Hi All,
Just wondering, I’m planning a deployment/installation and I was looking at the CAP XL AC however it looks like this won’t support the Wave2 package (Based on ram requirements) which is disappointing given it’s new hardware.
Has anyone any recommendations for ceiling mounted AP’s from MT which will support wave2 when it becomes stable & usable
Cheers
Mark
Nope I use TPLINK EAP245 Ceiling/wall access points for decent wifi5 performance and TPLinK 660HD for wifi6 performance.
Both can carry vlans and both can isolate wifi users from each other and any wired clients on the same vlan.
Thank Anav,
That’s a real shame I was optimistic with the XL but when I saw the ram size it just made no sense for MT to launch such a device.
Thanks for the TP link suggestions I’ll take a look but with your experience of them, Them mention cloud management which I’m not a fan of since, Do you know will they still work if the TP-Link cloud goes away.
I like caps-man as it’s on prem but central management. To me cloud is just a nice way of saying “Other peoples hardware” which I don’t trust the security of or any aspect of really
I use them in stand alone mode, I never used capsman on the mTs, preferred to maintain and config them separately.
The TPLinks are dirt easy to setup and they just work.
If there are 10 - 15 access points in the network, CAPsMAN is what you need.
Hi SVMK,
I agree with you and I use capsman usually if there is more than 1 AP.
The issues is this is a new deployment and the user doesn’t wanna spend money on hardware which won’t support wave2 which makes perfect sense.
My view is that it’s crazy that MT are still launching hardware which doesn’t meet the requirement for their future wave2 packages.
But it’s MT they do what they want and listen to customers when they want. I get it they can’t tick everything on everyone’s wish list.
For price vs performance they are great it just seems strange they are launching devices without enough ram for wave2 when it’s there in ROS7
Cheers
Mark
I think the better problem is they need to get v7 out since that has a kernel that supports Wave2 drivers. My guess eventually squeeze Wave2 on to the XL, but we’ll see but still if/when for brand new hardware. Right with WW2, there is no CAPsMAN so you’d have that problem even if XL support Wave2. I run WW2 on a couple devices, totally works, but it’s really basic options and has bugs (I can’t set MTU to anything but 1500)
While your customers say they want Wave2 support, in reality they should want Wi-Fi 6, which is 802.11ax – that offers way more benefits than going from ac to Wave2 (“Wi-Fi 5”). Wi-Fi 6 is something the XL will never do however. Wave2 just allowed bigger channels and other small fixes over 802.11ac. Wi-Fi 6/802.11ax different modulation, OFDMA, more like LTE so it handles congestion better. Wave2 doesn’t offer much on that front over standard 802.11ac.
With the new kernel in ROS v7, more hardware chipsets are available, so imagine they’ll be Wi-Fi devices support AX from Mikrotik. But I for one won’t be touching the XL.
Very good summary there AMMO.
As stated the TPlink eap245 has wave2 working for 5 years at least
As stated the TPlink 660HD is wifi 6.
The best is WIFI6E by netgear but way way too $$ dear.
As you noted, when MT comes out with their wifi 6 products then it will be worth investigating, but that will be in ?2023/2024/2025?
By that time wifi6E will be more mainstream and Wifi7 will be on the horizon…
Tis the reason NEVER to buy wifi with the router but as a separate appliance. A router can last 10 years, an AP dont think so (besides more often than naught, less than optimal placement concerns)
Back to the topic:
Safe to say they’re none today. I have a couple Audiences that are able to run the Wave2 package, but ceiling mounting be especially tough.
There was another thread that had discussion about the CAP ac XL vis CAP ac, might be help if researching this topic:
http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/cap-vs-cap-xl/153606/1
Thanks all for the input and thoughts and suggestions.
They maybe willing to consider the CAP AC XL depending on pricing they just don’t wanna spend on hardware that is on the older side but I think when they see options they might reconsider.
I’ll give them the TP-link options also I appreciate the help cheers
Any chance that Wave2 package would work on mANTBox 52 15s? It has enough ram, but storage space is a bit tiny, only 16MB.
Not a WISP expert but I hear very little complaints about the WISP (pt to pt) performance of MT gear (its just the home stuff that seems lacking). That being said,
the WISP operators would kill for wifi6 or wifi6E, for their deployments, and I think they mean when it gets to the last mile (to the homeowner etc.) when traffic and interference gets in the way?
16MB is the deal breaker for wifiwave2 is the forum consensus I’d say. No near 0%.
From the v7.1 release thread:
Well, that’s a bit shame. Was planning to buy one for long time use as outside AP but if that is the case i will rather buy something less powerfull for now.
A cAP XL AC is $100 US.
You can get WiFi 6 from several different vendors for that money. (They all use the same engenius radio thou)
Without opening it up (owning one) how can you suss this out??
FCC internal photos is a good source of inside HW info, quality is usually good enough to read what’s written on the chips…
Also looking around OpenWRT wiki and forum often reveals internal photos and more info about used chipset and platform.
You can do all this research before spending money and buying some new HW…