Hi All,

Yet Another WiFi Access Point question.

Ubiquiti's wonky Mongo DB & Java-based (I fracking hate Java) controller software finally screwed me, as I've known it eventually would. So time to get that thing the hell outta here.

It has to be ceiling-mount and it has to be PoE.

Consumer-grade is out-of-the-question. That stuff is all race-to-the-bottom quality.

Last time this kind of thing was discussed, ISTR a number of you liked EnGenius. I'm kind of looking at the EAP1300

Thoughts?

We’ve had great success with Aruba at the office. I use Ubiquiti at home (AC-PRO), but haven’t run into your issues yet. I can test it tho.

Well, you know I an EnGenius Partner so you won't hear a complaint out of me.

The EAP1300 is a good one for sure.
Keep in mind the "antenna" on any is a critical factor as is placement.
If you need directionality then the EAP1300EXT is the same AP with external antennas.
Of course if a unidirectional antenna is adequate then the flying saucer model is fine.
I have used both.
If you are deploying multiple AP's the EZMaster software can control all of them.
'cept it is primarily a MS api but they have some standalone VM's but I have yet to try them.
But that software is not required and you can config each independently through a GUI.

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:
We’ve had great success with Aruba at the office. I use Ubiquiti at home (AC-PRO), but haven’t run into your issues yet. I can test it tho.

What happened in my case is I updated the OpenJDK JRE. When I rebooted for a kernel update today Ubiquiti's management tool refused to start. Checked and found it was crashing. Remembered the JRE update. Put the old JRE files back, from a nightly backup. That should have allowed the UniFi management software to run again. Nope. Sits there seized-up on something. Nothing on the console. Nothing in the logs. No debug switches in the code.

That management code has always made me twitch whenever I thought about it. Now I have zero faith in it--even if I could get it running again.

TBH: Ubiquiti's code is often marginal. My ERL router's way out-of-date because they've been continuously screwing-up fail-over for a year or more. It's working on my router, so I'm disinclined to break it.

First chance I get to find something with with to replace it, that thing's history, too.

Ubiquiti used to be solid. They're hacks now, IMO. Incautious hacks.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Well, you know I an EnGenius Partner so you won't hear a complaint out of me.

I thought you might be. Well, that's good. I may not always agree with you, but I respect your opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
The EAP1300 is a good one for sure.
Keep in mind the "antenna" on any is a critical factor as is placement.

Yes. That's why it must be ceiling mount, which means it must be PoE. I've got the current AP ceiling-mounted dead-center of the house. (We touched on this in the wireless camera discussion a bit ago.)

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Of course if a unidirectional antenna is adequate then the flying saucer model is fine.

ITYM "omnidirectional?" All directions? "Unidirectional" is one direction ("uni").

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
I have used both.
If you are deploying multiple AP's the EZMaster software can control all of them.
'cept it is primarily a MS api ...

That would be a show-stopper, except...

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
But that software is not required and you can config each independently through a GUI.

Which is precisely what I want.

Thanks for the feedback.

Oh, and I already have an 802.11af PoE injector rated for 15.4W and it's GigE. (PowerDSine 3001GC.)

ETA: If you have a suggestion for a better AP...

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Ubiquiti's wonky Mongo DB & Java-based (I fracking hate Java) controller software finally screwed me, as I've known it eventually would. So time to get that thing the hell outta here.

It has to be ceiling-mount and it has to be PoE.

Consumer-grade is out-of-the-question. That stuff is all race-to-the-bottom quality.

Last time this kind of thing was discussed, ISTR a number of you liked EnGenius. I'm kind of looking at the EAP1300

Thoughts?

The controller software issue is exactly why I left Ubiquiti AP's in the dust. I have the Engenius EAP1750H, which is basically the same as yours except it is 3x3 streams rather than 2x2, providing up to 1300Mbps throughput, and costing about 50% more.
 
Mine is also advertised as ceiling mount. In fact it looks just like the one you are considering. But you can also mount it to a wall which is what I did. It even says so in the manual.
 
As smschulz says, no controller is necessary. I've configured (and monitor) mine entirely through the http interface.
 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: henryaz,

I've come to really like my TP Link equipment. This is the updated version of the WAP I have on the ceiling of my family room in the dead center of my house.

TP Link EAP 225 V3 WAP

You can sign into the WAP directly without any controller software if using one or two WAP's, or TP Link does offer a controller software if managing a bunch of AP's. Mines been set it and forget it since it was installed almost a year ago.

