Here are some notes on the Wi-Fi upgrade I just completed. It’s probably way overkill for my needs. But hey, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. Am I wrong?
Project Requirements
- Replace old, slow Wi-Fi with multi-point modern Wi-Fi 5 solution that can be upgraded to Wi-Fi 6 when it becomes more mainstream.
- Power over Ethernet deployment for flexibility in locating the WAPs. Also, I want the ability to connect my Raspberry Pi widgets using PoE HATs and add some security cameras.
- Support wireless Halloween electronics widgets all the way out to the street.
- Ability to isolate Wi-Fi clients into VLANs, keeping the Internet of Shit devices away from my corporate assets.
Why I chose EnGenius
- I wanted a business-class Wi-Fi solution with as little nonsense as possible.
- I was spooked by Ubiquiti UniFi cloud compromise.
- I have my own DHCP and DNS servers. I didn't want a system like Eero or Synology that wants to manage the clients.
Pros
- On-premise management does not require licensing, registration, account whatever
- The WAPs are very sophisticated and can be managed in groups
- I've got a ton of open PoE ports for expansion. The switch has 185 Watts available; the WAPs consume 10.2 Watts currently.
- Flexible options for VLAN and L2 isolation.
- Fairly inexpensive addition to my existing network. New equipment purchase was $578.15:
- EnGenius EWS7928P Managed Ethernet Switch: $320.15
- EnGenius EWS360AP Wi-Fi 5 WAPs: 2 x $129.00
Cons
- The management UI is pretty good for running on a modest switch, but its quite clunky compared to modern web applications.
- The HTTPS security options for the management interface are laughable.
- The switch has fans that run regardless of the temperature. It's the noisiest device in my office rack.
- Performance measured with iperf3 is ~500 Mbps on my newest laptop. I don't have any extreme Wi-Fi gear to exercise the WAPs harder.
- Setting up the VLANs is always more confusing than necessary