The new NETGEAR WAC104 is an AC1200 class simultaneous dual-band 802.11ac access point designed for small office/home office environments.
The WAC104 supports maximum link rates of 867 Mbps at 5 GHz and 300 Mbps at 2.4 GHz and includes a built-in four-port Ethernet switch for wired connections. Dual 3 dBi antennas are not upgradeable and Power over Ethernet (PoE) is not supported. Features include MAC address based access control and WDS-based point-to-point and multipoint wireless bridging / repeating.
The NETGEAR WAC104 will list for $99 and ship later this month.
The new NETGEAR WAC104 is an AC1200 class simultaneous dual-band 802.11ac access point designed for small office/home office environments.
The WAC104 supports maximum link rates of 867 Mbps at 5 GHz and 300 Mbps at 2.4 GHz and includes a built-in four-port Ethernet switch for wired connections. Dual 3 dBi antennas are not upgradeable and Power over Ethernet (PoE) is not supported. Features include MAC address based access control and WDS-based point-to-point and multipoint wireless bridging / repeating.
The NETGEAR WAC104 will list for $99 and ship later this month.
lol what makes it " designed for small office/home office environments." i see nothing but smoke and mirrors here , snake oil advertising at its finest
lol what makes it " designed for small office/home office environments." i see nothing but smoke and mirrors here , snake oil advertising at its finest
lol what makes it " designed for small office/home office environments." i see nothing but smoke and mirrors here , snake oil advertising at its finest
nothing harsh about it , its simply how they advertise it , its like there is something special about it because it aimed at the small office/home office environments.
its nothing but a 867M 5 gig and 300M 2.4 gig standard access point , nothing special or exclusive to that class or any class , just more sucker punch advertising designed to impress those that know little
nothing harsh about it , its simply how they advertise it , its like there is something special about it because it aimed at the small office/home office environments.
Three year hardware warranty. 90 day phone support including remote assistance with options for extension. Lifetime chat support. Consumer level is one year hardware warranty. 90 day basic support. Higher end business class Netgear products typically have lifetime hardware warranty with similar support options as this SOHO AP. And they cost 10 times more than this AP.
It's a nice price, and focused towards small biz... so it's a bit different than the retail/consumer products (as indicated by the warranty)
The only downside I see with it - Single BSSID, which precludes SSID/VLAN separation - which can be important in the user cases - "small office, dental office, small hotel"
Haven't had a chance to dig into the FCC database to see what it's built on..
And to put things into perspective - the WAC720* from Netgear is $250USD on NewEGG - so if one doesn't need mulitple SSID and SNMP support - this is a fair product for $100USD...
@thiggins - any chance of getting a review on this device?
sfx2000, considering what is actually available, I would agree with your assessment (above).
For myself and my customers though, I have never (and have still not seen a reason, yet) to recommend an AP over a 'full blown' Router. Even when the router costs a little more. Why? Too narrowly focused for my taste (i.e. too 'disposable').
In that sense, if these highly restrictive, imo, AP's were in the $30 to $50 range (and that would be with full 3x3:3 AC class connection capabilities along with true Guest WiFi) I could see me making use of them for certain customers.
At their current prices though (even at a low $99USD)? Not even worth mentioning to anyone that I would want to do repeat business with.
I've been looking at this as a possible part of a new solution for working from home (need to upgrade everything for the higher bandwidth Internet we have now). I've found it almost everywhere for around the $70 price point now.
The ability to connect to a radius server for wifi authentication is the big 'business' feature that it has--if you're going to use it. Other than that, a solid AP with a 4 port switch and 3yr warranty. Still not sure if I want this one to be 'the one' though. My wife is used to ac1700 and I'll get reamed if anything is slower than the current crisp speeds from the comcast equipment.
