EnGenius ENH202 Wireless Outdoor 800mW Long-range Multiple Client bridge/AP EnGenius ENH202 Wireless Outdoor 800mW Long-range Multiple Client bridge/AP

Pros: Cheap
When they work - they work great

Cons: Engenius Customer Service is HORRIBLE!!!! Sent unit in for repair and got ZERO feedback. I had to call twice to see if they were actually doing anything with the repair. SEVEN Weeks later a replacement is supposedly on it's way. There is no doubt that they will take your money but if the unit is defective it really seems like a chore for them to assist you with their defective equipment. Check their RMA policy before you buy...and if you have clients that need immediate turn around on their repair just plan on having a brand new spare unit in stock because my head would explode if I was a customer that had to wait almost two months for a repair of a $75 bridge unit!!!!! Get what you pay for I guess - at least relative to customer service. I will definitely be looking for alternatives when I purchase anything like this in the future.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We appreciate your time in posting your comments and feedback. We are sorry to hear about your experience.

We understand that you are having some issues with the RMA process. We always work to improve our processes and services. We take your concern seriously and have forwarded it to the manager.

If you have any questions regarding our products and services you may reach us through our number at 1-888-735-7888 or e-mail us at support@engeniustech.com. Our support team would be glad to be of service to you.

Thank you for your patience and we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Mike
Engenius Customer Support Team

Pros: Good performance between the units setup 700ft apart
Simple to setup for technical folks
Reasonable price

Cons: Client unit disconnected from the AP after being up about a week and it happening every week around 4AM based on the system log
Spent hours on calibrating the power setting and radio channel to get stable data transfer Set radio power to 25dBm and anything over 25dBm performance degraded

Pros: Good performance on 700ft CB setup
Getting an average of 60 MBPS between AP and CB unit
AP unit working flawless since initial setup
Easy to setup for the technical folks

Cons: Client unit disconnected from the AP after being up about a week and it happening every week around 4AM based on the system log
Spent hours on calibrating the power setting and radio channel to get stable data transfer
Set radio power to 25dBm and anything over 25dBm performance degraded

Pros: i use it in client bridge mode.. they fixed the save and apply hassle making the earlier mods confusing. added a reboot to factory settings on the power injector...big help, so you do not have to get it down when your configuration fails. just push button on side of 24volt supply for 10 sec.

Cons: configuration guide still has to be read carefully.

Other Thoughts: you better understand DHCP and IP address assignment

Pros: Two EnGenius ENH202 Wireless Outdoor 800mW Long-range Multiple Client bridge/AP arrived in good condition ahead of schedule

Cons: The EnGenius ENH202 Wireless Outdoor 800mW Long-range Multiple Client bridge/AP requires a proprietary PPoE adaptor, called an EPE24R. The second EPE24R worked for about 10 minutes. This was tested against the other unit and the bad component was isolated to be the EPE24R.

Other Thoughts: this happens.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Flint,

We appreciate your time in posting your comments and feedback. We are sorry to hear about your experience.

We understand that you are having problems with the PoE injector. All Engenius accessories that come with our devices have a 90-day warranty from the date of purchase.

Please allow us to assist you. You may reach us through our number at 1-888-735-7888 or e-mail us at support@engeniustech.com. Our support team would be glad to be of service to you.
Thank you for your patience and we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Mike
Engenius Customer Support Team

Pros: There are many pros for this device. One is the POE now power cord to run to this device just the network cable. The range is excellent. Reaching roughly 800' through trees and houses. the number of options could overwhelm a beginner so try to use the setting you know. This was cheaper than buying a decent router.

Cons: the sheer number of options could confuse a beginner.

Other Thoughts: If you have a problem call the customer service line.

Pros: Phenomenal transmit power, excellent sensitivity.
Embedded directional antenna.
Supports multiple network configurations, very versatile.
Stable wireless radio performance.

Cons: Ethernet ports are 10/100 only!

Other Thoughts: I have used EOC-2610 outdoor bridges for years to provide network access in far flung applications. Recently wanted to upgrade a particular WLAN to full 802.11n and ordered an ENH202 because engeniustech.com advertises it as supporting MIMO and 300Mbps wireless data rate. That may be true, but it's rather pointless when configured as a client bridge, since the Ethernet ports are 10/100 only!

I'm generally happy with the unit but had I known this previously I might have saved some money with the ENS200 or ENH200.

Pros: The Engenius ENH202 is a great outdoor AP/Router/Bridge that is quick to configure and easy to deploy. They're very dependable.

Cons: So Far, no real cons. Happy to see the new PoE has a grounding point.

Pros: Stable once finally set up. Fairly cheap.

Cons: I'm the one who complained about the proprietary PoE setup of these devices. Still have the same complaint.

Other Thoughts: Somebody else mentioned that you should use WDS Bridge mode to connect two buildings. Just another vote in favor of that. I use separate VLANs for voice & data on my network and these devices would not pass the VLAN Tags unless they were configured as a WDS Bridge.

If you're considering using EnGenius routers (these aren't the only ones I've used) as a wireless bridge to connect two buildings, save yourself a HUGE headache and plan on dedicating two of these in WDS Bridge mode rather than trying to configure them any other way. If you need a standard wifi router to connect to clients, purchase another router for that purpose and don't try to use these for both the bridge and supporting clients. I know it looks like it should work but I could never get it to work reliably. I had the same experience in a corporate environment with the aforementioned VLAN tag situation and in a home network connecting two brothers' houses who just wanted to share internet. Can't tell you how much frustration I've been through to figure that out.

Pros: I have installed two as access points. One to cover a large, very long building. The other to serve computers in a separate building from the modem/router. It has a very good coverage range; a very strong signal. Once you know you have to apply the settings in two places the setup isn't too difficult. There are a lots of settings and the manual doesn't say much except describe the various screens. You need decent networking skills to do more than the basics.

Even though the unit is very directional, both vertically and horizontally, there is enough wifi power on the back side. With one of the two locations, the AP was pointed out a window but the printer and computer behind the unit got a good signal in a 15x20 room.

Cons: The documentation is weak. Two important items found in obscure FAQ's found only after diligent search.

When using as an AP, you can't use wifi isolation unless the switch or router upstream can identify and provide VLAN segments using the 802.1Q spec. If you turn on isolation without the correct router/switch, or an improperly set up router/switch, you won't be able to have what ever you use as a DHCP server pass IP addresses through the AP and you won't connect to the Internet.

I didn't use it as a router but it's likely the same issue with wifi isolation will apply

Be sure to test your unit. Some of them will not auto-negotiate with a gigabit port on the upstream switch/router. One of the units I had was 10/100 only on the network POE port and I had to put a 10/100 switch between the gigabit port on the router and the POE injector.

Other Thoughts: I have also used TP-Link units in similar situations but the TP-Link units are either 2.4 GHz G spec or 5GHz N spec. This unit is only 2.4 GHz but it will broadcast 802.11N.

Be careful with what security option you use. To get the N specification you must use WPA or WPA2 with AES not TKIP. If you use TKIP or Mixed, the device will drop back to G mode.