Access point recommendations

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87 posts

Master Geek

#1991112 7-Apr-2018 16:02

These 7610 setup videos may be useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tMExxwzAVM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZy9jG3PTdY&feature=youtu.be

martyyn

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#1994163 11-Apr-2018 10:26

Perfect thread for me. Our wifi has been flaky as hell after I had to quickly set up a tplink router as an AP (don't ask) so a GWN7610 is now on its way.

We are having fibre laid in the street right now, so I'll probably do more once that's installed.

martyyn

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#1994984 12-Apr-2018 16:43

Hmmm, that's a little annoying. It turns up and there is no power supply provided and I have everything but a 24V 1A !!

Jase2985

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#1995012 12-Apr-2018 17:28

did you read the note when your brought it, presumably go wifi? does state you need to buy one.

Dratsab

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#1995082 12-Apr-2018 22:16

jonathan18:
Dratsab: I switched my router relatively recently to a Grandstream GWN7000 recently thanks to @michaelmurfy and have the GWN7610 AP. I've got nothing but good things to say about it. It's a rock solid AP which just keeps working and gives me superb coverage throughout my 2 storey house and all round my 1/4 section.

Thanks for this. Sorry, I didn’t see this post earlier! That model AP does seem like a suitable option but, I assume, given its design will come with the same questions I have on the Unifi re its effectiveness if installed in locations other than the ceiling.

I’m not sure whether we’d get away with a single AP, given our section (and house) is relatively long and not terribly wide, plus we have an external home theatre/lounge at the back of the section. Potentially, if we had a ceiling-mounted Unifi or Grandstream AP we would get give good coverage for the whole house at least, and we could rely on the WiFi from the HG659 for the back yard/HT, as we do currently...

Hopefully everything's working out well for you with your new toy. I've not had time to pay much attention to GZ in recent weeks so haven't gotten back to this thread.

I missed a word in my original post, it should read "1/4 acre section" - the whole lot is really covered well. The house (and thus the AP) is situated towards the back of the section.

Before I ceiling mounted mine it was on the floor, fairly much in the middle of the house and beneath a staircase, and my coverage was great. @michaelmurfy came over to set it up and was quite impressed with the strength of the coverage throughout the house.

michaelmurfy

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#1995104 12-Apr-2018 23:32

@martyyn That is why I always mention to buy a PoE injector :) If you purchased from Go Wireless then flick them a quick message - they're a good bunch of people who may help you out.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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jonathan18

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#1995154 13-Apr-2018 08:53

The Grandstream AP turned up on Monday, but I’ve not installed it yet. I knew about the need to order an injector but in my rush to order the AP forgot to do so! Luckily remembered a few hours later so that turned up on the same day anyway.

The reason I’ve not yet installed it is I’ve decided to do it properly - our electrician’s coming on Tuesday to install an Ethernet cable into the roof space so I can mount it on the ceiling. I’m hoping that, with judicious placement, it’ll do the whole house including external lounge/HT, but will do a check prior by sticking it on a ladder (about as close as I’ll get it to the ceiling) to ensure best coverage. Going by others’ comments here, this looks like it may be a realistic hope.

A related question: I had Daikin’s regional sales manager visit yesterday to look at connection problems with our heat pump, and he mentioned the WiFi units on their heaters will only connect below channel 11, so I should ensure the new AP didn’t go above this. Is there a way I can restrict the range of channels the AP will use?

Again, many thanks for all the help on this thread - much appreciated.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

GarryP

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Master Geek

#1995687 13-Apr-2018 18:39

Whoever you get to run your Ethernet cable I suggest that you have them verify that said cable will actually transfer data at maximum speed - presumably Gigabit.

Data cabling is easy to get wrong in that it will still work but be only capable of lower throughput. Quality of cable, connectors, bend radius, and termination technique all affect transfer speed.

Here is a link to a BJC article which you may find useful:

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/terrible-terminations.htm

Another article, which although refers to premade patch cables, is also worth a read. No reason to think that the permanent cable situation is any better.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/is-your-cat6-a-dog.htm

With regards to your Daikin, you can set the AP to whatever channel you like. The heatpump is using the 2.4GHz band, but I suggest using the 5GHz band for any other device that can connect at that frequency.