I have a relatively complex network and I use EnGenius stuff exclusively for AP's. I've tried a bunch of others like cisco and ubiquiti and..., but EnGenius firmware is better, their support is better and their config is better. Performance is pretty much nothing special, but certainly usable. I have a couple of dozen and I don't try for some master control I just configure them independently. I'm on my second or third refresh of the equipment and I have not had any hardware issues. I did have some firmware issues but they were very quick to give me a workaround and then a fix. I can't think of a bad thing to say.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody.

I'm going to sleep on it, but I'm thinking I'll be ordering that EAP1300 tomorrow.

Coincidentally, there's another thread running on Ubiquiti's forums, right now, with a bunch of guys that had done Debian/Ubuntu O/S updates and, lo and behold: Can't talk to their APs any more.

It'll be a relief to get away from that broken-ass Java management software.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
The controller software issue is exactly why I left Ubiquiti AP's in the dust. I have the Engenius EAP1750H, which is basically the same as yours except it is 3x3 streams rather than 2x2, providing up to 1300bps throughput, and costing about 50% more.
 
 

The three stream throughput won't be fully achieved unless the client also has three antennas.
Virtually ALL clients are two now days.
Additionally the EAP1300 is Wave 2.
Where additional streams in a AP help now days is in where there are multiple users (MU-MIMO).
You also have to use more POE power too (in EAP1750) > 802.11af is inadequate you would need 802.11at (POE+).

quote:

ITYM "omnidirectional?" All directions? "Unidirectional" is one direction ("uni").

Yeah, meant to say Omni.

Good info, smschulz. Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
The three stream throughput won't be fully achieved unless the client also has three antennas.
Virtually ALL clients are two now days.
Additionally the EAP1300 is Wave 2.
Where additional streams in a AP help now days is in where there are multiple users (MU-MIMO).
You also have to use more POE power too (in EAP1750) > 802.11af is inadequate you would need 802.11at (POE+).

True about the clients being the bottleneck. I do, however, regularly achieve 850-900Mbps when connected to the 5GHz network. Which is also overkill for my ISP-provided speed (40Mbps). For any internal network stuff, I stick to cabled devices where I can get true and solid Gigabit speeds.
 
Regarding POE power, I used to have a POE switch, but it made me a bit paranoid about the heat generated and the fact the switch has a fan in it, which will eventually fail. I keep my core switch inside a Leviton "structured media" box in the wall, which I ventilated by drilling some holes in the faceplate, but still, the heat issue bothered me. I now use the vendor provided POE injectors. A bit more clutter, but it is all set up back in the laundry room mostly out of sight, where everything (also including the router, CenturyLink modem, and core switch) is plugged into a power strip plugged into a UPS.
 

Ok, EnGenius EAP1300 on order.

Thanks, again, for the follow-ups, everybody!

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
For any internal network stuff, I stick to cabled devices where I can get true and solid Gigabit speeds.

I'm using wireless a lot. It's used for all the mobile devices, of course. I've got three streaming devices (Amazon Fire TV and two Android TV devices)--and I'll be adding one or two more, an 802.11a wireless bridge for the TV and Blu-ray player, and a ChannelMaster DVR+.

Thing is: All total the bandwidth utilization is a fraction of what the AP can furnish. E.g.: The streaming devices demand 15mb/s at the most, and there's never more than two of them running simultaneously.

I've performed a variety of quick-and-dirty, but real-life-ish, performance tests on my WiFi network in the two years I've had that UniFi AP (had the 5GHz network up to 89% utilization, for example) and it's worked well. If I can depend upon this EnGenius AP to do as well, I'll be fine.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
Regarding POE power, I used to have a POE switch, but it made me a bit paranoid about the heat generated and the fact the switch has a fan in it, which will eventually fail.

I'd be inclined to stick with separate injectors, too. Unless I had more than two or three PoE devices. After that it'd get a bit messy.

Allll righty, then.

The EnGenius EAP1300 access point was configured, tested, let "cook" for 24 hours and, today, took over for the Ubiquiti UniFi I was using.

Coverage is at least as good as the UniFi's was, it was a lot less hassle to set up, and I recovered nearly 5GB of disk space (that MongoDB database that Ubiquiti software uses is a disk hog).

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Coverage is at least as good as the UniFi's was, it was a lot less hassle to set up, and I recovered nearly 5GB of disk space (that MongoDB database that Ubiquiti software uses is a disk hog).

I found that both the Ubiquiti and Engenius AP's provided a stronger signal and better coverage than the AEBS I was using as an AP only. I think you will be very pleased long term with the Engenius products. I use two of their APs now, one inside for the whole house (centrally located high on the wall), and one outside model at our RV pad (about a 225 ft cable run, for which we had conduit installed when the house was built). I haven't had problem one with them, and the web interface for configuring and monitoring is the shiznitz, compared to dealing with the Ubiquiti.