enthusiast would know. I think if you have a need for those commands the edgerouter would feel like home anyway (hope the above made sense) Point is that "normal" people like me would not need to use the cli very much (if any) to get a setup which would equal one you get with a "standard" router from asus, netgear etc.
D-Link DAP-2660
This the the wireless access point. Plugged it into the switch and within a minute i could connect to the access point on the default unencrypted ssid called dlink. I spent a few hours actually logging in to the damn thing. I could not see the mac address on the edgerouter so i could not find the ip. The odd thing was that it was running great. Finally looking at the manual i realized that the AP is setup with a static ip adresss 192.168.0.50 which is not a part of my subnet. Hooking it up to my laptop i changed it to get the ip from dhcp server which allowed me to log in and configure the wireless part. My previous range problem was solved with this but having the possibility to place it dead center of our house could have been enough. It is much easier to place an poe powered ap than a huge thing with antennas and requiring a power supply.
Conclusion.
I am very happy with this new setup even though i still have a way to go. I have solved my range problems. Wife is happy as the old (and ugly) router now is gone. I have a network separated in routing and wireless with good possibilities to expand. I hope it will be so stable that i will never have to reboot the router or AP again but only time will show. If the setup is viable depends on several factors. I did not save a single dollar. On the contrary i spent more than the ASUS-RTA87U which i returned cost me. I did not get more speed than my old and aging ASUS-RTN66U. The ASUS-RTA87U did not do that either. This is something to remember when considering buying a new router. Depending on devices connected to the router chances are that upgrading to the newest router will give you nothing. It does not take dual core 1 ghz cpu's to route the net but manufactures claim you will as a user benefit.
Please feel free to ask question. And sorry for the long read.
Regards
Questions about new network setup.
D-Link DAP-2660 vs Linksys LAPAC1200 VS ??
i ended up buying the following:
D-Link DAP-2660
Ubiquity edgerouter lite
TP-Link Poe Injector
Already owned:
D-Link DGS-1210-20
In this thread i will tell a bit about my experience with the above setup as a first time user of both the edgerouter and my first ever "real" access point.
Ubiquity edgerouter lite:
My concerns with this router was that reading reviews etc people say that it is hard to configure. Some would also say that does not apply for later versions of the firmware. Powering up i managed to brick it within 20 minutes of use during the upgrade process. Gui told me to reboot which i did and i could no longer connect. I spent the next 4-5 hours cursing at Ubiquity for having a prompt telling one to reboot when the manual clearly states that one should not reboot during a firmware upgrade. Thinking about my options. Rma which could take like forever or try to fix it by taking it apart and mounting the USB drive which sits inside the case. I chose the latter as i was sure that the filesystem was messed during the reboot. Mount the drive and checking the filesystem did not show any errors. Luckily and old version of the firmware will apparently be written on disk:
Code:
lost+found
squashfs.img
squashfs.img.md5
squashfs.o
squashfs.o.md5
version
version.o
w
w.o
wwwAs seen there are files with the letter o which are the old firmware version. I ended up with deleting the new files and renaming the old by removing the o. I was happy when the router booted again. Leaving me a bit puzzled as nothing actually seemed wrong with the new firmware files logic would say that the only culprit of this was the firmware itself. Minutes later i realized that i made a huge error. I had tried to install the firmware from the Edgerouter ER8 which uses a different cpu. The edgerouter lite does not fancy that ;-) Would have been nice with a check for valid firmware before allowing uploads. But the brick was all on my part. Uploading the correct firmware and the gui told me to reboot got me scared. But this time it worked and router was now upgraded to newest firmware (1.5) Above should not scare you. It was a error on my part, but pay attention i clearly did not.
Having spent some time on my own mistake i prepared to spent hours getting this thing to actually route the internet. I was in for a huge surprise. I chose the wizard from the gui named WAN+2LAN. Connected cable to the wan port and rebooted. That was it. It worked and if i had taken care it would have taken me literally minutes to get the router working instead of many hours with a bricked router. The routers interface seem fast, but does not have many options. Includes a wizard for upnp which i after trial and error concluded was the old implementation of upnp which have had trouble with multiple xbox'es. I needed the new one based on miniupnd so I had to visit the CLI for the first time. The CLI is accessible from the web interface. To show what the cli could be used for is the commands to enable the service upnp2
Code:
configure
set service upnp2 listen-on eth0
set service upnp2 wan eth1
commit
save
exitUntil now that has been the most advanced command i have used in the cli. Gui also has port forwarding so you do not need the cli to do that.
I like the edgerouter a lot. The simplicity is powerfull (less is more) and the fact that it only took minutes to connect to the internet is nice. Having the config in a config file also makes sharing settings much easier and helps in debugging trouble. Having said that, the edgerouter can do network stuff on a very advanced level with cli commands only the most hardcore network enthusiast would know. I think if you have a need for those commands the edgerouter would feel like home anyway (hope the above made sense) Point is that "normal" people like me would not need to use the cli very much (if any) to get a setup which would equal one you get with a "standard" router from asus, netgear etc.
D-Link DAP-2660
This the the wireless access point. Plugged it into the switch and within a minute i could connect to the access point on the default unencrypted ssid called dlink. I spent a few hours actually logging in to the damn thing. I could not see the mac address on the edgerouter so i could not find the ip. The odd thing was that it was running great. Finally looking at the manual i realized that the AP is setup with a static ip adresss 192.168.0.50 which is not a part of my subnet. Hooking it up to my laptop i changed it to get the ip from dhcp server which allowed me to log in and configure the wireless part. My previous range problem was solved with this but having the possibility to place it dead center of our house could have been enough. It is much easier to place an poe powered ap than a huge thing with antennas and requiring a power supply.
Conclusion.
I am very happy with this new setup even though i still have a way to go. I have solved my range problems. Wife is happy as the old (and ugly) router now is gone. I have a network separated in routing and wireless with good possibilities to expand. I hope it will be so stable that i will never have to reboot the router or AP again but only time will show. If the setup is viable depends on several factors. I did not save a single dollar. On the contrary i spent more than the ASUS-RTA87U which i returned cost me. I did not get more speed than my old and aging ASUS-RTN66U. The ASUS-RTA87U did not do that either. This is something to remember when considering buying a new router. Depending on devices connected to the router chances are that upgrading to the newest router will give you nothing. It does not take dual core 1 ghz cpu's to route the net but manufactures claim you will as a user benefit.
Please feel free to ask question. And sorry for the long read.
Regards
