Zyxel NWA210AX

[RacerX330]

Yeah, so you left it on auto-negotiate and it did the right thing. Cool, but as expected. Definitely proves that the first unit was busted.

Yeah I didn't bring the old config over, I just redid it from the ground up, took about 3 minutes. It's been working flawlessly since the swap out and reconfig.

 

[RacerX330]

Still going strong, haven't had to mess with anything. It just works. Also thanks for all the detailed tech help. Really appreciate the info.

 

[Tech Junky]

Help is always nice but, knowing this device and how it works it didn't make sense why it wouldn't sync correctly. I stand behind my recommendation for them but, this one was a bit of a mystery until you swapped it out.

I mean I've had some oddities with it prior to the last few releases that fixed most everything. I've also gotten beyond the perceived 1gbps limit with new tech from Intel. I thought there was an issue with the QOS they were using that was picking up the 1gbps limit of the secondary port causing the throughput to be limited but, seems more like a limitation of a normal 2x2 client. Using the DCT AX411 though it goes beyond to 1.5gbps fairly consistently.

WIFI can be so frustrating sometimes when tings aren't working as expected.

 

[RacerX330]

Now that it is working like I expected, I'm quite happy with it. Once I got over the config learning curve, it was lightning fast to reconfig it from the ground up. It was very weird that the uplink port was bad, but they replaced it immediately. Originally I thought I might need two of them (one upstairs one downstairs) but this single AP hits up and down easily. I will probably add IP Cameras to the outside of the house later this year, in which case I'll probably need another one to make sure those have good signals.

 

[Tech Junky]

I guess we all know now it might be a port issue with a flashing green indicator. That's not documented anywhere.

 

[RacerX330]

yeah on the port, blinking yellow means 2.5gbit, anything lower it blinks green

 

[kevindd992002]

I'll post the same PM I sent to Tech Junky just now so everyone can chime in:

I just got the NWA210AX that I bought and I'm trying to set it up. Which between standalone and Nebula mode are you using? Mine's currently connected to the Nebula Cloud but I'm not sure if it's better to just go standalone. Based on this thread, the Zyxel employee said that there are "more options and flexibility" with the standalone mode but I don't know what that means which is why I posted a comment on that thread.

 

[RacerX330]

I'll post the same PM I sent to Tech Junky just now so everyone can chime in:

I just got the NWA210AX that I bought and I'm trying to set it up. Which between standalone and Nebula mode are you using? Mine's currently connected to the Nebula Cloud but I'm not sure if it's better to just go standalone. Based on this thread, the Zyxel employee said that there are "more options and flexibility" with the standalone mode but I don't know what that means which is why I posted a comment on that thread.

Mine is in standalone mode. If you have more than one WAP and want to run them in mesh mode I think you have to use the nebula cloud but I’m not sure as I only have one at the moment.

 

[tgl]

I'm running mine standalone. If you've got many of them to herd, the Nebula stuff makes sense --- otherwise, it's just complication and a potential security exposure.

Sure, you can run a mesh without Nebula. Initial configuration is slightly painful because you have to set up each node by hand. However, the fact that the configuration save files are plain text makes it easy to compare configurations between nodes manually (unlike some other systems that are popular hereabouts).

 

[kevindd992002]

Right but in terms of feature sets, are they exactly the same? I don't care much about the potential security exposure since this is just for home use anyway. What's more important for me is I get the better feature set between the two.

Can you also not use the voucher system for captive portal in standalone mode? I should've started with standalone mode so I get the feel of the GUI but I configured Nebula first and the AP just automagically connected to it after I added the device in the web portal.

 

[kevindd992002]

Also, what is the radiation pattern for this AP? Right now, I have it just sitting horizontally on my desk but I'm thinking of wall mounting it depending on its radiation pattern. I cannot ceiling mount it because I live in a condo and the ceiling is not hollow.

 

[Tech Junky]

Also, what is the radiation pattern for this AP? Right now, I have it just sitting horizontally on my desk but I'm thinking of wall mounting it depending on its radiation pattern. I cannot ceiling mount it because I live in a condo and the ceiling is not hollow.

IIRC it's ceiling preferred and I have mine sitting on a shelf horizontally as well and no issues.

 

[kevindd992002]

IIRC it's ceiling preferred and I have mine sitting on a shelf horizontally as well and no issues.

That's what I thought. If this AP's radiation pattern is anything like the circle Ubiquiti Unifi AP's, then it would also be a doughnut shaped pattern. So wall mount isn't really ideal because you won't get good signal from the back of the AP. And yes, ceiling mount is best. I guess I have to stick to having it sit horizontally for now.

 

[Tech Junky]

Nothing wrong with leaving it on a shelf. I use a bookshelf as a tv stand and just tossed it into one of the nooks and have the server in another one and a short cable connecting them. Obviously wouldn't work too well for a 5K sq ft house with multiple AP's needed for coverage but, who cares as long as it works.

 

[tgl]

Zyxel does publish the radiation patterns for their APs --- see the "Antenna Specification Matrix" document here. The diagrams are a bit hard to interpret, at least for this long-out-of-practice EE. But I can confirm that the signal is stronger on the side away from the mounting hardware.

In my case, I've got the main AP ceiling-mounted in a second-floor room, and I get about the same signal level on the far side of the room below (~35ft away) as on the near side of the room above (~10ft away). Heavy wooden floor between in both cases, so that probably cancels out. I don't get theoretical max throughput from these locations, typically 720-850Mbps versus the 1200 I'd get if sitting in the same room --- but it's more than fine for what I do.

I think wall mount would be perfectly fine if it's on one end of your living space. If you want signal on the other side of the wall, it'd be a bit degraded, but by no means unusable.

 

[kevindd992002]

A

Zyxel does publish the radiation patterns for their APs --- see the "Antenna Specification Matrix" document here. The diagrams are a bit hard to interpret, at least for this long-out-of-practice EE. But I can confirm that the signal is stronger on the side away from the mounting hardware.

In my case, I've got the main AP ceiling-mounted in a second-floor room, and I get about the same signal level on the far side of the room below (~35ft away) as on the near side of the room above (~10ft away). Heavy wooden floor between in both cases, so that probably cancels out. I don't get theoretical max throughput from these locations, typically 720-850Mbps versus the 1200 I'd get if sitting in the same room --- but it's more than fine for what I do.

I think wall mount would be perfectly fine if it's on one end of your living space. If you want signal on the other side of the wall, it'd be a bit degraded, but by no means unusable.

Ahh, thanks! I was looking for that document. And yes, I agree. I'm an EE and I use to read these diagrams with ease but without practice you tend to forget everything. Ubiquiti publishes them the same way. I think it's the "only" way, anyway.

I have a small condo (around 60 sqm.) and one AP is more than enough to cover the whole space. I just want it to be ceiling-mounted at least in the center of the whole condo. It is possible but I'll just have it done when I have this place renovated soon.