hAP ac3 recommended buy?

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Hello everyone.

I’m currently running my home Wi-Fi for a 75 square meters apartment using a box built with the following components:
Board: RB922UAGS-5HPacD
Extension (for 2Ghz): R11e-2HPnD
4 x Antenna ACSWIM
Enclosure: CA411

I’m thinking about purchasing a hAP ac3 to replace the current setup in the idea of getting improved coverage + signal strength and better transfer speeds.
Would you recommend this change for the considered reasons, or it would be a downgrade considering the ac3 has internal antennas?

Thanks.
Sorin

2

Unless you need the LTE, get HAP AC. Has super duper wireless.

3

The ac3 it’s just a hAP ac2 with LTE modem, you can grab the ac2 for the less money and additional ac2s to use them as wired APs if you need more coverage.

4

I was thinking about getting only one device to be placed centrally in my apartment, as the current RB922 AP is.
But in order to consider it for replacement, it would have to be with another device that is offering better Wi-Fi speeds & coverage than the current RB922 (+R11e-2HPnD) is.

For possible candidates I was looking at hAP ac3, Audience (only one device, not mesh), and Chateau (I don’t need the LTE functionality though, I only want to use them as APs for Wi-Fi devices).
I don’t know if any of the above will be better than the current RB 922 is and that is why I preferred to ask around in the community.
Also I don’t want to replace the RB922 for the sake of replacing it, if no other device will get me better Wi-Fi speed…

Thanks.
Sorin

5

Audience and Chateau both only use the beta version of the operating system which has problems at the moment.

6

Don’t change anything if you are happy with your contemporary solution.

7

A general rule:
Better speed - buy newer/better AP.
Better coverage - buy more APs.

8

Is there something that would offer better speeds that you’d recommend over the current setup?
In the current environment/setup I’m reaching between 250 - 380 Mbps speeds, depending on the room/proximity to the router.
None of these speeds were measured very close to the router, but in different points of the apartment rooms.

Thanks.

9

The best Mikrotik AP as far as technical specs go it’s the Audience due to its triple band design but IDK how stable the software is.

10

Do you mean stable when acting as a router, or stable when acting mainly/solely as an AP. Is there a difference??

11

The 3rd band of Audience is useless as it is on a limited channel for meshing I believe.

12

So basically at the moment there’s no better MikroTik device that will get me increased wireless speeds over what RB922 currently does.
How about from other manufacturers? I saw Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO appears to be highly praised in forums and @smallnetbuilder.com.
What do you guys think?

Thanks.

13

You can use the 3rd band within the specified frequency range for normal operations not only for Mesh!

14

As unsatisfying as it sounds, but yes.
At least not up to the point where what you gain will justify the money spent and overall hassle.

15

Your device and hap-ac2 and hap-ac3 have SAME 5G Wifi performance (2x2 5Ghz 11ac).
For Wifi side there is no need/benefit to upgarde anything like that.

Only upgarde worth it could be Audience or RB4011 Wifi.

Audience exists with and without LTE CAT6.
If you know what you do and you need/want complex Wifi setup you can do A LOT with this device.
Its is tri band Wifi 2x2 2G4 2x2 5G low and 4x4 5G high (channel 100 and plus), so you can do different Wifi networks on different 5G bands etc.
The 4x4 5Ghz gives better range and higher throughput at given location than 2x2 .
It runs on any ROS you want, I use the 6.47 . SW is stable, its same CPU than in hap-ac2.

Have you looked into RB4011-Wifi, which is also a very good device and the most powerful Wifi router Mikrotik has (10x 1G Eth, SFP+ port etc.).
It has same Wifi HW than audience (but more powerful CPU), supports 2 Wifi bands only 2x2 2.4G and 4x4 5Ghz. So you still get the 4x4 benefits in 5Ghz
and it has ext. antennas, which allows you to do some more tweaking if needed.

16

I did not consider RB4011 because I don’t want a device with too many wired ports and I prefer a device more inclined towards AP functionality which can be placed on walls/ceilings.
I already have a CCR1009 and CRS326 for the routing & switching wired clients in my home so a RB4011 would be kind of unfit for the AP scope in my situation.

Thank you.

17

RB4011 housing is intended to be fixed on wall/ceiling. But indeed has many ports.
Why not getting rid of CCR devices and replace with RB4011 :slight_smile:

Audience is then definetly out of scope (its a nice desktop device but can not be mounted at all).

Outside those two there is nothing else really much better than what you have.

18

Due to the current cabling setup, replacing the CCR1009 with an RB4011 would imply that I’d have to put it in a metal box, which I think it wouldn’t do any good to my wireless speeds. :slight_smile:

However, I could accommodate somehow the Audience even if it’s not wall mountable.
The question is if it would bring any significant improvements over the current RB922 setup.

Thank you.

19

Super duper? Really? Its device from 2016

Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk

20

No, the Audience runs 6.x and has been quite reliable for me. I have configured 17 of them, largest installation using 3 of them plus 2 wAP ac as extra CAPs and 1 wAP in station-bridge mode.

Only Chateau requires 7.x.