Tinkerisk

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#1995791 14-Apr-2018 00:12

jonathan18: I did a bit of digging into potential APs, trying to stay under say $200, and came across a Linksys device that also operates as a switch (four ports) - how does this sort of unit stack up? https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?itemID=426114 ...

Only for the records: yes, it would work for sure - but only with 100Mb/s. It's specified for "Ethernet" (=100Mb/s) and not for Gigabit which is the speed of the GWN7610. You would waste a lot of bandwith.

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richms

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#1995880 14-Apr-2018 08:42

Tinkerisk:

jonathan18: I did a bit of digging into potential APs, trying to stay under say $200, and came across a Linksys device that also operates as a switch (four ports) - how does this sort of unit stack up? https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?itemID=426114 ...

Only for the records: yes, it would work for sure - but only with 100Mb/s. It's specified for "Ethernet" (=100Mb/s) and not for Gigabit which is the speed of the GWN7610. You would waste a lot of bandwith.

Specs say gigabit.

They are OK as accesspoints. Becomes a pain when you have several and have to change the settings on all at the same time. If a single AP is all you need, the linksys is an OK standalone device.

Richard rich.ms

Tinkerisk

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#1996174 14-Apr-2018 19:18

richms:

Tinkerisk:

jonathan18: I did a bit of digging into potential APs, trying to stay under say $200, and came across a Linksys device that also operates as a switch (four ports) - how does this sort of unit stack up? https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?itemID=426114 ...

Only for the records: yes, it would work for sure - but only with 100Mb/s. It's specified for "Ethernet" (=100Mb/s) and not for Gigabit which is the speed of the GWN7610. You would waste a lot of bandwith.

Specs say gigabit.

They are OK as accesspoints. Becomes a pain when you have several and have to change the settings on all at the same time. If a single AP is all you need, the linksys is an OK standalone device.

Sorry. I accidently pointed to the wrong link. Intention of my reply was the PoE supply HERE which isn't Gigabit.

jonathan18

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#1996475 15-Apr-2018 14:54

Got the new Grandstream AP up and running today; comparatively straight-forward to do so. Incredibly quick to connect and stable, so already a significant improvement.

What this showed, however, is that a single AP for the whole place isn't going to cut the mustard - even when it's a decent-quality model. There's simply no sweet spot for a location for the AP which ensures decent speeds at both ends of the house (either our bedroom or the external HT misses out, and neither is an acceptable compromise). Given the point of this was to do it properly, I've ordered a second of the same AP, which clearly will be easy as to control via the single interface.

The one thing I've not been able to do is upgrade the firmware - I get an "Upgrade failed!" message when I try to do so. I've read up and looked at instructions on how to do this (including changing the firmware server to "firmware.grandstream.com"), but to no avail; equally, I can't find a way to upload the firmware from a connected PC (despite having found and downloaded it from the Grandstream website). Can any user/owner of this brand provide me with any hints as to what I may be doing wrong? Many thanks.

jonathan18

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#1996476 15-Apr-2018 14:55

Tinkerisk:

Sorry. I accidently pointed to the wrong link. Intention of my reply was the PoE supply HERE which isn't Gigabit.

Thanks for the warning, though. A good example of the compromises of buying the cheapest piece of sh!t off eBay!

Spyware

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#1996481 15-Apr-2018 15:14

Try the full path as below. If you want to update from PC then run a web server on PC, e.g., IIS, apache.

firmware.grandstream.com/gwn7610/1_0_5_14

Tinkerisk

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#1996484 15-Apr-2018 15:23

jonathan18:

I can't find a way to upload the firmware from a connected PC (despite having found and downloaded it from the Grandstream website). Can any user/owner of this brand provide me with any hints as to what I may be doing wrong? Many thanks.

1) A friend of mine faced the same problem. It seems they changed the download directory to specific model types recently.

2) Check your old firmware revision and if too old, there is an intermediate firmware you have to upload before the upgrade to the latest version.

3) If this all doesn't help, you might need to set-up temporarily a file server to be able to emulate "grandstream" for the manually downloaded firmware file.

http://www.grandstream.com/sites/default/files/Resources/Firmware_Upgrade_Guide.pdf

http://www.grandstream.com/sites/default/files/Resources/GWN76xx_Upgrade_Guide_0.pdf

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