The best 802n wireless accesspoint?
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G'day all,
After much struggling I finally got Pfense installed (thanks Steve for the 1:1 help ;D - and all the others for so kindly assisting this noob by replying to my previous questions in the thread I posted).
So, it finally start to look like something over here. I have Pfsense as my router and firewall, I have Synology as my file server, I have a HP-procurve switch, I have an APC UPS, I have some fast HTPC's freshly built. Now only two things are lacking:
- A tablet for my wife (a disaster to find out what I need to buy) since she wants to read ebooks in bed;
- The wireless setup to go with it. Per the recommendations of all the smart people over here, I will be plugging the wireless 'thing' into the HP switch, as this appears, per all the remarks here, the most stable. But then of course, the question is: what wireless 'thing'?
As I have experienced, the standard retail stuff is mostly crap ('hey, big companies, you should devote your resources to developing quality, not to marketing budgets to market crap to the people' ;D). More or less as an exception to this rule of 'crap', it appears Apple's Air wireless 'thing' gets good grades, but I have a problem with Apple (I do respect people that do like it, but I don't like the companies philosophy, let alone the ridiculous prices it charges while not paying the factory workers in China a decent salary).
So I am still left in the dark. And then I was thinking: dd-wrt appears to be a stable and widely prayed solution. Couldn't I use that? Of course, most people use it with 'an old' router that they flashed, but I don't have an old router to flash, so for me the whole story would be 'brand new'. Now I can go out and look on the Ebay's of this world for some second hand machine, but then of course the problem remains: which machine do I need?
Or, alternatively, isn't it possible to build your own wireless access point, simultaneously dual band, with good coverage (my guarden is 50 meters deep, so it should be able to cover that), and for a fair price?
So that is my polite question here:
A. what are you using (like said, wireless N, simultaneously dual band, good coverage and rock stable) 'of the shelf' and after market flashed with something like dd-wrt, or:
B. Is it possible to build it yourself? What hardware does one need for that?I am, again, in your debt for any help, so thank you very much for that in advance ;D
Bye,
;)
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I have a NetGear WNDR4500 set to access point mode. It is dual simultaneous dual band.
WiFi coverage area will depend a great deal on RF obstructions.
Worth the debt incurred. $0.02
(interpretation: my two cents) -
I have a NetGear WNDR4500 set to access point mode. It is dual simultaneous dual band.
WiFi coverage area will depend a great deal on RF obstructions.
Worth the debt incurred. $0.02
(interpretation: my two cents)Thanks for your reply ;D
Is it stable? My noob-impression is that Netgear is often crap ??? (Don't mean this the bad way, I am just a noob and get all my information from reviews).
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For WLAN AP I would go with something that supports Open/DD-WRT. The default software rarely offers much functionality, while Open/DD-WRT both have pretty much everything you might want and a bit more.
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@Hollander:
I have a NetGear WNDR4500 set to access point mode. It is dual simultaneous dual band.
WiFi coverage area will depend a great deal on RF obstructions.
Worth the debt incurred. $0.02
(interpretation: my two cents)Thanks for your reply ;D
Is it stable? My noob-impression is that Netgear is often crap ??? (Don't mean this the bad way, I am just a noob and get all my information from reviews).
If you were to only go by reviews on a retailer's web site, many things that aren't "crap" may seem so since negativity is a fairly powerful motivator for unsolicited reviews. That's not to say to ignore negative reviews on retailer sites, but to keep that grain of salt handy to take them with.
In my experience, Netgear has some solid products, and some less than solid. A lot of the negative reputations seem to stem from a few lemon products, be it via the runs of bad capacitors that was rampant a number of years ago or a few runs of bad power supplies that seemed to hit them pretty hard a few years ago.
In general, though, their products are usually pretty decent. I personally generally rate them above most consumer brands, such as Linksys (now "by" Cisico Small Business), and certainly above D-Link and Belkin.
But, remember, there are certainly different tiers of products across many brands. When it comes to switches, it's almost universal that the larger the switch the more likely that it's "good". Larger switches are generally engineered with more care since it'll probably be supporting much more people and load, where small switches (8 ports and under) are generally engineered to a price point, a low one. The main exception to that is small Cisco (real Cisco) and HP switches, but their price generally reflects that.
Edit: Oh, wait, we're talking about AP's… oops.
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I use it exclusively in access point mode with both bands enabled.
It's just been sitting there running since several months ago when I first got it with no problems.
Have never had to reset it or anything.
Have it configured with a static IP address.
I know that the 5GHz band can fill a wired 100 mbit. And do at least 50 mbit between two 5GHz band WiFi PC's.As a router … don't know.
As a dhcp server ... don't know.
As a DNS server and forwarder. Would not touch it.I have been satisfied with it as strictly an AP.
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Asus RT-N66U running Tomato Shibby and setup as an access point. Kind of expensive but it's been rock solid with great coverage. If I'd have known that a wireless router could be this good, I would have spent the money a long time ago.
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For WLAN AP I would go with something that supports Open/DD-WRT. The default software rarely offers much functionality, while Open/DD-WRT both have pretty much everything you might want and a bit more.
Thanks for your reply. I was thinking along that line, but the problem is: do you see the list of supported routers? Its huge. So that poses the difficult question: which one of that list is decent quality, and which one is crap. Investigating that for every model on the list would take ages, that's why I was hoping for some suggestions here from people 'in the field' who managed to get the 'good ones' out of it ;D
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Edit: Oh, wait, we're talking about AP's… oops.
:D :D :D
Thanks for your reply never the less ;D
I have a HP V1910 switch, I have Pfsense, so the switching/routering is taken care of with high quality. Which leaves, indeed, only a simple (yet stable/reliable, not the plastic junk) AP that can do simultaneous dual band N-wireless.
