Question 1

May be a silly question but if this is a ceiling mount how do you wire it?  Does it have to have the CAT5 cable routed to it as well as the power for the plug?

Accepted Answer

Your question is "how do you wire it" and the answer is in two ways...
The device need a data connection via a network cable and it need a power connection.
It can be powered by the included AC adapter but that is not usually convenient to use if there is no power outlet near the desired mounting location.  The alternative method of powering this device is with the use of a Power Over Ethernet (POE) injector.  A POE injector is a device that has a RJ45 data cable plugged into it along with an AC adapter for power and has a RJ45 data cable with data and power coming out of it.  You connect the later to this device for a single cable that provides data and power to this device.  The POE injector can be located near your network hub/switch where you already have power jacks.

As for the mounting of this device:  It can simply sit on a desk or counter but ideally is wall or ceiling mounted.  There is a donut shaped bracket that mounts to the wall or ceiling and which you can then feed the data/power cable through the hole in the center.  Then attaché the cable(s) to the device and twist the device onto the mounting bracket.

Good luck.

Question 2

What is the range?

Accepted Answer

The answer for my house will have very little relevance to your house. 
I have left the transmit power at the default.  I don't remember right now what that is, but I haven't changed it (for several good reasons).  The router is still on a table. It might has a little better coverage in the future when I finally put up on the ceiling.

I have both bands on. When on the lower frequency B band, the range is better, just as one would expect:  coverage is good on all three floors (2 + basement); reasonable out to street (90 feet);  and, barely, into the garage (40 feet). That is, unless several neighbors are streaming on their type N-routers.

Band A is a little disappointing. Even 20 feet, and one floor, away, it drops out on the iPads and phones. The laptop keeps the connection, but the signal shows as weak.  I've read the same reports for all routers on band A--high variance in the range for any given router.  At that frequency, the type of paint almost affects the coverage.

I haven't tried to optimize anything yet.

Question 3

Does this router's firmware support using NO-IP as the DDNS provider? Which ones are supported?

Accepted Answer

This isn't a router, it is a wifi access point. You would need a router that supports DDNS or to have a DDNS client running on your network. That is something completely different. In short, no.

Question 4

Is it security able?

Accepted Answer

Not exactly certain of your question, but I belive you are asking if the devices can secure wireless.  Yes, they have the ability to define specific security settings on each band independantly (2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz).  They have the ability to use all standard wiress security protocols (WEP, WPA, WPA PSK, etc.)

Question 5

Can anyone comment on which PoE injector they've used with this product?  How well does it work?  How long is your PoE ethernet cable?

Accepted Answer

I am using a 3com injector that I had left over from another device (we use these for our PoE telephones), but I do not think that is especially important.  I have not measured the current draw of my ZyXEL but I can tell you that it draws less current than some other dual band AP's that I have used.  The reason I can say that is because other dual band AP's have not run reliably on 802.3af (standard PoE) when run dual band. They required 802.3at (PoE Plus) in order to run reliably when set to run with both transmitters operational, in  other words when running them dual band.  This ZyXEL runs perfectly fine on a standard 802.3af injector.  Having said that, this ZyXEL is my personal device and it is set up very close to an injector, about 8 feet away.

I hope that helps,
Craig

Question 6

does anyone know if this is v1 or v2?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately I cannot tell and I was ultimately disappointed in the performance and returned it.

Question 7

If I use a few of these around my house, will they be able to seamlessly hand off a device from one to another? Say I'm gamestreaming with my NVIDIA shield, and I move so that another AP is now able to provide a better connection, even if the old one is still in range, will it switch to the new one?

Accepted Answer

When I bought mine, that was the plan.  And it worked.....sorta.  Seamless is not the adjective I would use.  To achieve seamless, you'll have to pony up for a nice set of Cisco's.  These will work fine as individual hotspots.  I set up each on a separate channel. but the user had to hop from one to another.  thus losing seamlessness.  Cisco can use the same channel and is truly seamless.

Question 8

I can't get any of my android phones to pull and IPs across the wireless. The laptop is hit and miss. DHCP works fine when connected back to the old AP. Tried every setting possible, even w/o sec. Any Ideas? The error rate is really high as well.

Accepted Answer

I had a problem when this AP was powered by a Rosewill POE injector, but DHCP wasn't one of the problems.  It was just slow.  Switching to another POE injector solved the problem.  I had no problems when it was powered by its own plugin power supply,.

Question 9

If you have two of these close together can you "cluster" them so users do not experience any drops when roaming?  Similar to the functions a wireless lan controller would do?

Accepted Answer

Yes. That is how I deployed them.

Just be sure to use channel separation (1, 6 and 11) and space them for greatest coverage.

I use the same SSID to make it easier for the user (1 SSID and password).

You can also use WPA2-EAP if you're feeling adventurous.

Questions & Answers