Cisco WAP581 Wireless Access Point

[coxhaus]

Anybody running the Cisco WAP581 wireless access points? I am probably due for a wireless upgrade this year as my old Cisco WAP321 are getting old with limited support.

What did you run before?

 

[coxhaus]

I bought a used Cisco WAP371 off ebay today since nobody responded. I decided to save money and go the cheaper route. My three WAP321 wireless units run great with no problems on the latest firmware but they are end-of-life so it is time to replace them.

I am going to TFTP a new firmware to the unit I bought and see how it stacks up against my old ones. If it works good I will buy more.

I hope I can turn the 2.4GHz radio off and only use the 5GHz radio.

 

[degrub]

you can. i have 3.using since they came out. reasonable range. simple vlan based config.

 

[sfx2000]

bought a used Cisco WAP371 off ebay today since nobody responded. I decided to save money and go the cheaper route. My three WAP321 wireless units run great with no problems on the latest firmware but they are end-of-life so it is time to replace them.

The 321's have been good, and the 571 is probably the right replacement, and should be a straight forward swap...

 

[coxhaus]

The 321's have been good, and the 571 is probably the right replacement, and should be a straight forward swap...

Why the WAP571? What's your thinking?

 

[sfx2000]

Why the WAP571? What's your thinking?

581 just adds Wave 2 802.11ac stuff - which isn't too much to worry about.

571 is in the right place, IMHO... 371 is pretty decent as well, esp. if 2.4GHz isn't a priority...

 

[degrub]

true enough about the 2.4. About the same as the SMB 44xx series.

 

[coxhaus]

I am kind of getting a feel for the AC mode with 80mhz. At just hitting forum web pages I did not notice much difference but when I hit a forum web with lots pictures of a fishing trip it was much smoother. The new WAP371 did not stutter downloading all the pictures.

 

[sfx2000]

@coxhaus - how's it playing with your 321's?

Are you using it with a WLC or Single Point?

 

[coxhaus]

I am running 2 clusters and I have pulled 1 WAP321 in the front of the house. I really need to the get the WAP321 units out. There are funny things going on right now because the iPhones drifting in and out of the clusters as you move around the house. It does not work running both clusters.

I want to play with turning on the both radios on the new units and see if I can come up with a working solution I am happy with. I really doubt it. My problem is the WAP371 units require more power than my injectors can provide so I need new injectors or a POE+ Cisco switch. They seem to work with only 1 radio turned on. Maybe running 1 radio reduces the power draw. I don't know and can't find anything on it.

PS
My granddaughter is staying over during spring break so I can't pull all the old units out. She has to be connected or she going back to her Mom's. She can't live without wireless.

 

[coxhaus]

I now have 3 WAP371 APs running 5GHz only in my house. And the WAP321 APs are pulled. They are better than the WAP321 APs in 5GHz mode. The WAP371 go a little farther in 5GHz mode. Wi-Fi calling with iPhone 7 and 7plus works real well. The phone conversation seems real clear. I have only had 1 issue and my wife was Wi-Fi calling from another brand of router which was causing a problem. She turned off Wi-Fi calling and our call was fine. My Wi-Fi calling stays on all the time in my house. I have a problem with cell signals in my house. Sometimes in the past I would have to walk outside to talk on the cell phone, iPhone 7 plus. Now with Wi-Fi calling no problems.

 

[Trip]

Solid. Was going to say the 581's look pretty compelling with what seems good build quality, 2.5gbe backhaul, 4x4 5ghz and 3x3 2.4ghz at a fairly low pricepoint ($300-ish USD street price). But if you can get what you need with the 371's at roughly half the price, even better!

 

[coxhaus]

The WAP581 look great to me. They support 200 connections. There does not seem to be any love here for the WAP581 so I bought WAP371 instead. I may end up moving the 3 WAP371 to my daughter's house. If I do then I will probably buy the WAP581 as replacements.

 

[jlficken]

I have a WAP581 showing up today at my house to play with. I'll post an update tonight or tomorrow as to how setup goes and my initial impressions.

I don't have a 2.5Gbe switch though so I'll just be running 1Gbe in a LAG on my SG350-28P.

 

[Trip]

@jlficken - Thanks in advance for the WAP581 observations. And not to derail this thread, but I'm also curious how you've liked the SG350. From my understanding, it's actually spec'd as an L3 platform out-of-the-box, as opposed to the SG300, which ships in L2 mode, and will run in L3 mode, but the performance is pretty limited for L3 stuff once you start to push it...

 

[jlficken]

@jlficken - Thanks in advance for the WAP581 observations. And not to derail this thread, but I'm also curious how you've liked the SG350. From my understanding, it's actually spec'd as an L3 platform out-of-the-box, as opposed to the SG300, which ships in L2 mode, and will run in L3 mode, but the performance is pretty limited for L3 stuff once you start to push it...

I wish I could answer your question, however, I really haven't played with L3 much on switches yet as I am still fairly new to networking. I have a SG250-26P as well that I bought since I only need L2 at home, however, I couldn't pass up the SG350-28P as it was new and I got it for $255 shipped.

I am looking to set up Inter-VLAN routing to take the load off of my EdgeRouter Pro in the next couple of weeks but I need to do some learning first so that I don't take out my network and upset the wife

 

[Trip]

Haha I hear you! Learning is always best done in one's lab environment, if you're lucky enough to have one.

And yes, the SG350 stuff has come with pretty decent pricing, as well as the the SG350X series with 10Gb uplinks. Will be interested to get more feedback once you have more time to play around with it.

 

[jlficken]

I kind of have a lab but I don't have any spare L3 switches to put in there so I'm testing on the fly. I actually started last night but wound up reverting to a backup config as I messed it up. I was actually amazed that the movie I was watching on Plex never even buffered even though I had to reboot my EdgeSwitch to apply the backup config.

I'll be sure to update as I get things figured out. I really want a SG350X with the 2.5Gbe ports on it at some point but $1500 is a bit much for home use right now

 

[jlficken]

I got the WAP581 over lunch and set it up to replace a UAP-AC-PRO. First off it is HUGE!!

Mounting was a breeze and the configuration was pretty easy. The worst part is that setting up a Guest SSID is much more difficult than on the UniFi system. I wound up making another VLAN and making the SSID then assigning it to the VLAN and turning on "Channel Isolation". I had initially dumped it onto my main VLAN but then even with Channel Isolation on I could see all of my switches and router which I didn't want.

Other than that it seems like a very nice AP. It has as good of range as the PRO as well. I still need to figure out how to limit bandwidth for the different SSID's and test the Link Aggregation.

 

[Trip]

Sweet. Thanks for the feedback. Interesting capabilities and price point in Cisco's SMB line. I like that you can cluster up to 16 without a controller install. Definitely some enterprise features on board, but with simpler and more direct management, which is nice.