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I use it exclusively in access point mode with both bands enabled.
It's just been sitting there running since several months ago when I first got it with no problems.
Have never had to reset it or anything.
Have it configured with a static IP address.
I know that the 5GHz band can fill a wired 100 mbit. And do at least 50 mbit between two 5GHz band WiFi PC's.As a router … don't know.
As a dhcp server ... don't know.
As a DNS server and forwarder. Would not touch it.I have been satisfied with it as strictly an AP.
Asus RT-N66U running Tomato Shibby and setup as an access point. Kind of expensive but it's been rock solid with great coverage. If I'd have known that a wireless router could be this good, I would have spent the money a long time ago.
Thanks both of you for sharing your experiences. Now I run into another problem: prices. Here are my local prices:
https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/293739/netgear-wndr4500.html
https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/293777/asus-rt-n66u.html
Now, if one needs a full blown router with 4 ports giga-switch these prices could be considered fair. But I already have taken care of the routering and switching, I only need the wireless-part. And in light of that it seems wasting money on functionality I won't ever use. Since my current Pfsense is only installed to see if I could get it to work with my ISP, meaning: on a temporary old box (which actually is my drum computer, and since I like to drum I would love to have my drum computer back ;D), I also still need to buy new hardware for my final Pfsense-appliance. I'd rather spend my scarce money on that, than on buying a full blown router/switch of which I won't use 90% of its functionality.
And even more, with these prices, if I would have to pay these kind of prices, I perhaps better do buy something Apple, since that will keep its market value a little longer than the above models (given all the Apple fans out there ;D).
But still, I'd rather have something cheaper than these two models, because it only has to be an AP, nothing more.
Thanks again for all suggestions ;D
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We use:
http://store.netgate.com/Ubiquiti-UniFi-Long-Range-Single-Unit-P1683C139.aspxGreat range. They work well and have the typical features in much costlier enterprise grade APs. And cheaper than some of the higher end consumer-grade routers.
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I haven't tried it personally, but I've heard great things about the Asus EA-N66 Access Point. It's a little cheaper than than RT-N66U and you wouldn't be wasting money on features you won't use…
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@cmb:
We use:
http://store.netgate.com/Ubiquiti-UniFi-Long-Range-Single-Unit-P1683C139.aspxGreat range. They work well and have the typical features in much costlier enterprise grade APs. And cheaper than some of the higher end consumer-grade routers.
Thank you, CMB, actually, a brand like that would be precisely what I would be looking for, it doesn't appear to be the cheap plastic I can buy in the retail stores over here. But it appears it is PoE (?) I don't have any gear that could give power to the AP (the V1910-16G switch I have isn't PoE), so that would be a problem. I will have to dig further ;D
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I haven't tried it personally, but I've heard great things about the Asus EA-N66 Access Point. It's a little cheaper than than RT-N66U and you wouldn't be wasting money on features you won't use…
Thank you RJ, I will take a look at it ;)
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@Hollander:
@cmb:
We use:
http://store.netgate.com/Ubiquiti-UniFi-Long-Range-Single-Unit-P1683C139.aspxGreat range. They work well and have the typical features in much costlier enterprise grade APs. And cheaper than some of the higher end consumer-grade routers.
Thank you, CMB, actually, a brand like that would be precisely what I would be looking for, it doesn't appear to be the cheap plastic I can buy in the retail stores over here. But it appears it is PoE (?) I don't have any gear that could give power to the AP (the V1910-16G switch I have isn't PoE), so that would be a problem. I will have to dig further ;D
http://dl.ubnt.com/guides/UniFi/UniFi_AP_AP-LR_User_Guide.pdf
Says the package contains a PoE-brick, which you would plug in between the unit and your switch. The switch used doesn't have to be PoE capable.
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@Hollander:
@cmb:
We use:
http://store.netgate.com/Ubiquiti-UniFi-Long-Range-Single-Unit-P1683C139.aspxGreat range. They work well and have the typical features in much costlier enterprise grade APs. And cheaper than some of the higher end consumer-grade routers.
Thank you, CMB, actually, a brand like that would be precisely what I would be looking for, it doesn't appear to be the cheap plastic I can buy in the retail stores over here. But it appears it is PoE (?) I don't have any gear that could give power to the AP (the V1910-16G switch I have isn't PoE), so that would be a problem. I will have to dig further ;D
http://dl.ubnt.com/guides/UniFi/UniFi_AP_AP-LR_User_Guide.pdf
Says the package contains a PoE-brick, which you would plug in between the unit and your switch. The switch used doesn't have to be PoE capable.
That's great, Fragged; thank you very much for this help :P
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If Ubiquity's control software webgui ever got turned into a package then the choice would be a no-brainer really. ;) Especially for a deployment with a number of APs.
http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,46342.0.html
Steve
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If Ubiquity's control software webgui ever got turned into a package then the choice would be a no-brainer really. ;) Especially for a deployment with a number of APs.
http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,46342.0.html
Steve
A most stupid question from me, Steve ;D
Being: why would I want to have a 'Unify server' running for an AP ??? What does that need to do? I mean, I plug it into the switch, and both the Pfsense and the switch take care of the rest ???
I know I will be the laugh of the day now :-\
Ok, drinks on me, laugh away, I'll remain here, ignorant :D
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It's a system for managing a full network of those Ubiquiti AP's. For a single one you probably don't need it, you can just configure it via web gui or something. When you have hundreds of them, you want a centralized option :)
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It's a system for managing a full network of those Ubiquiti AP's. For a single one you probably don't need it, you can just configure it via web gui or something. When you have hundreds of them, you want a centralized option :)
That makes a lot of sense; thanks for the explanation, Fragged ;D
