Wireless AP POE Advice

[jc_cshmny]

I'm looking to centralize my wireless AP due to poor reception in certain areas of the house. Here is a little background on my setup:

N/AC Wireless Clients (2-6 at any given time) on 1st/2nd levels

Basement:
FiOS line in
FiOS modem/router with wireless disabled
GigE switch going out to wiring runs

First Level:
5 Ethernet clients
Asus RT-N65U running in AP mode

Second Level:
Blu-ray player wireless client
Chromecast

I want a centralized AP (1 or 2) to handle all the wireless clients like my current setup, but somewhere more centralized and preferably a ceiling mounted or wall mounted POE AP. Not really interested in a big router mounted to the wall with power and ethernet poking out and back into a wall jack.

I have the ability to run new cat6 to the attic for installation on the 2nd level, or to a central wall on the 1st level that is accessible from the unfinished part of the basement. What I'm not sure about is in what orientation the AP will function best in and if the few (affordable) AC APs out there are worth it. Any help is appreciated.

 

[abailey]

I would look at the Engenius or Ubiquiti Ap's. I am not sure about Engenius but Ubiquiti Ap's work a little better on the horizontal plane if you ceiling mount them. That being said I use a Ubiquiti Ap in my house and it is mounted on a wall on the second floor at one end of my house and I get great signal on the first floor at the other end of my house (but that is 2.4Ghz). Anyway my bet is it would work fine in your situation whether it is wall or ceiling mounted. Personally I would not pay for wireless AC in my house. Now that being said, all my high bandwidth clients are hard wired (PC, HTPC, NAS, etc). I guess if you really need high throughput to a client it may be something to look at.

 

[jc_cshmny]

I was looking at the ZyXEL NWA1123-AC but can seem to find any good info on it.

TBH, the AC thing is just as much future-proofing since they are somewhat expensive anyway and it will be ceiling mounted. I currently have 3 AC clients (2 phones and 1 tablet) that can't do much with the speed anyway; everything else is N.

Is there a capable Engenius/Ubiquiti simultaneous dual-band N900 out there?

 

[abailey]

I am not familiar with the Engenius products, I have just heard they are decent. As far as Ubiquiti goes, the only one that could do N900 speeds is their AC version, the UAP-AC. It can do wireless AC but also supports up to 900 in the N band. Their N band product (UAP-Pro) can only support N band speeds up to 750 (450 on 2.4ghz, 300 on 5ghz) which is curious to me but it is what it is.

 

[jc_cshmny]

They all seem to get pretty pricey starting at N600. I guess you are paying for POE, aesthetics, and enterprise-level software but you do lose switching and routing capabilities when compared to a standard wireless router.

Do you know of any APs out there without all the software bells/whistles?

 

[azazel1024]

Depending on exact location and apperance, you can always get a POE injector to feed any AP you want.

 

[thiggins]

Do you know of any APs out there without all the software bells/whistles?

APs are generally designed for the business market, which wants the bells/whistles and doesn't mind paying more.

AC APs are relatively scarce since business buyers haven't been as aggressive with migration to AC as consumers.

There are the Linksys LAPAC1200 and LAPC1750, but they ain't cheap either.

If you want to save $, look at N600 APs. LAPN600 is under $200.

 

[jc_cshmny]

The ZyXEL NWA1123-NI is currently on sale at Newegg for $82 down from $116. I'm thinking about giving this a whirl just because of the sale. Anyone have any experience with ZyXEL wireless products? The only thing I can find is their interface is a little wonky, but whose isn't?

 

[stevech]

The ZyXEL NWA1123-NI is currently on sale at Newegg for $82 down from $116. I'm thinking about giving this a whirl just because of the sale. Anyone have any experience with ZyXEL wireless products? The only thing I can find is their interface is a little wonky, but whose isn't?

Just one. They, like ASUS, tend to push the state of the art so avoid new standards/new products.

ZyXEL does a very good job at SOHO/SMB products.

 

[politby]

Bumping this thread. Anyone have the Zyxel NWA1123-AC yet?


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There are two kinds of people. Those who can extrapolate from missing information.