EnGenius EAP600 High-Powered Dual-Band Indoor Wireless-N AP EnGenius EAP600 High-Powered Dual-Band Indoor Wireless-N AP

Pros: Excellent value for what you get. It takes a bit more tech knowledge to set this up properly, but for the initiated, that's a good thing.
Reliability is top-notch. We use these and previous models with our clients and we're incredibly happy. I can't think of a single unit that we've had to reboot since installation. We've set this up using the traditional power supply and via PoE and both work great. PoE with these things mounted on the ceiling in the middle of a busy office is a great combination - no one even notices it.
The ability to boost the signal output past normal dB levels is a great boon for those times when we need to push past interference or physical obstructions.
Speed and consistency of the signal is also fantastic. Of course it's not SuperMan - a heavily congested or difficult environment will affect this AP like any other. Not the device's fault whatsoever.

Cons: Wish it had the option to auto-update the firmware when available online.

Other Thoughts: Whether for work or play, you can't go wrong with this AP for serious set-it-and-forget-it service.

Pros: Easy to setup, is good for both the home and enterprise environments. It does output the transmitted power levels as advertized. I measured this using a spec-an and wifi analyzer.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: I have used EnGenius products in the past and they have always done right by me. I've mostly deployed their outdoor product solutions for long range backhaul circuits using the 5ghz band. Out of all the many units I have deployed, I've only had 1 failure since early 2009.

I am using this unit in my home environment. I disabled the radios on my home router and attached this as the only AP radio source. So far I am very happy with the coverage, output power, dual band and management of the unit. I have a 5000 sq.ft. two story home, many walls and the network closet is upstairs in the front of the house. This unit has the power to get thru the walls and floors and is also good at receiving the weaker signals from the end users. I am thinking if needed I would buy another one to place at the opposite end of my home. So far I don't see the need for it.

I have powered this with a 802.3af POE switch and that works with no issues. This device is 802.at POE capable but I had no way of testing this. For now I just set the unit next to my router. Thinking about mounting it as intended as a wall or ceiling mounted device in the future using POE to power it. It comes with plenty of mounting hardware items and options.

Pros: Size of a smoke detector, installed this unit in my closet on the second floor. I now have a strong wireless signal in the basement where my DIR-655 had trouble reaching before. Still use the Dlink as a router, just turned off the wireless. 5GHz band seems to lose signal strength quicker than the 2.4 as was expected. Solid connections so far. Lights on the unit aren't annoying but then again, it's set up in a closet. Initial set up was easy. Adjustable wireless power outputs.

Cons: EZ Controller beta is not compatible with this model. Not a big issue for me.

Pros: Web Management
SNMP Management
Dual Band
High Output
Award Winning Design
Amazing performance

Cons: Cost, is a bit higher than expected but so is the QC, first product from this company that I havent seen a 5% DOA or mispackage rate on.

Other Thoughts: I would buy these all day long. Design aside the configuration is a breeze and the snmp app, while not for beginners is pretty dang cool.

Pros: So far it works great! Much better signal and reliability compared with the wireless router I got from my ISP. On my Microsoft Surface Pro, I can push 300mbps because the AP and the Surface both support MIMO.

Cons: Re-IPing the unit initially is a pain because it defaults to a static IP address of 192.168.1.1. Luckily my home network is on a different subnet. If it wasn't, it would have been more difficult.

Pros: PROS:
Fast. Cool looking.

Cons: UPDATE on Intermittent Operation and disconnects:
January 5, 2013
Problems appear to be fixed. I submitted trouble ticket on the Engenius website. I then contacted tech support. After holding for 20 minutes, the technician said that I should set a fixed channel on both the 5GHZ and Channels 36-48 on 5GHZ and Channel 1 or 11 on 2.4GHz. I did this and my tests are passing. They also offered a Beta version but it is not necessary.

However, my site survey says that there are no other competing 5GHz APs in my area, so why would a channel selection setting of "Auto" fail my tests. Did the channel selector software decide that switching channels in the middle of a WiFi session was correct. Buggy software.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused you. Our customer support team is ready should you need assistance. Please contact us at 888-735-7888 or e-mail us at support@engeniustech.com.

