FU: Wireless Router Quality

[C(-)ris]

A follow up to this thread:
http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1...sg-2109817

I decided to bring out the big guns and installed a Meraki MR22 WAP and an MX64 Security Appliance to replace the 6th Gen Airport Extreme tower(it is now up for sale) that I was using. I decided that it would be better to have the router separate from wireless access point. This enabled me to declutter my desk and move the router to the basement along with the PoE switch and modem. So now I have a nice network area on the wall in my workshop in the basement with the patch panel for the house, modem, router, and switch all mounted nicely on the wall with cables all cleaned up. The access point is mounted on a wall in the living room near the ceiling where a doorbell module used to be which is pretty much the exact center of the house. I was able to pull CAT6 cable easily to that location by pulling out the old doorbell wire with the new cable tied to it and and run it all inside walls. The access point is sitting nicely up there getting power over Ethernet and is barely noticeable.

The MR22 is absolutely amazing. Full bars everywhere and works perfectly. The Meraki dashboard is everything the older airport utilities used to be and so much more. Clean, intuitive, easy to configure. Since it is could based I had the devices configured before I even pulled them out of the box. This allowed me to setup everything and only be down for a few minutes while I swapped out boxes. Once I plugged them in they downloaded their configs automatically and were off and running. Better than Apple.

I'm really liking the control and the ability to see who is using how much bandwidth at any given time as well as historically. Lets me know when anyone connects to the wifi network. I can even check the status when I am on the road and do pings and trace routes right from the dashboard to troubleshoot connection issues.

So in short, you get what you pay for. The Airport Extreme was rock solid and had decent signal, but not flexible in both physical setup and features. If I was going to wire up anything larger than an apartment and wanted really good hardware I would go with enterprise grade equipment instead of the home stuff.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

An enterprise-level solution is always going to outperform a consumer-level solution.

What's your annual cost for the license for that Meraki?

[C(-)ris]

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
An enterprise-level solution is always going to outperform a consumer-level solution.

What's your annual cost for the license for that Meraki?

Around $75 a year if you purchase it stand alone, but the AP came with a 3 year license included in the price. After 3 years it will be outdated anyway and time for a new one.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

C(-)ris wrote:
[quote=N-OS X-tasy!]
An enterprise-level solution is always going to outperform a consumer-level solution.

What's your annual cost for the license for that Meraki?

Around $75 a year if you purchase it stand alone, but the AP came with a 3 year license included in the price. After 3 years it will be outdated anyway and time for a new one.
Meraki access points and licenses have different SKUs, so unless there is a bundle SKU I'm not familiar with (entirely possible), you were sold a "bundle" that actually consists of two separate SKUs.

What was the price you paid, if you don't mind me asking?

[jdc]

And to think that I thought $80 was still too much to spend on a combo modem/router.

My old n based ATT gave me 40 MB/s+ wireless to my 2014 iMac.

I got a new router/wireless from ATT, think its an AC. Does 2.4 or 5. I get 50 MB/s now.

But Im paying for that, so fine. But if I only had, say, 10 MB/s I have no idea why I would want to spend hundreds on a AC router.