Sincerely,

Mike
Engenius Customer Support Team

Pros: We have three of these units in our large house. Great Size - Great Range - Very easy set-up. Good set-up software. I did a side by side comparison with the Netgear dual band access point 360 unit and the EnGenius was more stable and had broader reach. Plus it is almost $100 less in cost.

Cons: none at this point

Other Thoughts: We have three these units in our large 6000+ sqft house powered via PoE router. Every point in our house has 300Mbps coverage now with these units installed. I highly recommend these units for both commercial and residential applications.

Pros: PROS:
Fast as hell. Too fast. Up to 40 MBPS. Cool looking.

Cons: CONS:
Disconnects.
I do IT for a living and know what intermittent operation is. The 5 Ghz band intermittently disconnects from my iPad 3 for certain protocols involving:

- Digital magazines
- VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)
- Browsing

Digital magazines
-----------------

By intermittent, I mean that my iPad magazine apps (ARRL and AOPA) can not reliably download magazines. They are hanging indefinitely. At first, I attempted to remedy this with a firmware update, which is not easy. They have two separate URLs to download the update. One URL had 100 files and I could not find the right BIN file. The second URL had the right BIN file which was an older firmware update. So I updated the firmware to the old version, 1.2.3. It was no help for my issue.

The EAP600 Administrative console interface is difficult to initiate. It must be logged-into using a fixed IP address. This is cumbersome for a small office or home (SOHO) user.

- Real-time or long downloads are not reliable. EAP600 disconnects!
- Website loading hangs

After hours of trial and error, I had to disable clustering (called CLI) and Aggregation modes to get it working reliably. By reliably, I mean that my iPad magazine apps can reliably download magazines. They were hanging prior to disabling Aggregation and CLI. The manual should have been much better written. It should have noted what the purpose of these modes were, why they are used and why a home or business user would use or not use them.

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)
-----------------------------------

The EAP600 drops the WiFi connection after a one minute phone call on the 5 GHz band using the Talkatone app.. The 2.4 GHz band works fine. My 10-year-old d-Link DI-524 also works fine with VOIP.

Many more hours of research will be required to diagnose and fix this issue.

My 10 year-old d-Link wireless router/AP works slower but much more reliably with very little setup.

Very frustrated. There is no 800 number to call for help, so I had to do hours of Google research on the web.

Other Thoughts: This product comes from a non-US supplier. They're not up to the same quality of service standards as a product made in the USA. I've researched the website and it is substandard as far support goes.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer, 







We’re sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused you. EnGenius has been operating in US, and has always been providing Toll-free phone number to customers whenever technical support service is needed. We would like to ask you to go to our website (www.engeniustech.com), download and upgrade to the latest firmware version 1.2.9. If you’re still experiencing the same issue after firmware upgrade, please contact us at 888-735-7888
 or email us at support@engeniustech.com. Our Tech Support team will be more than happy to troubleshoot issue and walk you through appropriate configuration. 



Best regards, 







EnGenius Customer Support Team

Pros: Fast as hell. Long-range. Easy set-up menus. Sleek looking.

Cons: Set up required a fixed IP address for the host PC.

Other Thoughts: The sleek look allowed me to install this access point in my dining room. This allowed me to centrally locate the device and get better coverage throughout my house. I've had Wi-Fi troubles for over a decade because the walls in my house, are made of wire mesh with horsehair plaster. A Wi-Fi dead-zone. However this AccessPoint blasts through the wiremesh walls and provides good signal throughout the house.

I was amazed at the blazingly fast speed of this AccessPoint. It measured 40 Mb per second download speed, the highest ever recorded in my house.

Of course the 2.4 GHz band has better range than the 5 GHz band. However the 5 GHz band is adequate to cover my whole house.

Pros: Excellent power output and configurability. A true dual-band access point with real 300Mbps bandwidth to supported devices. Fixed all of my issues with wireless printers going offline after a day of two of inactivity

Cons: It looks like it doesn’t like non-standard characters in the password, but accepts them and then you can’t connect to the device. The standard IP setting also conflicts with most standard router/firewall IPs.